In January of 2021 we listed our home and property in the Fredericksburg area with Nixon Real Estate. We hired a realtor for the obvious listing reasons but more importantly, because we are not in the real estate business and wanted a professional to help guide us through a complicated legal transaction and the associated real estate contracts.
During the course of the listing, we had multiple conversations with our realtor Ed Wagner of Nixon Real Estate. Mr. Wagner was told REPEATEDLY that "the only thing being sold was the home and land and that contents were not included. He was instructed that we were facing an urgent medical situation in the family and that if a buyer wanted any of the contents of the property, we wanted those items addressed on a non-real-estate items addendum to the contract."
In mid-March a buyer submitted a contract to buy the property. The contract was sent to us via email and included the following statement form Ed. "Please have your parents initial at bottom of each page.P.7 fill out the info as to where you want the title company to send the information as time progresses. Have them sign on P. 8 & 9."
Under section 11 of this contract under Special Provisions, in small type, the buyer added the following language "Seller to convey all furniture, appliances, equipment, including tractors, etc." Unfortunately, due to its similarity to the font size and style of the original document, we did not notice this, and we signed the contract in compliance with Mr. Wagner's instructions. Since we had previously informed Mr. Wagner that we would not include any contents or implements in the sale of this home and property, and since he technically worked for us, the sellers, we believe that our realtor, Ed Wagner, should have specifically alerted us to this provision of the contract. He was duly aware that we would not sign a contract that required us to relinquish the entire contents and implements of our home and outbuildings. Because the contents included priceless family heirlooms, antiques and works of art, they would never have been open to negotiation in the sale of our property. Because of Mr. Wagner's failure to perform his professional duty by alerting us to a contract provision that he knew we would oppose, a legal skirmish resulted which cost us a significant amount of money in legal fees, and we were ultimately required to buy back the personal items from the contracted buyer for $70,000.00.
We placed our faith and trust in our realtor, Mr. Ed Wagner, and he failed us, resulting in a significant financial loss. We feel that our realtor, Ed Wagner of Nixon Real Estate, was woefully negligent by failing to highlight the provision of the contract that required us to convey all contents and implements of our property when he was adequately informed that such a provision would be unacceptable to us, and when he knew that we were in the midst of a serious medical situation. read more
