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A little while back I did a post on ethics in real estate. If you missed that post, here is a link to it:
You are bound to come across bad apples in every industry, and real estate is not any different. Some agents are bad agents due to a lack of knowledge or education, others simply aren’t intelligent enough. This group has your best interests at heart, but are unable to deliver. However, the other more sinister group, is what gives Realtors a black mark. This group knows that they are doing something wrong, but still go ahead and do it - because they figure that they can get away with it.
I came across one real estate agent today who would fit right in the second group. I have buyers that are looking for a luxury residence in the Fleetwood area of Surrey. They came across a listing and asked if I would arrange for a showing. When I looked up the listing on mlxchange I saw that the Realtor Only remarks indicated that “there was a small fire in the basement last summer” and that the house was currently vacant. I also saw that the house was purchased in 2006 for $900,000 and was on the market now at $980,000, with a price drop within 40 days of the listing. This immediately sent off the alarm bells and I told the buyers that I suspected that it was a past grow-op and that I would ask the listing agents for details.
When I called the listing agent and inquired about the fire and the nature of the fire, his answer was “the dryer blew up in the basement and that there had been a break-in recently. So, the house was a mess”. I asked him pointedly if there was ever a grow-op in the house and the answer was “no”.
When we got there, first thing we noticed was the unkept front yard and the fence falling apart. Another Realtor had just finished with a showing and warned us not to go in without wearing any shoes. That’s all he said. As we were entering a neighbour walked up to us and warned about the grow-op.
The inside was terrible. Walls kicked in, cabinets falling apart, pot-lamps (the good kind) missing. We went into the basement and saw that new hardwood floor had been installed. We were surprised to see no washer or dryer in the basement. Odd, that the other Realtor had claimed that the dryer in the basement had caught fire. We saw some mould in a closed that had been hastily painted, but a corner had been missed.
This house was in terrible condition and definitely had a grow-op in the recent past and this listing agent wanted almost a million dollars for it! Did he really think that the neighbours wouldn’t say anything about the grow-op? Did he think that no one would know about the grow-op? I am sure they are trying to hide it probably because it was never busted. And he figures that since it hadn’t been busted, it doesn’t need to be disclosed.
I am sure there is a chance that the listing agent wasn’t aware of the grow-op. If that is the case, the listing agent most likely did not visit the property. If he had, he would have known that there is absolutely no room in the basement for a laundry. The laundry in fact is on the main floor, and the dryer is old and shows no signs of a fire. This agent, and his clients, are simply trying to hide a grow-op that was never busted.
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