As a retired Air Force OSI Agent (Office of Special Investigations), my husband continued to work in a civilian capacity in the same job. While on active duty Air Force and stationed in Naples, Italy, he was reassigned to Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, OH in 1987. He retired from active duty at WPAFB in 1988 and after working in a related career as a civilian for a couple of years, he obtained a civil service position returning to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations once again in a civilian capacity.
We purchased a home in Dayton in 1991. A large 2-1/2 story frame home built in 1914 with 4-5 bedrooms and a full basement. It was a beautiful older home, built in 1914 with craftmanship not often found in today's modern structures. Throughout the home, was beautiful dark woodwork around the doorways, a spacious living room with double mantel fireplace and the pre-existing wiring, plumbing and heating system had all been updated to meet modern day codes and demands.
We loved this home. We had hosted many family gatherings such as holiday events, family visits, not to mention we watched our children leave home from this house as they grew up, they introduced their prospective spouses to us in that house, and eventually grandchildren began making their entrance which made that home feel so much more a part of us. Many, many wonderful memories were made in that home.
We never thought we would leave that home to move anywhere else, but it happened. Please read next blog for more information.
We purchased a home in Dayton in 1991. A large 2-1/2 story frame home built in 1914 with 4-5 bedrooms and a full basement. It was a beautiful older home, built in 1914 with craftmanship not often found in today's modern structures. Throughout the home, was beautiful dark woodwork around the doorways, a spacious living room with double mantel fireplace and the pre-existing wiring, plumbing and heating system had all been updated to meet modern day codes and demands.
We loved this home. We had hosted many family gatherings such as holiday events, family visits, not to mention we watched our children leave home from this house as they grew up, they introduced their prospective spouses to us in that house, and eventually grandchildren began making their entrance which made that home feel so much more a part of us. Many, many wonderful memories were made in that home.
We never thought we would leave that home to move anywhere else, but it happened. Please read next blog for more information.
13 comments:
Dear blog site owner.
I am the Web Marketing Manager at SIRVA, inc. and would kindly ask that you allow me to take over sirva.blogspot.com.
Although I do notice that the title of the blog seems to imply you have had a bad experience with Sirva, which is unfortuneate, the name SIRVA is a trademark, our company name, and obviously important to us.
If there is anything I can do to assist regarding the bad experience I believe you had, please let me know.
Again, this is not a threat, I am "asking" if you would turn the blog over to me.
Thank you,
Jeffrey Williams
Web Marketing Manager
SIRVA, inc
260.341.5960 c
jeffrey.williams@sirva.com
The rest of my blogs have been removed, but to make a long story short, SIRVA relocation was the worst thing we have ever done. What started out to be a beneficial program turned out to be a nightmare for us.
We were relocating from Dayton, OH to St. Louis, MO. Long story short, SIRVA dumped us out of the program stating that we took too long to get repairs, etc. completed, when in fact, it was SIRVA who seemed to drag their feet and kept coming up with more things they wanted repaired or updated. Our home was built in 1914, a 2-1/2 story beautiful older home that has been well-maintained. We purchased it in 1991. SIRVA sent an inspector in who literally "nit-picked" the house apart and sent us a list of things that needed to be updated as well as the cost to do all of it. The prices were outrageous!! There were a couple outlet covers in the basement that needed to be replaced...they wanted $50.00 each to replace them....they can be bought at Walmart for less than a dollar each!! They found many things and we complied with ALL of them, however we were at the mercy of contractors that we had to line up long-distance, (as we were already in St. Louis and the house was in Dayton, OH). It took time to find contractors and work on their time frames to get all repairs done. Then after all repairs were completed, they sent in another inspector who said they found mold in one corner of the basement and demanded a complete mold remediation. We contracted a company at the cost of $8,000.00 to do a remediation for the mold. Shortly after this, the house was broken into and all the copper pipes were torn out of the basement (this is when copper was at a premium and many vacant homes were victim to this stolen pipes.)
This took extra time to work with our insurance company and more contractors to get this repaired. Meanwhile SIRVA was breathing down our necks saying that we were running out of time...what could we do??? We were at the mercy of the contractors!!
We asked SIRVA for an extension of time, but they declined it and removed us from the relocation program.
Are we angry with SIRVA?? You bet!! They seemed determined to make things difficult for us. We put a lot of money out of pocket into fixing EVERYTHING they asked us to...and then because things were taking too long, they removed us from the program.
I would never recommend SIRVA to anyone. Even the realtor we originally had, refused to continue listing the house once he realized SIRVA was involved. He had bad experiences with SIRVA in the past and would not enter into another listing agreement where SIRVA was involved. Therefore, we had to hire a new realtor as well.
Laura.
Again, since the obvious point of this blog is to speak negatively of SIRVA I ask that you just simply shut it off.
