Juanita Simkins

The following post is long but filled with tons of info to help you with your home purchase in Colorado Springs.

Ok, put those reading glasses on!  The following are some helpful tips that will help you be on the look-out for potential problems in homes that might only become known only AFTER the purchase.

1. Spend considerable time in an area before consummating a home purchase. Visit the area at different times of the day and night. What seems a peaceful area at 2:00 in the afternoon may not be so tranquil at rush hour, or on Saturday night when the hell raising starts! You need not make these observations before making an offer and signing a contract, but you do need to do so before the time limits set in your purchase contract. Built into that contract, is the right to have the home inspected. You have the right to have a professional home inspection, to review subdivision covenants to determine whether or not you can live with them, and you have the right to rescind the contract if you find ANYTHING about the home or the neighborhood that you find unacceptable (keep in mind that laws vary from state to state and that certain communities might also have laws that differ from other’s)

2. Always talk to as many neighbors as possible, before buying a home, especially those who have lived in the area for a long time. Normally these neighbors are a wealth of information that may not be revealed by the owner or his/her Real Estate Agent. Years ago, for example, I showed a vacant home to a young couple and we saw no obvious problems with it. On the way back to my car, a neighbor came out and said, “Did you see the water in the crawl space?” We had not, because it was dry in the areas that were easy to see. The neighbor indicated that most of the adjoining properties drained toward this home, that it had flooded on numerous occasions, and that the crawl space was wet most of the time. This problem may have well been detected upon inspection, but we never got that far, based on what we were told by this neighbor. Early in my Real Estate career, I sold a home to a family who had a basement flood within weeks of buying the home. They had had a home inspection done and, being on top of a hill with no higher property to drain onto it, there was no way to anticipate a water problem. After the basement flooded, it was found that the home was built on shale, which allowed water to flow between the layers of rock and into the home. It was later learned, from a neighbor, that the incident was not a surprise, as it had happened several times previously, The sellers had failed to disclose this material fact, and their Realtor, who also knew about, it had actually advised them to seal the floor around the foundation but not to reveal anything about the problem. The epoxy used to seal around the foundation was no match for the hydraulic pressure of the ground water and a horrible leak soon developed. Had the neighbors been contacted before the purchase, the problem may have been revealed much earlier! People usually know about the problems that have arisen in their neighbors’ homes, and they know of other issues affecting the neighborhood as well.

Examples:
· Zoning issues that affect the area. Is that big field behind the house that looks like a great place for the kids to play, about to become a shopping center, or is the street in front of the house about to be joined to a major thoroughfare.
· Criminal activity in the area. This is an issue that, even if known to your Realtor, cannot be directly discussed because of State and Federal laws precluding it. It is assumed that such revelations might be a result of, or lead to racial discrimination. In Colorado Springs, for example, we have an area that, while being comprised of a good mix of residential and commercial property, wealthy folks, middle class, and poor, and a cross section of people of all ethnic backgrounds, is know by many as “the shooting gallery”! The area fire station is called, by the firefighters themselves, “Fort Apache”. I would not live there on a bet, yet I would risk my license and my financial future to point out this issue to a prospective buyer. Neighbors know of these things, and they are free to tell you. Remember though that the neighbors’ willingness to be straightforward and honest may be determined by the relationship they have with the current owner.
· Geological and environmental problems. I can’t imagine any large area that does not have some potential problems. El Paso County Colorado and Colo. Spgs are no exception. In certain areas we have issues such as abandoned coalmines that may have subsidence problems, areas with heavy Radon concentrations, expansive soil issues in certain regions, high water tables, landslide prone areas, and many other issues of concern. Who would you expect to be better informed than the area’s current residents? Talk to them!

· Other neighborhood problems such as barking dogs, nosy neighbors, conflicts between neighbors, predatory animals in the area, etc.

3. Check the website of your local police department or sheriff’s office, or give them a call, to find out about crime patterns in areas of interest to you. The quality of the information will surely vary from one jurisdiction to another, but most police departments do a very good job of compiling statistics and providing information to the public. The Colo. Spgs. police and El Paso County sheriff have done an excellent job of making this information available to everyone in the Pikes Peak Region! You can also find out such things as whether or not a home in which you are interested has ever been a known meth lab, the presence of registered sex offenders in the neighborhood, and other issues of concern. Your buyer’s agent should do some checking on some issues (such as the meth lab), but may be legally precluded from sharing other crime information (as mentioned previously). Ultimately, you are the one who will have to live in the area, so do your homework and don’t rely on others to keep you from harm.

4. Be sure to get a quality home inspection. Remember, in many states (including Colorado), there is no licensing requirement for home inspectors. Anyone could decide to become a home inspector tomorrow, whether he/she have any expertise or not. There are certifying organizations, which purport to assure that an “inspector” has training and experience, but many are totally bogus, For a few dollars, anyone can get an official looking certificate and be able to claim “certification”. Personally, I would not use any inspector who was not certified by the American society of Home Inspectors (ASHI). Maybe I am being unfair to some others, but so be it – there are just too many bogus “certifying” bodies, and unqualified people out there. DO NOT BE TAKEN IN BY THOSE WHO ADVERTISE THAT THEY “USE ASHI STANDARDS; THAT’S NOT THE SAME AS BEING ASHI CERTIFIED! Make certain that the inspector has errors and omissions insurance, is bonded, and has a clean record with the BBB.

