We spoke to the guy this morning and he was informed of covenants. First, he hasn't heard back from them. Second, he said something that made no sense, that there is another realtor involved. The only way that can be from Arizona, where they live, is for their normal realtor to give a referral to a listing agent here and then, his/her hands are out of it. There is a referral fee paid to the referring agent, used to be about $200 or so, not sure what it is now. So, how another agent is involved, I do not understand. An agent in AZ cannot list in GA unless he/she is licensed here as well. All that can be done is to refer a client to another agent. Could be they are just getting advice unofficially from their end. But, this guy said he would tell them that there are covenants registered with the county and what they entail... might be to his benefit to remember that for this subdivision. And it might have been professional to look it up in the first place and not rely on a client who never even lived here in GA and, as far as I know, only came with her dad, Mark Kephart, to see the property one time.
Though covenants are public record and technically, a realtor has no obligation to know every publicly recorded detail about a property that a buyer can look up, you know as well as I do that buyers expect them to know and don't look up that stuff for themselves. It's a miracle that I was told about covenants when we were looking at this place--I knew to ask about that, being a realtor myself at the time. I bet the handful of others who have purchased these places since then as original owners pass away or sell out to go back to Florida, or wherever permanently to live, are not even aware of them. I have not seen anyone try to plunk down a trailer in here yet, but you bet I'll scream bloody murder if I do. It's bad enough that my neighbor has family living in storage sheds occasionally right across from my place.
I hope this doesn't tank because of ineptitude on the part of these other agents. It should be a simple cash transaction. How much better can it get than getting an offer the day after it's listed for close to full asking price and for someone who doesn't even need a survey or a perk test? I feel like it was okay when Mark got it and it was going to be a tiny house type vacation cabin on that bottom lot, not a permanent residence, but if someone else buys it, it could be a big house that I'll see every day and where they can watch what I do every day from down the hill. That will make me very not happy.
