It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve made a post to this Gatlinburg real estate blog and that is the longest hiatus I’ve had in many months, if not years. The reasons for my lack of recent posts are many including my taking last week off to visit graduate schools with my daughter who is planning to go back and get a post graduate degree. Now that we have escaped from the great white north and are back in Tennessee it’s time to get back to work.
My frustration with the banks that own the foreclosure properties we have been selling is because of their lack of due diligence. Specifically, we have had three pending sales cancelled recently because of title or survey issues. Homes that aren’t built in the right location and titles that haven’t been properly cleared are things that should be found on the front end, not in the final days before a closing. These issues are reminders for prospective buyers to ALWAYS get a survey and have an independent company do your title search rather than using the bank’s title company. Were it not for these precautions the prospective buyers would have been owners of properties that are fundamentally flawed either in their legal or survey description. Either one would have created a property that would have a clouded title and would be an issue to re-sell in the future. While these problems can be cured the solution is always expensive and requires relocation of boundaries or re-foreclosure. Always better to have the seller make the fix BEFORE closing on the property. The lesson here is, when dealing with foreclosures in Gatlinburg or anywhere the buyer must always beware. Don’t assume that all is well just because the bank’s title agency says it is. Always require a survey and don’t take anything for granted. It’s just good business and the only way to make sure you don’t get stuck with a “problem child”.