Don’t allow your agent to hand pick an inspector for you. You would never know whether the choice he/she made in the use of a particular inspector was properly motivated. No risk-averse Realtor would even want to take the chance anyway.

5. The local library is also a wealth of information about the history of an area. The resource librarians are normally fantastic about helping you to sort through information and the folks at the Pikes Peak Library District (www.PPLD.org ) are without equal! . Wouldn’t it be nice to know if the area, in which you intend to buy, had had massive floods in the past, was built above abandoned mines, or was built on the grounds of a former chemical plant or nuclear test site, etc.

6. Check building permits. Most county building departments including The Pikes Peak Regional Building Department (www.pprbd.org) have information about building permits and inspections available online or by phone. Did a home addition have proper permits and inspections, or was that new furnace properly installed? Not always!!!  Many years ago, a family of 5 was killed by carbon monoxide, when an improperly vented furnace malfunctioned. The owner/landlord had fixed it himself after the city had “red flagged it”. He did not have it re-inspected, and that led to tragedy. A well-meaning but incompetent man, he killed 5 others and, later, committed suicide because of his own grief in having exposed others to such danger. Even if you aren’t concerned that the addition has no foundation, or the furnace vent is insufficient, the person to whom you try to sell 8 years from now, may not be very understanding. It may cost you a sale, when the prospective purchaser realizes that permits and inspections were not obtained.

7. Read all documents related to your purchase thoroughly and be absolutely certain that you understand them explicitly! Yes, they are lengthy and they may be boring, but they are critical. I just want to tear out my hair, when I read articles about people who whine about how restrictive the covenants are in their areas and how mean the homeowners association is. These people always had the opportunity to make the choice as to whether or not to live there. I have absolutely no sympathy for people who bought a home and, later, decided that they could not abide the rules.

8. I have a bit more sympathy for those who find that they bought a home in the flight path of the local airport, or bought a home above subsiding coal mines, or in an area with known high water tables (which may only make themselves known every few years), etc., as they should be able to rely somewhat on the expertise of their buyer agents. The reality, though, is that many agents are totally ignorant of many of these issues, or are just not as concerned about the interests of their clients as they are their own pocketbooks. In any event, you are the one(s) who will be saddled with problems that are not properly researched.

9. If you are buying in an area where there are wells and septic systems, you are faced with special problems. There are different sorts of well permits, dictating what may be done with the water extracted from wells, and you need to know hat they are. Just because the guy next door has a lawn, which he waters daily, or because he has a trough full of water for his horse, is no proof that it is allowable. Water rights laws vary dramatically from state to state and from area to area, and can be extremely complicated!

10. Condominiums and Town home complexes present special issues, which need attention.

Homeowners’ Association financial documents need review. You should be concerned about the financial health of the association. Are there plenty of monetary reserves to take care of maintenance of the property? What happens if the entire complex needs new roofs – is there money set aside for this, or will you get a nice fat bill for your share of the re-roofing? Al l of this information is available to you ahead of time – read it!

The declarations, covenants, and by-laws will spell out just what you own and what you do not. Sometimes the lines between what is a condo and what is a town home are blurred and you may not know just what you own or do not own. You need to know who has responsibility for what. If a window gets broken, for instance, is that your responsibility, or that of the H.O.A.? What happens if the roof leaks? Do not make assumptions – read the documents! Find out who holds the various offices in the H.O.A. and talk with some of them, as they may know of issues that are not in print, but are of prime importance. Often, the condition of the complex can be a dead giveaway that the H.O.A. is not on a solid footing. Is the paint peeling, the parking lots poorly maintained, etc. This could be a clue as to the financial condition of the H.O.A.

11. Don’t go it alone! Representation from a quality Realtor is normally free to you, the buyers, so why would you chose to reject the good counsel of an experienced agent, in favor of buying on your own? It is seldom possible to save any money by not using an agent, and the counseling you give up, is of paramount importance. I realize that with the technology available these days, it is tempting to want to be independent and strike out on one’s own. What you need to remember is that finding homes to consider is only the bare beginning of the home buying process. In addition to those things mentioned earlier in this article, a knowledgeable Realtor and/or inspector will point out construction details that may adversely affect the home you are considering. Was the home built using materials that, while being considered state-of-the-art, at the time of construction, were later found to be flawed and now need to be replaced (often at costs in the many thousands of dollars)? Examples: Polybutylene plumbing, several composition roofing materials, some new-fangled siding products, artificial stucco, etc. (I am reluctant to cite particular brand names in this article, but they are numerous).

Ok, that's it for now.  If you have any questions at all about Real Estate that I can answer for you, please don't hesitate to contact me: Juanita@JuanitaSimkins.com