Prospective Homebuyers Beware of 2144 4th St, Trenton and Gregory White
A close friend of mine has been working with a realtor for almost a year now to hopefully buy his first ever home and after two failed closing dates, nearly ended up with all his belongings potentially soaked in sewage and fighting in court if he’d moved forward with the sale.
This is a lengthy saga that’s hard to summarize as every detail adds up to understanding the craziness my friend has dealt with basically all summer now, but pretty much everything I mention can be supported by my friend and his realtor along with texts, emails, inspection and plumbing documents, etc. I’m going to refer to my friend as Chris for privacy but please bear with me if you find yourself interested in the house.
On June 11th, Chris had a showing scheduled at 2144 4th St in Trenton and told me his first thought walking inside was “idk how I can afford this.” The home was in a better neighborhood than he expected to live in and had almost everything he was looking for (not to mention the home has been completely flipped, so there’s very little work to be done for a first home), so he was thrilled along with his entire family at the thought of this being the one. It had also been on the market for over a month and the price had already been lowered, so he put in an offer on June 12th only to wait FIVE days to hear a decision (this is already frustrating and had his realtor ready to back out then and there).
June 17th after Chris’s realtor and mortgage broker called the seller to I assume discuss the terms of the offer and by the end of it there was a signed agreement finally and of course it was very exciting.
They moved forward with an appraisal which came in at the exact offer amount, then an inspection where Chris paid extra to have the sewer scoped with a camera. His inspector found a wet wipes blockage in the pipe out back, which nobody thought was a huge deal. Chris’s realtor simply asked the seller to remove the blockage and then have the rest of that line scoped so his inspector could then see the condition of pipe past that blockage.
Gregory agreed to clear the blockage and after about a week emailed Chris’s realtor saying his plumbers found a connection issue with the main line out back. In the same email, he said he discovered one of his employees was the stepmother of Chris’s half-siblings. Chris had no idea his siblings stepmom worked for Gregory the last 15 years, but Gregory claimed that since he was “essentially family,” he would spend the $5,000 needed to fix this connection issue for him after closing. He also insisted that Chris could still move in right away and use the water as usual until the sewer repairs were done. Weary to take the sellers word for this, Chris and his realtor still wrote up a contract that said Gregory White would repair the sewer issues within 30 days of closing. So Greg agrees to sign this and everyone tries to close on July 20th. After sitting down at the title company (it’s a virtual signing so nobody has ever met Gregory in person) and signing 90% of the closing documents, they discover Gregory never had the city inspection done, and therefore never submitted the certificate of occupancy document required of him at closing. Chris told me nobody there had ever seen someone sign basically all the papers only to leave the building without any keys.
To try to close that day still, my friends realtor reached out to the city of Trenton to see if it was possible to move forward without the C of O. It wasn’t possible, but come to find out Gregory never transferred the title of the house to his name. He never owned the house on paper to sell it in the first place. The city also needed about two weeks to do the inspection once Gregory finally put the house in his name (which he did), but my friend then returned his down payment to the bank and rescheduled another closing date for August 6th once he’d have a C of O. Note that a few days before the 20th, Chris randomly realized he had no idea what the city repairs might be and asked his realtor if he had access to the C of O. His realtor told him that Gregory assured him he brought the house up to code and would simply provide the C of O at closing..
To make matters even worse somehow, later that evening of the same original closing date, July 20th, Gregory tried to convince Chris and his realtor to close at Gregory’s preferred title company, where Greg said they could close despite the lack of C of O and could move in right away that night. My friend’s realtor stated that this could result in his buyer Chris and possibly Greg being sued by the city of Trenton, and Greg still insisted on pushing the deal through!!! Thankfully Chris wasn’t feeling like risking a lawsuit so he waited for the city inspection.
After waiting over a week later Chris goes to city hall right before closing to get the C of O and assume the city repairs himself (which was never even a part of the deal, but he was willing to do so to close sooner after everything) only to find out now that Gregory didn’t complete the furnace heat exchange test portion of the inspection that was his responsibility again in order to close. So he canceled his closing AGAIN thinking maybe this could be worked out within the day or the next. Eventually that day (literally hours later) his realtor got ahold of Gregory only to find out he DID complete this portion of the inspection, but simply forgot to turn in the paperwork to the city. THEN upon this document being turned in and Chris finally having the C of O, he discovered that not only did the home have nearly two pages of city repairs, but also that zero permits were pulled while Gregory was renovating the house according to the city. So Chris would now also be responsible for pulling the permits then inspecting and potentially replacing all electrical and other unpermitted work that was done along with the list of city repairs that don’t even require permits.
At this point Chris got ahold of his family member that worked for Greg to ask if the sewer work was at least scheduled since it’d been weeks and found out he hired two separate plumbers; one who suggested sleeving the sewer for $5,000 and another who told him he must replace the whole sewer for $15,000 because it’s COMPLETELY COLLAPSED at 28ft out. We ONLY know this because of his family member.
Gregory told Chris’s realtor there was a “connection issue” and boasted about generously repairing it himself for $5,000. He was going to put in a sleeve and have Chris purchase the home. They were also told sleeving a collapsed pipe is not permitted in the city of Trenton, not that we expect permits would have been pulled anyway.
Funnily enough, the sewer was never vented properly and led to an exposed and uncapped pipe sticking up in the laundry room in the back of the house which I believe sewage could enter the house through if god forbid anyone was using the plumbing long enough. There was also always apprehension from Chris over the fact that his contract holding Greg to fix sewer work that was never defined would be difficult to hold him to in the future. My friend of course backed out at this point as he only felt stress and uncertainty around the sale and most first-time home buyers would rather not end up in court over sewer damages. But this has been an incredibly stressful and defeating two months of dealing with this guy only to end up back looking on the market and have missed plenty of opportunities to check out other homes. I think he probably dodged a bullet by not closing both times he was supposed to but this is an insane level of easily avoidable headaches that NOBODY should ever have to deal with especially the first time someone ever has an offer accepted on a home in their lives /:
‼️‼️As of today August 10th, 2144 4th st is back on the market with no mention of sewer issues and the price has not been lowered to reflect the approximately $15,000 plumbing repair estimate Chris was given.‼️‼️
I’d hate to think someone else who might not even care to get a sewer inspection in the first place may end up dealing with similar headaches as my friend & actually go through with buying the house with no knowledge of the collapse. Additionally, the sewer problems have been discussed directly between Chris and the plumber who Gregory hired so I can put you in contact with the plumber if you feel like taking on the repairs yourself.