WARNING DANGER - possible SCAM ARTIST at 904 Centeroak Dr Knoxville TN 37920

We just had an interesting experience that well... smells... We seriously thought about taking it to court but realised that there are no facts we would be able to base a lawsuit on. Every violation could easily be blamed to acceptable delays and forgetfulness, disclosures that were done a bit on the late side (although it seemed conviently just in time to prevent lawsuit), simple miscommunication and other allowable misinterpretations and a "honest" mistake or two. So the only thing to do is write down my experience as truthfully as possible so other home buyers can learn and be a bit more prepared for the future.

We are interested in buying a home in Knoxville. We live out of the coutry but we have some friends and professionals that can assist us with all things needed to buy a house. We thought we would buy a moderate fixerupper. We don't have the money for a good "ready to move in" house so we planned to do a lot of work ourselfes during vacations. December 2011 we found such a house. It needed some sturdy work (think painting everything inside and out, replace all carpet and vinyl, lots of small fixes and maybe a little remodelling) but basically it was a good house.

So here is our story of what happened next in logbook form:

1 We checked the house out in the beginning of December. There was a tarp on the roof, a good inspection would be advisable. The listing said Sold AS-IS but made no mention of problems with utilities. Nevertheless, we should be carefull.

2 We entered verbal negotiations with the sellers agent on December 16. Of course we wanted the house inspected and for that we need the utilities on. Why the utilities were off was unclear to us and our agent but allas. There were indications that the house was just winterized. The seller told us that turning on water and electricity were only going to be approved when there was a signed contract with Ernest money in place.

3 We were happy that the sellers agent counter offer set the closing date of January 6 as one of his stipulations. We saw that this house has a leaking roof and that we should close fast on it since it needs to be protected against mold as quickly as possible. Another important stipulation was that the ernest money was raised to 2500.

4 We included sellers stipulations and made a new formal offer on December 21, to be accepted before December 28, Ernest money was in place.

5 Since we did not want to make a false commitment to the tight set closing date we planned an inspection before new years eve and we planned a survey to be done on January the 3rd. (KGIS showed the house might be a good couple of feet on the neighbor's lot)

6 On Friday the 30th we had still not heard from the sellers agen so we called the home inspector off and left a message to the surveyor about the same. We could not reacht the sellers agent so what else was there to do?

7 Our offer got accepted on Sunday, 4 days after the termination day. Hurray! Happy new year! (BOA works on Sunday or the sellers agent just left it on his desk for a couple of important days?)

8 On Jan 3 the survey worked out. The house was not on the neighbor's property. (And we've spent "a few" bucks for the survey.)

9 On January 4 we were apparently still busy with some paperwork for the utilities to be switched on.

10 On January 8 we got a newer version of the contract back where the seller wanted a shorter time for us to do our inspection after closing. Since January 6 had passed the new closing date was extended to January 20. We had a hard time scanning the paperwork so it would remain readable as Bank Of America put high value on it being readable. Funny enough we had quite a hard time finding out the name of the employee at BOA who signed these papers. Only later, after comparing several of her signatures on several documents we could guess and confirm "Brandi Kille". But why would a bank employee want to make the inspection period on a house a few days shorter? This house has clearly been empty for months.

11 On January 9 the Agent told us the electricity was on. We assumed the water was on too.

12 On January 10 our agent tells us the house might be on septic.

13 On January 11 the inspector determined there was no electricity on the property. Donna confirmed at KUB that the electricity had been on since May! We promptly relayed this information to the sellers agent.

14 January 12 the sellers agent messages back that the line had literally been cut, he is working on it and will give us a heads up when we can do the inspection for both electricity and water.

15 January 12 The septic inspector informs us the house is on Knox sewer. Another hurdle taken, another few bucks spend.

16 January 13 Where are we with the utilities? It's 7 days before closing. Our agent can't get a status update from the sellers agent.

17 January 17 We send in an extension letter to postpone closing to the 30th. (third extension)

18 January 17 we want to explicitly let the sellers agent know we want to get in the house as soon as possible because of mold.

19 January 17 Our agent can't get in touch with the sellers agent about progress. We have no signed sellers contract and can not do the home inspection. Later that day the sellers agent tries to steamroll our agent. Seller has not approved the repair of the electricity yet.

20 January 18. We contact BOA and explain we can't reach the agent and find out about the request for the repair of the electricity that has been scheduled with very low priority. BOA is going to make sure the agent is going to call back. BOA is for sure going to call us back to evaluate.

21 January 18. We have the signed contract back.

22 January 18. We made clear to our agent that we are not going to spend money on the title before the inspection is ok.

23 January 18 Our agent makes sure Tennessee Trust does not start to work and spend money on the title yet.

24 January 21 We get the signed extension back. Seems perfectly in time.

25 January 23 Sellers agent offers 1000 off the price if we forget about any inspections. We counteroffer with 3000 off the price with an inspection without electricity. We filled the papers out and made the offer official.

25 January 25 Sellers agent agrees with 3000 off but no inspection at all. No paperwork. He now mentions there is some sort of issue with the water under the house. We are 2 workdays away from the second extended closing date.

26 Next day we rush our inspector in to do a full inspection taking into account that there is no electricity and there are some issues with the plumbing.

27 January 26 our inspector calls back with the message that simply all copper wiring and plumbing has been ripped from underneath the house. This house needs extensive repairs. He is not an expert in prices but he would guess it would easily be in the order of 30 to 40 k on repairs. The thieves did a thorough job. He mentiones several times during the conversation that the sellers agent must have known. Since this is an inspector with 15+ years of experience I am inclined to believe him. (And we spend another "few" bucks.)

28 It is now a couple of weeks later and as mentioned in #20 we did not get a call back from BOA as they solomny pledged.

So we backed out. After spending several hundreds of dollars in inspections we back out of the deal just in time.

As stated we can not make anything hard but out of all our communications and observations we believe Howard Sentell and most likely Brandi Kille of Bank Of America knew the status of this house well before we set foot in this house for the first time in december 2011.

Most convincing evidence of prior knowledge might be a video made in december during a first superficial inspection. It shows the house was winterized but upon closer study it might be that one of those "winterized" warning signs covers an apparently missing shower tap. I hope to make this video available when I can but this will take some time and effort.

Softer evidence is that KUB measures no energy usage worth mentioning for months and the sellers agent did not pick up on this during all this time of showing this house.