THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, March 6, 2020 |M7
MANSION
Q
What’s the wildest thing
that’s ever happened with
a home inspection?ALEX PRINS
Real-estate agent
Coldwell Banker, DallasI took on a listing for a charming
home in South Dallas. It was in
good condition, but it had seen bet-
ter days. The grandmother, her
daughter and her pregnant grand-
daughter were all living in the
home. They told me it meant every-
thing to them, but they were ready
to move on.
The house ended up sitting on
the market for a few months, withlittle activity. We even adjusted the
price to help, but still no serious
buyers. I had money in my pocket
from a record number of closings
that year, and nothing else going on
other than to sell this house. So I
decided it would be safe to have a
rhinoplasty to fix a deviated sep-
tum, which I’d been planning since I
was a teenager.
Then the day before the surgery,
we got an offer on the house and
we all signed it that night.
Aweekorsolater,Igetacall
from the inspector, saying, “Yourhouse is covered with peeling paint.
I won’t even go in it because it was
built before 1973.”
I guess he was afraid of possible
lead. He said the house wasn’t go-
ing to pass the inspection.
When I got the call, I was stand-
ing in line with one of my best
friends to vote. It was 2016, one of
the biggest elections in my lifetime.
Plus, I had just had surgery and I
was on painkillers. The buyer’s
agent called me, freaking out about
the peeling paint, and I called the
seller, freaking out in return. TheDIMITRI PETROVSKY
Associate broker
Compass, Brooklyn, N.Y.
It was an old Victorian-style
home in Richmond Hills, Queens.
The sellers had three children. One
of them was about 6 years old at
the time, the other one was maybe
11, and the oldest was a teenager—
a 14-year-old boy.
They were moving out of state,
to Pennsylvania. The house had
been on the market for three
months before we found a buyer
and it went into contract. I went
along on the inspection. I always
do, because I want to know if there
are any issues.
It wasn’t very cold out at the
time, so the inspector had to crank
BRATISLAV MILENKOVIC (2)seller was so distraught. She didn’t
have the money to pay a painter. So
I turned to my friend and asked if
she wanted to paint a house with
me. She said yes.
We cast our votes, then high-
tailed it to Home Depot to pick up
paint supplies. We spent the next
three days on top of ladders, roofs,
a carport, dangling from a trellis, to
paint a little 1,200-square-foot
home. Neither of us had ever
painted a house before.
We got it sold. The homeowner
was so happy. I’d do it all over again.IN THE TRENCHES|AMY GAMERMAN
ASnakein
The Wall?
Agents remember the worst-case scenarios
of their home-inspection reports
up the heat to 90 degrees to see if
the heating system was working.
The radiators were set into the
walls, with a metal grate that
was screwed in.
The inspector went to check
on each radiator to see if it was
getting warm, and through one
of the grates, he sees something.
He says, “It looks like a reptile of
some sort, let me take a look,” and
unscrews the grate. And there’s the
children’s pet garter snake, which
had somehow gotten loose a year
before. It was living in the heating
duct.
During the months I was show-
ing the house, I had noticed an
empty fish tank, like the setting for
a reptile, but I didn’t ask about it.
The family had assumed the snakewas dead. How it had survived for
a year inside the walls of the home
was very strange.
I got sort of freaked out, but the
sellers were laughing, like, “So
that’s where the snake was!”He actually looked really well,
like he was eating. The only theory
everyone had was that maybe he
ate bugs and survived off that.
The 14-year-old, who was home
at the time, was thrilled.ORAL REPRESENTATIONS CANNOT BE RELIED UPON AS CORRECTLY STATING REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DEVELOPER. FOR CORRECT REPRESENTATIONS, MAKE REFERENCE TO TSTATUTES, TO BE FURNISHED BY A DEVELOPER TO A BUYER OR LESSEE. Use and operation of the helipad are conditioned upon obtaining FAA and other governmental approvals. No assurance can be given about whether the approvals can be obtained, and/or if so, theHIS BROCHURE AND TO THE DOCUMENTS REQUIRED BY SECTION 718.503, FLORIDA
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specifications, services, amenities, terms, conditions and statements contained in this brochure are proposed only, and the Developer reserves thebeing sold for personal use and enjoyment and 1000 Biscayne Tower, LLC is not making, nor does it condone, any representations about future profit or renright to modify, revise or withdraw any or all of same in its sole discretion and without prior notice. The condominium units aretal potential of the condominium units. Prospective purchasers of condominium units should not base their buying
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