While  looking aggressively for a home in early 2021,  Holly's mom passed away and left her a small inheritance . That helped them consider a home with an upper range of $900,000.   This helped some as they could get more home per sf and they could look for homes that would offer a room or more to rent to others to offset the mortgage increase.  

They did not look at  any homes if they hadn't been on the market for at least 1 week. They could not afford to engage in any bidding wars that would push the price above their max value nor force them to do things like waive condition or financing contingencies to be competitive. 

In March 2021 a home about two miles from their rental was listed for $895,000.  It had a lot of features they were looking for. it was a complex property with a shared well system that might not be attractive to others, and they felt the price was a little high, so they thought it might not go right away and they'd take a look at it if it didn't sell immediately. 

A week after the home was listed, it was still available, so they scheduled a viewing via their Coldwell Banker Licensed Sales Person.  It had good potential but some concerns. Then a few days later they scheduled a 2nd viewing via the Coldwell Banker Salesperson, and they asked her to schedule and a meeting wth the Listing Salesperson, who was from Keller Williams Coastal Estates. His name was Kent Weinstein. 

During the viewing process it seemed apparent the Keller Williams Salesperson who listed the home was not very experienced and or knowledgeable about appraisal standards  nor was he organized enough to have gotten a septic inspection prior to listing a country home.   A brief look into his background revealed he had been an Agent with Keller Williams since the early 2000's on the east coast, then relocated to the West Coast --  However,  it appeared this was "side work" for him  -- from what could be seen on Zillow. It appeared he was only averaging about 1 property sale a year from the early 2000's to 2020 and the revenue he generated from those would not have generated enough income to pay a mortgage or rental l home, much less all other bills a householder has. 

Bryan and Holly combined had purchased about 15 homes for themselves and/or investment purposes, so they were moderately experienced home buyers.   

Bryan, Holly and their Coldwell Banker Salesperson privately discussed some concerns about the listing agent, especially when it appeared he was going to hold back statutory disclosure documents  with representation statements of condition on them. This act will sound bizarre to people not from California, and it may sound bizarre to some people in California too. If you read the standard contracts in CA carefully, they "suggest" this act may be a proper or viable part of the California Transaction process, although as it turned out, the contracts themselves are as queer and fraudulent as 3$ bills. 

As experienced buyers, Bryan and Holly decided they'd make an offer without all the disclosure documents, disclosure statements and/or representation statements they felt they were due. and they had asked multiple times for whatever the Seller wanted to share.  It was as if the Seller and Seller's Agent thought saying nothing would protect them, when in fact saying nothing is a passive affirmation of no material facts or defects to represent. 

Bryan and Holly knew if the offer was accepted, they would then get those documents, have an inspection period,  and they had retained a condition contingency kick out they could rely on for any reason if desired.  

When they told the Seller's Salesperson they were making an offer, they were told there was a competitive bid coming in.  They asked for utility costs and any documents the Seller wanted to present for representation statements.  They were provided with utility costs for the home, utility costs for the separate well system.  They were provided with a pre-sale Home Inspection report and a pre-sale termite inspection report. 

They found the pre-sale reports a bit odd.  The pre-sale home inspectoin did not note the sunken floor defect where the living room and dinnig room met, nor did it list any problms iwth the post and peirs below the home, which is a typical defect that would have explained the first floor condition.  Given the termite inspectors report also didn't mention any post and pier defects, Bryan, a prior home rehabber,  could only imagine there was a framing issue above teh insulation in the crawl space the inspectors felt they didn't need to check out or didn't realize because they had somehow over looked the sunken floor defect. 

Bryan and Holly offered full price instead of $50,000 less due to the suggestion of a competitive bid, even though they were not confident the sellers sales person was being honest.  They did not waive their condition or financing contingency to become more competitive.  They also did not modify the standard time windows for various acts in the contract when told by their own transaction coordinator and senior sales person those minor tweaks to the standard offer template might make them less competitive. 

Bryan and Holly made their offer and in  about 48 hours, they were told  were told they won the competitive bidding situation , with some minor counter offer details. One of those details was the withdrawal from the binding arbitration agreement in the event of a dispute.  That was a very concerning flag for Bryan and Holly  that put them more on attention. 

What would you have done  in this case?   

Most people would have walked away.   We were desperate for housing and desperate people learn to do stressful things while hoping for the best. In this case we had a LOT of property renovation and real estate transaction backgrounds we felt we could rely on to take larger risks than most others. 

We started documenting all the fraud that our own Transaction Coordinator/Salesperson and Broker stated was not fraud.  We got two Attorneys involved who would not say what was transpiring was fraudulent.   Through the process, we found more evidence of  fraud and we were able to demand documents from the Seller and Seller's Agent which proved fraud, as we viewed it.   A demand was issued to remove our condition contingency without completed disclosure documents in hand, which we viewed as coercion and racketeering, if the laws worked as we thought they would.  Under duress to maintain our rights to complete the transaction, we removed our contingencies without completed disclosure documents in hand,  and then we closed the deal by performing to our promises we had made when forming the contract 6 weeks prior, with no idea the fraud we'd discover when that deal was made.  

All in all, we knew we had been taken for about $80,000 in defects at retail value, that weren't disclosed, at time of transaction close.   Stating that another way, we knew we were "overpaying" by at least $80k at time of close, if we had deducted money for the defects found after contract formation.   However, all things considered, if there were no more surprises, that was digestible given our other option was renting in an upside down market --- and/or we could challenge the Seller, Brokers, Inspectors and Legal  system after the fact, if we could discern that CA Law was as we expected it to be, not as they represented it. 

And then it got worse...

After close of escrow, during a deep cleaning process, we discovered cat urine had been concealed in floors walls and cabinets.  Then we discovered contractors who had done work to prepare the home for sale had concealed mold and structural defects.  Then we spoke to neighbors who could confirm even they knew about he cat urine and mold due to pet sitting for the seller, so there was no reason he should not have disclosed that as well.  Then we discovered his utility quotes were probably not representative of his own actual expenses,  and the north yard flooded in winter, in a way he had patently denied.  And then the siding leaked.  

All this added another $120,000 to 150,000 to the fraud and now we were in deep waters. 

And then it got worse... 

In February 2022, we reached out to the seller in writing and expressed all our concerns for fraud.   Instead of replying himself he hired an attorney.  That was largest mistake he made after having signed the contract with us.   He had hopped from the frying pan into the fire. 

In the first two emails with the  Seller's Attorney, the attorney stated all dialogue about the matter was goings o be confidential and that is client was afforded that by California statute.  Then he went on to suggest that California has no requirements to represent facts when selling a home and -- whatever we didn't discover during escrow was "tough cookies" for us (our emphasis, not his). 

At that point, Bryan decided that was it for him.  He had reached his limit with the California Real Estate and Legal rogues and gypsies calling themselves "Professionals" .  He had had numerous other problems with California Corporate Attorneys related to unrelated matters and he had realized they were operating with no regard for law there either. 

At that point, Bryan decided he'd either get the financial remedies he and Holly were due, or he'd work diligently to destroy then entire California Real Estate Brokerage system and a material portion of the California Legal System.

The legal complaint on this website is against the Seller of the property.   It was not the first complaint that was filed related to these matters, but it is the best place to start at this time. 

If you find this one interesting you may find the others to be interesting as well. 

We are living in a commercial world right now where not many things are actually working properly.   In addition to seeking personal recovery, this is our contribution to exposing commercial malfeasance and people inverted that are beyond the imagination of most at this time.  Hopefully this can make a difference too. 

Regards, 

Bryan and Holly