Can/should we sue? Listing lies.

[Anonymous]

I am SUCH AN ANXIOUS PERSON!! You're right. I'm not being sarcastic (for the first time today feels like), and this is SO SCARY. And the house feels smaller every time I see it. I mean, I love the neighborhood, love the neighbors (non judgmental types, luckily), but so freaked out.

Ok so this is the root of the problem, not the square foot calculations and what is the right way to do it, and on and on and on. You have won a small lottery here. Look at the historical data of Georgetown real estate prices and appreciation. Envision what you can sell if for in a few years. Take comfort in your non judgmental type neighborhood. Read through some old DCUM threads of neighbor issues and breath a sigh of relief that your living environment will not be unpleasant. Focus on the good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Call your mortgage agent and tell them that you just lost your job. The bank will withdraw funding, and then you can activate your financing contingency... unless you don't have one.

I just don't understand how you got this far in the process without figuring this square footage issue out.

If the space is good enough for you, just stick with it.

This is what some buyers for our last house did. Annoying as hell, and fraudulent. (my neighbor called his company and asked for him, and they said "he's out on the truck" instead of "he doesn't work here anymore") But their earnest money was only $5000, not enough to sue over. In the end, we lost more than half of it. In that state, the earnest money can't be given to either party without the signature of both parties. But the catch is, the seller can't sell it without clearing up the issue. So the seller basically is in more of a hurry to resolve it than the buyer. We ended up splitting it 50/50, but we had to pay a lawyer out of our half for the letter to them...

Those stupid "buyers" cost us a hell of a lot of money. (they didn't back out til they'd had it under contract for over 2 months. And so we missed the best selling season, and we had to move out and show it vacant.)

[Anonymous]

I strongly doubt OP will move out. I think he was just freaking out about the whole process. And maybe he's a little flamboyant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I strongly doubt OP will move out. I think he was just freaking out about the whole process. And maybe he's a little flamboyant.

Just a little

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the house was only smaller to you AFTER the painters told you so, correct?

You should have been able figure out how much sq ft the house had when you viewed it. This isn't some kind of rocket science to figure out. Also, ask for the floor plan and get the estimates off of there for room dimensions. Lastly, some real estate agents will count closet space and other dead space in the total sq ft when listing.

To back out, you don't need to lose money. Pick a flaw in the inspection report and back out based on that.

No, the second time I saw the house, it felt smaller. The painters only confirmed this. I said something to them like, supposdly this place has 2700 square feet, but it feels smaller right? They laughed and said, no lady, it's like 1800 square feet.

I have the floor plan, that allegedly works out to 2700 square feet. I think the floor plan was manipulated.

We waived inspection (got a pre offer inspection) to win the house. All the other contingencies have expired.

Okay, so you are claiming to be gay and now you say that the painters referred to you as "lady." Are you really gay?

BUSTED!!!!!

[Anonymous]

I think OP has left the building, probably in a glittery jumpsuit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I keep repeating myself but again, why would anyone read what I write when they can instead busy themselves with thinking of names to call me? For the record: "moron", "fruitcake", "pleasant", and "confused" have been taken ladies and gentleman.

Again, the house is listed as having 2700 sq ft of living space - 900 per floor. The taxable living space is listed as 1800 sq ft total. Painters estimated it as being around 675 per floor, not 900. I was told by my agent that the taxable living space does NOT include basement. However, given that there is a cert of occupancy, I'm thinking he was wrong and it does. And if the tax living space DOES include the basement, the painters assessment of 675 makes sense.

SO my questions continue to be: does the tax living space take into account the basement when there is a cert of occupancy?
Second question - if we are getting 25% less house, what can we do?

Why don't you start by calling the county or city where the house is listed and ask if they consider the basement with a certificate of occupancy in the taxable living space? All you will get here are guesses as this will vary depending on location.

I don't think there is anything you can do about getting "25% less house." Your only option is ask to renegotiate the price based on new information - assuming the listing was in fact wrong based on what the county says.

Have you looked at neighboring houses that are the same model?

[Anonymous]

I didn't read the whole thing. Look over your contract very carefully and see if you can back out somehow. Much easier to back out than to sue. If you sue, you will lose. And is costly and timin consuming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are a moron. the listing is pretty accurate consider the tax record is 1800 sqrft and measures the top 2 floors, then the basement would be 900 + 1800 which is 2700.

Ding ding!

[Anonymous]

people are being mean as usual. OP if you are still here: If the house had 10 bids, it probably wont be that hard to back out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They said the house was 2700 square feet, but it looks like it's closer to 1800 square feet.

This is confusing since DC has records for property assessment online including square footage. So does Fairfax and montco. So how could this not have been noticed? 900 missing square feet above grade? Odd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear OP Look on the bright side- DC Georgetown- you beat out 10 ( or 15?) other bids. The value is there, you didn't overpay unless there was a huge difference between your escalated bid and the one before. Probably not. Probably not a 25% difference. Do you really think all of the other bids were based on the LA's square footage calculations? Take a deep breath and realize that you have a hot property. I don't see where you have been harmed in this transaction.

+1

It looks like a beautiful house, OP. At the end of the day, if it meets your needs and you paid fair market value (which IMO you did if you won a bidding war), then you just move on and just enjoy your new home. Do you really want to spend this much negative energy on this when you could be planning out the reno and putting some love into the house?

ps Please post some "before/after" interior pics - the listing only had an exterior photo.

Is there a link to the house?

[Anonymous]

Yes people are super mean then they want op to provide his address. Stalker much? No wonder op left.

[Anonymous]

link

[Anonymous]

this one? http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3306-R-St-NW-Washington-DC-20007/431675_zpid/