In case you didn't have enough good reasons to seek out the services of an Accredited Buyers Agent, this secondhand smoking law suit in Boston makes the case for finding a really impeccable buyers agent. The buyers agent in this case didn't lie, he just didn't do his job, which left this poor woman in a condos upstairs from 2 smokers aggravating her asthma. It started when this woman, Alyssa Burrage bought a condo in Boston's South End. The woman has asthma and when she asked about the cigarette smoke smell the agent, who was supposed to be her buyers agent, told her all it needed was a paint job. Would that be enough for you? Not enough of an explanation for me. I've been representing buyers and selling real estate in Boston since 2002 and I would never stop my investigation with "It just needs a paint job". If the woman has asthma its up to her Buyers Agent/Buyers ADVOCATE to look into it further. The guy who was posing as her buyers agent, like all brokers in Boston, knows that cigarette smoke rises and races right through these old townhouses built in the late 19th century. In my building which is exactly like the one in question, if someone lights a cigarette in the basement it rises right through the building and I can smell it on the fourth floor in about 5 minutes. This happens in all these old buildings. Thats the reason we made ours a non-smoking building. We put a clause into the condo documents. Allysa's agent knew this as anyone practicing real estate in Boston for a number of years would. Its so obvious! As an Accredited Buyers Agent, I would have started my investigation downstairs where the smokers live right away. If Allysa's so called buyers agent was thinking about buying this unit for himself you can be sure that the downstairs smokers would have been dealt with or no sale. Bottom line is even if someone calls himself your buyers agent, it doesn't mean he really has your best interests at heart. In this case the pseudo-buyers agent just wanted to sell the woman some real estate. Did he care about her asthma? In a word NO. Not even enough to ask a couple of questions put to the smokers themselves? Not even enough to ask a few questions of the trustees? Not even enough to take a look at the condominium documents to see if there are any rules regarding smoking? So why didn't Alyssa's buyers agent ask these questions? The problem with all that objective investigation he could have done is that the answers might very well nix the sale which obviously was all this broker was interested in. I think he avoided lying but the negligence here is his lack of investigating the building and its occupants. Sorry to report that a Suffolk County jury found in favor of the brokers. As it turns out after 4 years of this hassle Alyssa will receive no damages. She did get a small settlement from the smokers downstairs which is completely ridiclulous because it wasn't their fault. The fault lies with the buyers agent who sold the unit to Alyssa. A lesson learned the hard way. Real Estate is always buyer beware around here but this case would never have happened if Alyssa had been diligent enough or lucky enough to meet a real Accredited Buyers Agent/Buyers Advocate who was sincerely interested in Alyssa, her asthma and the possibilities of her being happy in this property.
Please Rate this Article 5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
