Comments on: Would You Buy A House With A Sex Offender Living Next Door?

By: Nicole Facteau

Nicole Facteau — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:24:09 +0000

I am actually going through this right now. My boyfriend and I have found the perfect house. Perfect inside and out. Perfect location. Even the perfect price. One day before signing the papers we found out there is a sex offender who – of course – lives right next door. I don’t know what to do. We pulled our offer for the time being, but no other houses seem to compare to this one. I don’t know if this is something we can live with or not. The offender’s offense wasn’t a violent one, as if that helps, but I’m stuck… Anyone have any advice?? I’d love some.

By: Buy acai berry

Buy acai berry — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:16:06 +0000

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By: Ohio MLS

Ohio MLS — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:42:17 +0000

Hello, guess it depends on the person, family, situation, i know some offenders can be extremly minor cases that are not so harsh once you have the full story? But i do know our local area does have resources to look these potential neighbors up, and you can also search public records im sure? I guess you could cross reference and mls search with an offender website and pull results, wouldnt be a hard thing to do? Im sure someone has got that going already though. have a good one, will

By: Janis Gagliardi

Janis Gagliardi — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:00:25 +0000

Great article! I agree. It is very important that buyers do their due diligence.

By: Sandi

Sandi — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 20:02:07 +0000

Hi Julia,

You are absolutely right: the seller most definitely has an obligation to disclose any known material issues. As soon as the seller brought the issue to your attention, it then becomes your responsibility to disclose as well.

However, when acting as a buyer’s agent, I don’t think it’s wise to advise the buyer to depend solely on the information provided by the seller or the seller’s agent. Unfortunately, we run into unethical people all the time in this business. I think it’s important to remind the buyer that they DO have the weight of proper investigation on their shoulders, and they should not depend wholeheartedly on anything the agents or the seller says.

We do things a bit differently in CA… the TDS isn’t usually provided until AFTER the contract has been signed. The buyer typically has 17 days from signing to perform all investigations, and approve the disclosures provided by the seller. In the event that unsavory information like this comes to light during this period, the buyer can gracefully back out of the contract and retain his deposit.

While it IS a tough market, and no agent wants to lose a buyer, I can’t say that the fact makes any difference in how I handle problems such as this. I will always provide a buyer with the ugly truths about a property, even if it kills the sale. It is my obligation to do so! In the long run, the buyer will appreciate it, and value the ethical representation he received.

By: Julia

Julia — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 16:34:30 +0000

Hi Sandi, I recently came up against this issue in a listing interview. On two separate occasions during my hour-long stay with her, the seller made a point of telling me there was sex offender in the neighborhood, then the second time the seller went further in explicitly stating that the offender was a renter, he had been arrested, and that the whole neighborhood knew about it. Now, the problem as I see it, is not only does the buyer have the duty to investigate, but this seller had specific knowledge which she stated to me, and now so did I, so then it could become an agent disclosure issue as well. When she asked me how that would be handled in the transaction, my only choice then was to say that she would have to disclose that in writing to the buyer, even though it is also the buyer’s duty to investigate. As you stated, it’s not a problem for every buyer, so not every buyer is going to back out of a transaction for that reason. Better to disclose it up front on the TDS before the contract is signed, then the 3-day right of rescission does not kick in. In this market where you don’t want to lose a buyer, that’s tought to do. It could also be a lot less expensive in the long run.