A No-Brainer

By the way, I totally understand Ari's frustration. He is thisclose to owning his house. Why not just use the vacant garage to put his things in? What could possibly go wrong with storing a few personal items in a home one doesn't own?

Well, because you are just dying to know:

1. The very first listing I ever had, the garage caught fire three days before close of escrow.

2. I once listed a vacant home and two days before close of escrow the buyer's agent called me, absolutely furious. There was a problem and what was my seller going to do about it? You see, the buyers bought new appliances and the buyer's agent let them into my client's home to install said appliances. No permission was granted on the selling side. In fact, nobody bothered to tell me or my client this was happening at all--including the thug who broke in and stole the brand new appliances shortly after the buyer left. The buyer's agent was demanding my client reimburse his client for the appliances and fix the broken window and door.

3. Once, very early in my real estate career, my client had permission from the seller to go in and "fix a few up things" in what was going to be his new rental home. This was supposed to be just a few days before we were closing and there was paperwork drawn up to allow my client in the home. It turns out, my client moved his tenants in instead. Because of loan issues, the sale was delayed and the old owners ended up being landlords for a few weeks. They weren't happy. Neither was my client when he had to pay the old owner the rent from his tenants.

4. This one didn't happen to me! A colleague of mine got permission from the seller to allow the buyer to move the buyer's furniture and worldly into the garage a week before the buyers were closing. The pipe going to the hot water heater (located in the garage) burst. There were a lot of ruined items in that garage.

5. I have walked in on more than one "vacant" home to find squatters. So imagine if squatters had the means to someone else's personal documents, prized heirlooms or other pawnable items of value? Plus, with Ari still in the justice court system, he doesn't need police officers called to his soon-to-be home for something he is involved in, no matter if he is the victim or not.

There are more stories like this. I am not sorry I told Ari no. It is for his own good, whether he likes it or not.