Previously, we made an offer on a house in Laveen and declined to buy the other shot up house in the same neighborhood.

Our realtor/broker Jeff is in Israel, so he has arranged for a colleague, Rayven Macnab, to fill in.

Jeff introduced Rayven via email:

To Jeff Sutherlin, RAYVEN MACNAB, Jim Sarina

Thanks, Jeff.

We feel totally confident with Rayven taking charge of this.

God speed in your trip to Israel and may He grant you wisdom in your travels:

Proverbs 3:13 Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding,
Jim & Michelle

On May 18, 2019 at 8:56 AM Jeff Sutherlin wrote:

Jim,

I have briefed Rayven, my transaction manager thoroughly on your file. She knows what is going on with everything regarding Valencia. You should also be getting your earnest money back this coming week from Fidelity from 48th Glen. If you do not, please call them. I am confident that Rayven can administrate this very well for you for the remainder of this escrow. I do plan on coming to the closing and celebrating with you both. It has been such a pleasure working with both of you that past month…and most of all…becoming better friends! Please pray for me and my family while I am gone as I dig deeper into my faith and hopefully I can bring back some great teaching for the Body of Christ.

We did an initial walkthrough of the house on May 22nd:

The house is not as well finished as the previous one we declined. On that one, the seller Zillow did an OUTSTANDING job of preparing the house. It was move-in condition, perfect.

Kevin, our home inspector (blueshieldhomeinspection@gmail.com) did an outstanding job again and supplied a 34 page report with color pictures and more. He noted three items for possible repair: the door from the garage to the house does not close automatically (this is a fire issue), two of the stove knobs are nonfunctional. and the water is off because there is an apparent leak in the kitchen sink. In addition, Kevin points out that there appears to be possible termite issues.

Rayven and I discuss the termite issue and the three repair items:

The seller did provide evidence of a termite inspection and treatment, so we did not have to do so ourselves.

Kevin responded:

To jim.sarina

It looks like they treated the house on three sides and the map of the property was terrible. But what I saw were old tubes so it could be good. Also, there should be a warranty now but double check and see.

On Thu, May 23, 2019 at 8:12 AM jim.sarina wrote:
Kevin,

The property was inspected and treated for termites in April, see attached.

What do you think?

Jim

Rayven and I also discuss the difficulty we had in obtaining the ‘Seller’s Property Disclosure Statement’, SPUDS:

The Arizona Association of Realtors (“AAR”) has created a disclosure form to help the seller fulfill their legal obligations, informing the buyer about a specific property. This six-page form is called the Residential Seller’s Property Disclosure Statement, also know as SPDS. Realtors typically don’t say those initials — they say it like a word, “spuds.”

We also received an unusual insurance report from the seller.

A Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (C.L.U.E.) report includes the dates of any claims and the insurance companies involved.

Typically, these are generated by the insurance company. In this case the seller ‘wrote’ their own CLUE:

Our property manager, Sherman, provided a 13 page rental CMA (Comparable Market Analysis) indicating rent of $1,300 – $1,325 per month.

In part two, we run into an issue: the appraisal comes in well below the agreed-to sales price! Good news?