Econohomes Taken to the cleaners, Internet

I PURCHASED A PROPERTY IN PA  FROM ECONOHOMES IN MAY OF 2013. I DID SO UNDER THE ADVISEMENT OF A LOCAL REALTOR AND ATTORNEY WHO ALSO PERFORMED A TITLE SEARCH THAT CAME UP WITH LIENS ON THE PROPERTY THAT AMOUNTED TO $14,000. WE USED THAT NUMBER TO NEGOTIATE OUR FINAL OFFER PRICE THAT ECONOHOMES ACCEPTED.I NEVER FELT LIKE THEY WERE PRESSURING ME TO PURCHASE THIS PROPERTY, NOR THAT THEY WERE TRYING TO MISLEAD ME. I DO THINK THAT WE UNCOVERED INFO ABOUT THE PROPERTY THAT ECONOHOMES MAY HAVE BEEN UNAWARE OF. I HAVE DOCUMENTATION THAT PROVES THAT ECONOHOMES MADE ABOUT $3000 ON A TRANSACTION THAT COST ME $35000 TOTAL. IN THE END I DON'T THINK THEY'RE BEING GREEDY AND THEY ACTUALLY TOOK TITLE OF THE PLACE FROM THE BANK A FEW DAYS BEFORE MY DEAL FINALIZED--AND MAYBE THAT'S THEIR NICHE. A MIDDLE MAN FOR THE BANK(S).I DON'T KNOW, BUT TO THEIR CREDIT MY REALTOR AND ATTORNEY BOTH COMMENTED ON THE PROFESSIONAL MANNER WITH WHICH THE ENTIRE TRANSACTION PROGRESSED.ECONOHOMES NEVER BALKED AT DEALING WITH EITHER OF THESE REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS THAT ACTED ON MY BEHALF, AND IF THEY WOULD HAVE PERHAPS THEN A "RED FLAG" WOULD HAVE BE RAISED.THERE WAS NEVER A CONCERN. THE BUYER NEEDS TO COVER THEIR BASES AND DO YOUR OWN DUE DILIGENCE. I WOULD ALSO DEAL WITH THEM AGAIN. RK

I have a real life experience with Econohomes, as you can tell by what I say in this review is not so flattering but is my honest review.  I feel they are the type of company that this country needs right now.  Our country has all these vacant properties sitting idle that banks cant get rid of easily.  So the banks group these houses together into lots and sell in bulk to organizations such as econohomes at a bottom dollar bulk rate value like Sams Club.  Econohomes is simply the middle man to getting these properties back into the community and their business plan is to flip the house without getting in the middle of the problems with the houses, liens, repairs or otherwise and for their effort they make a modest and reasonable profit.  Ive also seen emails from them where Econohomes appeared to be stuck doing rehab projects so they do have continengecy plans if they cant easily flip.  In the event they cant make a quick flip they do offer a rather expensive finance option because they arent there to finance homes but flip them, if they bother financing them they want to make it worth their while, cant blame them there.  I can see where financing too many of their properties drags them down and makes them not have money available to continue to flip which is their primary goal.  As a wholesaler of homes they place the complete burden of any and all problems with the home on the new buyer.
 
In my dealings with their agent named Scott he made it very clear I need to do my own due diligence because once I close, its all my responsibility, the house comes with the good and the bad.  I can appreciate their desire to stay as neutral as possible, it makes good business sense.  In the end, you get a much better price than if you went through a realtor, just hopefully you dont run into more problems fixing up the house than you anticipated and end up money ahead.  Now the home I viewed and placed an offer on appeared staged to some extent, scented candles covering up odors, carpet poorly installed loosely with no padding or furring strips, I recommend you beware of any recent remodeling as it could be the last owner that had lost it to foreclosure or I guess it could be econohomes covering up a problem, its hard to say.
 
I used their 7 day buy it or leave it option to walk away from one of their homes here in Iowa without any problem, in the end after doing my due diligence and doing all the lien and title work I discovered the costs and work needed to the property outweighed the benefits of owning it.  I highly recommend going through your own attorney, using theirs is an obvious conflict of interest.  After going through my own lawyer I personally believe after my experience if I get a warranty deed and the cheaper lien search vs abstract option, then I would be ok.  However, I chose the complete Abstract, Title Opinion option at which expense I suffered whether I kept on with the deal or not.  My lawyer told me that problem free foreclosures VS problem foreclosures are about 50/50, and only rarely are the problems significant, being more than a few loose ends, I figured in the future, any major problems would appear on the lien search and those other loose ends only found in the abstract could be tied up later like when I go to sell the property years down the road. 
 
I personally approve of the econohomes model and hope I can complete a transaction with them in the future.

Econohomes has reviewed the details of this complaint. We keep detailed records of all sales transactions and have no record of a sale from this time period with these issues or concerns. If you are viewing this page and have questions about our process, please call us directly at 1-800-779-7150, or visit our website at www.econohomes.com. You can also find answers to questions about our buying process on our How to Buy page, or find answers to commonly asked questions on our FAQ page.

We encourage the customer who posted this response to reach out to us directly, or share specific details such as the address or location so we can better assist you.