Riverside Realtor Blog - Alma Dizon

Alma shares her experiences and observations as a Realtor in Riverside California.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

A bathroom in the garage?

I had a listing that closed recently. It was a little house with only one bathroom. During the final walk-through, the buyer's agent noticed a sink in the garage and turned on the tap just as her companion and I screamed a warning. She jumped out of the way, and the water just missed her feet. You see, there was water coming in, but the drain to take it away was missing. I hadn't even bothered to mention the sink in the MLS as it wasn't a selling point.

She turned excitedly to her buyer and told him in Spanish that there was a bathroom in the garage. I was surprised but didn't say anything, not wanting to interfere. Technically, I suppose, the water was there to bathe with. And she had used the word "baƱo," which specifically pertains to bathing, and a toilet may not be present.

The home inspection might have cleared up the matter, but their home inspector hadn't gotten inside the garage. That was because she forgot to tell me that they were having the home inspection on the day they went. I was actually at another home inspection (I always go, whether I'm representing the buyer or the seller), and I only got her message later, asking about the keys. When I called her back to explain that I'd taken the keybox down because one of the keys had gone missing (never did find out where it went to as none of the agents who showed the house ever came clean), I offered to meet her at the house. Not to worry, she told me, she was a professional and knew what she was doing. They forced an unlocked window, climbed in, and did the inspection of the house. And she had locked the place up on their way out. They weren't able to get into the garage and so had left it out. I was so surprised, I didn't know what to say. I told my broker about it, and she was amazed, too.

When I went by the house later, I found the back window still wide open and the front door unlocked. Sigh. Nothing was missing, and no vagrants had moved in, which I reported to my out-of-area sellers.

When I told them several weeks later about the bathroom comment, they had to laugh. I guess a bathroom is in the eye of the beholder.

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