Of course I do not know the specific circumstances of your experience, I only know what you have detailed.
However, SIRVA is known for buying houses based on a guarantee. This is very popular with their corporate clients.
SIRVA does not mandate what needs repaired, an inspector does. Inspectors mandate these things based on local code and other things. All properties go through this process. If your home was built in 1914 it would have probably needed a lot of updating, again this is mandated by local code not SIRVA. SIRVA is at much at the mercy of the inspector as you are. My wife is a realtor and I see her deal with this on homes she sells and homes she buys.
As for replacing outlet covers, again you seem to mix up SIRVA and Contractors. SIRVA is not located in Dayton, Ohio and it was not THEIR pricing for replacing the covers. The cost of a 1 dollar switch plate cover is not one dollar when someone else has to buy it, go to the home, replace it, invoice for it, etc. This is standard overhead and I would not be surprised to find that it actually involved the outlets themselves and not just the covers.
As the homeowner you could have replaced them yourself, had a friend do it, or done it before you left. As the homeowner you could have had an inspection before you left and deal with these things directly.
Your circumstances do seem to have been unfortunate but I hardly see how it was SIRVA's fault. Did SIRVA steal your copper? Did SIRVA find the mold? Did SIRVA charge you 8k to fix the mold? The fact is that in the U.S. a contract is a contract and a time frame is a time frame. Contracts are put in writing and everyone has a copy and knows the agreement. Consumers consistently hold corporations responsible for the corporations side of the contract but rarely hold themselves to the same level of responsibility.
SIRVA agrees to BUY a house at the end of the contract, this is a BIG PROMISE and one can hardly hold them at fault for requiring a homeowner to do their part.
In this regard you need to look at SIRVA as you would ANY HOME BUYER. There is not a home buyer out there who would buy a house that cannot pass inspection within the time frame of the purchase agreement, that is just fact. Not only is it fact but it would be illegal to purchase a home (as SIRVA would have) if it cannot pass inspection. No bank would approve the purchase, and again this is NOT within SIRVA's control.
Additionally, Inspectors are suppose to "nit pick" a home. Often inspector's miss things and the purchaser is upset because they did not "nit pick" enough. That is their obligation and duty and they are a third party specifically trained and educated in national and local laws and codes. Again, none of that is SIRVA's fault.
It seems the only thing, based on your depiction of the events, that SIRVA can be held responsible for not extending the offer.
Perhaps your blog should not be critizing SIRVA, from my perspective the blame lies elsewhere.
Laura.
Again, since the obvious point of this blog is to speak negatively of SIRVA I ask that you just simply shut it off.
Of course I do not know the specific circumstances of your experience, I only know what you have detailed.
However, SIRVA is known for buying houses based on a guarantee. This is very popular with their corporate clients.
SIRVA does not mandate what needs repaired, an inspector does. Inspectors mandate these things based on local code and other things. All properties go through this process. If your home was built in 1914 it would have probably needed a lot of updating, again this is mandated by local code not SIRVA. SIRVA is at much at the mercy of the inspector as you are. My wife is a realtor and I see her deal with this on homes she sells and homes she buys.
As for replacing outlet covers, again you seem to mix up SIRVA and Contractors. SIRVA is not located in Dayton, Ohio and it was not THEIR pricing for replacing the covers. The cost of a 1 dollar switch plate cover is not one dollar when someone else has to buy it, go to the home, replace it, invoice for it, etc. This is standard overhead and I would not be surprised to find that it actually involved the outlets themselves and not just the covers.
As the homeowner you could have replaced them yourself, had a friend do it, or done it before you left. As the homeowner you could have had an inspection before you left and deal with these things directly.
Your circumstances do seem to have been unfortunate but I hardly see how it was SIRVA's fault. Did SIRVA steal your copper? Did SIRVA find the mold? Did SIRVA charge you 8k to fix the mold? The fact is that in the U.S. a contract is a contract and a time frame is a time frame. Contracts are put in writing and everyone has a copy and knows the agreement. Consumers consistently hold corporations responsible for the corporations side of the contract but rarely hold themselves to the same level of responsibility.
SIRVA agrees to BUY a house at the end of the contract, this is a BIG PROMISE and one can hardly hold them at fault for requiring a homeowner to do their part.
In this regard you need to look at SIRVA as you would ANY HOME BUYER. There is not a home buyer out there who would buy a house that cannot pass inspection within the time frame of the purchase agreement, that is just fact. Not only is it fact but it would be illegal to purchase a home (as SIRVA would have) if it cannot pass inspection. No bank would approve the purchase, and again this is NOT within SIRVA's control.
Additionally, Inspectors are suppose to "nit pick" a home. Often inspector's miss things and the purchaser is upset because they did not "nit pick" enough. That is their obligation and duty and they are a third party specifically trained and educated in national and local laws and codes. Again, none of that is SIRVA's fault.
