Questions Are the Answer to Buyer's House Search

By KATHY PRICE-ROBINSON

March 10, 2002 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Betty Harvey offers this advice for buying or selling a house: “Ask, ask and ask some more.”

That was Harvey’s strategy when she set out to buy in La Quinta, a growing desert community of 25,000 about 20 miles southeast of Palm Springs.

An educator, Harvey asked co-workers if they knew of any homes for sale, she asked locals how much they paid for electricity to cool their homes during blistering summer months and she asked an escrow officer what steps were required to buy directly from an owner. Then, she walked the streets of La Quinta Cove, a slightly bohemian neighborhood at the foot of the Santa Rosa Mountains where she considered buying, and asked neighbors about the area.

Harvey began her search in 2000 after accepting a position with the Coachella Valley Water District. Putting her Escondido home on the market, she first investigated renting in La Quinta for herself, her Rottweiler-boxer mix and her two cats. She quickly discovered two things: “Rents are through the ceiling,” and “It’s hard to find a nice place to rent when you have a dog.”

Before looking to buy, Harvey got pre-approved for a loan through Eli Lopez, a loan broker with Sea Breeze Mortgage in Rancho Cucamonga, who determined that a federally insured FHA loan would be best for her.

“She had a lot of great questions,” Lopez said. She asked about fixed versus variable rates, prepayment penalties, federal nondiscrimination disclosure requirements and a host of issues that arose as she carefully read the stacks of forms she was asked to sign throughout the process.

Harvey then searched newspapers and looked for for-sale signs on front lawns. She took her time and, having successfully bought and sold at least six properties since first becoming a homeowner in 1972, she felt confident she would find something.

In February 2001, a co-worker pointed out an ad in the Desert Sun newspaper for a French country, three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,700-square-foot tract house being sold by the owners for $137,000. As well as being in Harvey’s price range, it had features she wanted: a kitchen open to the living room so she could see the fireplace while cooking, and sliding French doors leading from the living room and the master bedroom to a patio. The mountains lay to the east and the garden faced south, an orientation she liked.

The house was being sold by Jan and Larry Haggart, who bought it new in 1990 and had rented it for a year after retiring to Idaho. When the renters moved and the couple decided to sell, they brought sleeping bags and camped out for a month while they painted and primed the house before putting a sign on the lawn. Selling their house without a real estate agent was not a difficult choice for the Haggarts because they had sold their previous home in 1990 by putting a sign out front.

When Harvey went to look at the La Quinta house, the sign had been up for about a week. She returned several times to look at the house and ask the neighbors about the immediate community. At one point, Larry Haggart took her around to meet several neighbors. “We didn’t want [to sell to] someone who would irritate the neighbors,” Haggart said.

Over the years, Harvey has developed a strategy for viewing homes that are being shown by the owners.

“Tell them: ‘I love what you’ve done with it,’” she said, rather than saying this or that feature should be torn out and replaced. “You don’t want to do that to the owners. They love their home.... Think to yourself what you would do with it.”

Once Harvey decided on the house, she offered the couple $130,000--$7,000 less than the asking price. They countered with $133,500, and Harvey accepted. “We split the difference,” she said, “and that characterizes everything [we did].”

As the process moved forward, Harvey and the Haggarts developed a good working relationship. While the couple had been approached by three real estate agents who wanted to list the house, and raise the price by $10,000 to cover their commission fees, the Haggarts were glad they turned down those offers. “Betty would have had to pay that,” Larry Haggart said.

On the other hand, when Harvey put her Escondido house on the market, she happily engaged the services of an agent who could show the house while Harvey started her new job in La Quinta. Plus, Harvey’s house and its half-acre lot were in an out-of-the-way location where a front-yard sign would be useless.

When the offer on the La Quinta house was accepted, Harvey made a deposit, which was immediately put into an account by an escrow office that the Haggarts had suggested and Harvey had checked out.

A home inspection two days later, paid for by Harvey, revealed the house was in excellent condition save for a needed repair on a patio post bracket, which the Haggarts paid for.

Before the 30-day escrow was complete, the escrow on Harvey’s Escondido house closed, and she asked the Haggarts if she could move into the house early and pay prorated rent.

“Everyone told us not to do it,” Haggart said, recalling horror stories he heard from friends. But he and his wife had faith in Harvey (they jokingly suggested she move in with them until escrow closed) and confidence in the paper she signed saying she would move out if the deal fell through.

The escrow closed without a hitch. “I think we were very, very fortunate to meet each other,” Haggart said.

“We maintained close, clear communication,” Harvey said, “and bent over backward, on both sides, to be reassuring that the transaction was in both our benefits.”

At a Glance

Home bought: French country tract house

Size: 3-bedroom, 2-bath in 1,700 square feet

City: La Quinta

County: Riverside

Sales method: For sale by owner

Asking price: $137,000

Sales price: $133,500

Monthly mortgage payment: $1,000

Home search duration: 4 months

Escrow: 30 days

Mortgage broker: Eli Lopez, Sea Breeze Mortgage, Rancho Cucamonga, (760) 250-8998, e-mail: gotdocs@aol.com