It seems the only thing, based on your depiction of the events, that SIRVA can be held responsible for not extending the offer.
Perhaps your blog should not be critizing SIRVA, from my perspective the blame lies elsewhere.
I will not shut this blog off because it is an experience that both my husband and myself went through. I resent that you even suggest that...you don't want the negativism associated with SIRVA obviously, however I have done a lot of research and found that I am not alone in my assessment of SIRVA. I am sure there are others who have had positive experiences, however this is not the case with our experience.
I used switchplate covers as an example to make a point...and YES, the cost to us was solely for switchplate covers...I resent that you suggest that possibly the outlets were faulty as well.
You are suggesting that because my home was built in 1914, that it would be normal for many updates to be needed...that also was not the case....the inspectors nit-picked. And no, SIRVA did not do the inspection, however inspectors that worked for SIRVA did...and SIRVA would not move forward based on the inspectors reports.
You stated you did not know our situation...I suggest that possibly you check it out further...you are making it sound like our home was in bad state of disrepair. That is not the case. Dayton has many beautiful older homes, many older than ours, that are nicer and will be standing longer than many of the new construction of today. Our home is one of them.
I will not argue this point with you any further...it is my right to state my opinion in a blog or otherwise and I have chosen to alert others to the problems we had with SIRVA. I will stand on that.
Well, it is your choice. However the things you outlined were not in the control of SIRVA.
Sirva is NOT an inspector and inspector's are governed by federal, state, and local codes and laws. Contractor prices are not governed by SIRVA, they are actually controlled by you as the selling homeowner. SIRVA is the buyer if no one else buys your home and obviously the buyer is entitled to a home that can pass a local inspection and clearly your home could not and did not within the agreed upon purchase time frame.
How can you say the things outlined were NOT in the control of SIRVA when SIRVA selected the inspectors...no SIRVA did not physically inspect the home, but inspectors contracted by SIRVA did! My complaint was that when our copper pipes were stolen and we needed time to deal with our insurance company and line up someone to replace all the plumbing in the basement, SIRVA did not present our case to the Corps of Engineers in that light...that we were physically living in St. Louis and trying to get contractors lined up via phone and internet and that more time was needed...Extensions CAN be granted, but it was not done for us and our circumstances were beyond our control with the plumbing.
One more point I wish to emphasize since you insist on putting the blame on our home needing repairs....everything...EVERYTHING that the inspectors outlined in their reports to SIRVA that needed to be done, was completed by us WITHIN the time frame of our contract...Doing those repairs was NOT the issue....the issue was that when the home was burglarized and the copper plumbing stolen, (Which by the way, was that OUR fault??? No !), we needed an extension of time as we were up against the contract deadline. The things that SIRVA's inspectors wanted completed were done in a timely fashion...so please let go of that...!!! It was that we lost out on SIRVA buying our home back due to not being granted a time extension to replace plumbing that was STOLEN from our house....that was out of our control !!
I hope you will now drop the notion that we did not complete the repairs within the contract time frame.
You also stated that the inspectors base their pricing on local codes and contractors in our area. Why was it then that when all was said and done and we hired local contractors to do the repairs, that the cost was no where near the cost it would have been had we used the contractors recommended by SIRVA? Those are the things, (such as the switchplate covers), that have turned us against SIRVA as it APPEARS that we would have been way overcharged had we used the recommended contractors.
One more thing...I've worked in real estate myself for several years so I know how things work when it comes to inspections and buying and selling real estate. Just for the record.
If you are interested in seeing copies of our inspection reports and all email and written correspondence from SIRVA during that time, we will be more than happy to provide them to you. You may change your opinion after seeing them.
Laura,
I am not doubting you, I am merely saying that none of this is SIRVA's fault.
Did SIRVA break the contract?
Sirva did "hire" the inspector, any buyer hires the inspector but they do not CONTROL the inspector. Inspectors are seperate companies and are governed by law.
I never implied or said that inspectors control pricing, of course they do not. Inspectors are educated about laws and code regarding what must be done before a sale can be made. Again, not in SIRVA's control.
You are the one that said the work was not done before the agreement ended.
I understand your point about the timing and the stolen copper. No it was not your fault. But was it SIRVA's??? Of course it wasn't.
I hope you can understand that SIRVA followed the contract, but you are upset because they did. The contract gave you the seller a certain amount of time to have the home ready for sale and to pass inspection. Whatever the circumstances, that did NOT happen obviously. That was not SIRVA's fault yet you fault them, that is where I am confused as to why you are attacking SIRVA on the Internet.
As to the contractors, recommended and otherwise. Contractors all have different pricing that is dependent on on many variables.
You cannot fault SIRVA for the price a contractor proposes, even if they recommend them.
My intent is not to attack you, but when I first came across this blog it was an obvious one sided attack against SIRVA that lacked details and specifics. Even in our "conversation" you fault them for many things that were not in their control. They do not control the level of "nit picking", as you call it, by an inspector. Anyone in real estate knows that, yet you have clearly faulted SIRVA for it.
The bank hires an appraiser and many people fault the bank when the appraisel is not to their satisfaction but it is never the bank's fault.
You have my email address and you can take this offline, remove all the comments and I shall look into it for you. Sincerely.
You are becoming quite annoying....let it rest.
You obviously either do not read what I post or do not understand it.
I repeat...ALL the work outlined by the inspectors was completed WITHIN the contract time frame.
The stolen pipes came right towards the end of the contract and we were not granted an extension to get the pipes replaced within the time frame...!!
THAT is the issue....so get off of the repairs...!! And please get off my blog site.
Laura.
That is not what you originally said.
I quote "it was SIRVA who seemed to drag their feet and kept coming up with more things they wanted repaired or updated".
This implies that SIRVA was out of line by requiring the house they were going to purchase be inspected and pass inspection.
When talking about the outlet covers you refer to "they" after talking about SIRVA implying SIRVA wanted 50.00 to replace them when in fact SIRVA was not directly involved in that.
You said "they took extra time to work with our insurance company and contractors to get this repaired" as if it is a bad thing. Any company would have had to work with them.
You give no info as to WHY they declined the extension.
You said "they found many things" when in fact it was the third party inspector who found many things. You fixed these things so they must have been considered valid by you, yet you still (even today) attribute this in a negative way towards SIRVA and it is not fair to do so.
The only thing you can potentially fault SIRVA for was not giving you an extension and they were certainly under no legal obligation to do so.
I agree it was a nightmare for you, but it was not SIRVA's fault.
You said "Are we angry with SIRVA?? You bet!! They seemed determined to make things difficult for us". How did SIRVA do this? Because they required an inspection that is required by law? Because your copper pipes were stolen and they had nothing to do with it? Because you had a mold problem in the basement they had nothing to do with?
Like you, SIRVA was also not in Dayton so this inspector and contractors are the only eyes and ears they have aside from your own.
I think you fault SIRVA for many things that was not SIRVA's fault.
I work for the company and I know how many homes we buy and we keep our word and we stand behind our contracts.
However in closing I will say that we, SIRVA, cannot buy homes that do not pass inspection. We cannot buy homes that lack copper pipes no matter whos fault it is. We cannot control inspectors and we cannot control contractors. On your blog is basically only your side of the story and even it seems to be very unfair with everything you fault SIRVA for.
I stand by EVERYTHING I wrote...Sirva was NOT the inspectors, however THEY CHOSE THE INSPECTORS and we had to go through SIRVA for reports from the inspections, therefore SIRVA was the party that we were working with and I hold them responsible.
You can google problems with SIRVA and find many, many unhappy people who have used SIRVA.
Again, you seem to choose not to understand what I am telling you. Yes, I did say that SIRVA seemed determined to find one thing after another...they did and I have the paperwork to show it...HOWEVER...now please understand what I am telling you.....ALL JOBS WERE COMPLETED WITHIN THE CONTRACT TIME FRAME.
I am not so ignorant not to understand that a house cannot be sold without plumbing in it, sir. That is why it was important to get the plumbing replaced as soon as possible, however it was US, not SIRVA (please go back and read my previous posts) that needed time to coordinate between our insurance company and contractors time frames to get workers lined up. Plus we were in St. Louis and NOT in Dayton, so we needed to arrange with someone locally in Dayton, to be present at the house when workers were to be there. It was not an easy thing to coordinate on a long-distance basis...that's why we feel SIRVA should have granted us the extension. They denied it because the contract had expired....not because the work was not completed. The copper pipes being stolen was NOT SIRVA's fault nor was it our fault...it was an unfortunate situation and because we were not given the extension, our house was not purchased through the buy-back program..... Had they given us the extension, the plumbing would have been replaced and everything would have been okay.
I am tired of you harping away and only hearing what you want to hear. You work for SIRVA...good for you! I'm glad I don't. We had a bad experience and anyone having bad experience with whatever company has a right to inform others. You were not involved in our situation, you don't know all of the facts and are making assumptions that you have no right to make.
I cannot help but wonder why you waited two years from the date of this blog to post a comment???? I just ran across it today. It's been over and done with for nearly four years now, so why now??? It seems that you've expended more energy today harassing me and that time may have been better spent doing something productive for SIRVA.
My blog will stand.
I find it interesting that for almost three years the original blog sat out there with absolutely no comments. That indicates no interest by anyone other than the blogger. Our experience stands as it was and nothing written here can change that. I had forgotten all about SIRVA and will forget about them again. Our position has been explained ad nauseum in the preceding posts. The blog will stay where it is, we won't take it down.
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