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sight unseen. While this can be a risky step for homebuyers, the combination of COVID-19 restrictions and the frenzied 2021 real estate market led to more and more people relying on virtual tours and assurances from real estate agents and developers.
But sometimes, the pictures and videos don’t tell the whole story. As one local real estate expert noted, “There are no smells in a virtual tour.”
Immediately after taking possession of their homes, the owners became aware of the problems coming from the sewage treatment plant, whose location, they say, was never disclosed to them. Photos and videos taken during construction showed vegetation in the backyard, which blocked the view of the plant. The developer has subsequently removed virtually all of the greenery and replaced it with a fence.
Faced with almost unlivable conditions, several of the owners have sought relief from the developer, the Marion County commission, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and local real estate lawyers. Each entreaty has met a dead end.
Sight unseen equals site unsmelled
Carol and William Lovas initially had a contract to buy a house in On Top of the World, but that deal fell through. They were in a time crunch because their home in Ohio had already sold, and they were relieved to find new homes were being built at JB Ranch within their time frame. The houses on SW 88th Loop would be ready for their move.
The couple was tied up with their move out of Ohio and were unable to travel to Ocala to keep an eye on construction. They did not see the lot or view it online. Instead, they worked with a Horton salesperson who sent them pictures of the construction process, which included images of greenery blocking the view of the sewage plant.
Horton, Lovas said, kept pushing back the closing date. Finally, in August 2021, they moved into JB Ranch.
On the day they arrived, Carol Lovas said, cleaners, painters and flooring teams were still working on the house. “With all that going on, no one was paying attention to the backyard,” she said.
Suzy and Roger Stam concede that buying a house without looking at the area online was a bad idea. Previously, the couple had a very positive experience in buying a new house in Washington State, and they felt good about this deal.
“We didn’t really investigate. We were a little naïve to think that it all would be perfect, but it turns out we were deceived on many levels,” Suzy Stam said. “We knew we were taking a little bit of a risk by not actually seeing the finished product. We felt the setting was beautiful and the lot initially had a lot of vegetation in back.”
The Stams had issues with interior aspects of their home as well as questions about the treatment plant. On the day of closing, Suzy Stam said, Dawn Hartman, the manager at the D.R. Horton sales office, refused to do a walk-through with them or answer any questions. Feeling boxed in, with a moving truck on the way and no other place to live, they continued with the closing.
They noticed the noise and odor issues during their first night in the house.
“The smell wasn’t as bad, but the noise was all through the night,’’ she said. The sewage treatment plant machinery goes off and on irregularly, 24 hours a day.
They were so upset about the plant and their later treatment by Horton staffers that they listed their house for sale in October 2021, before they had even totally unpacked. At the time, the house hadn’t been completely painted inside. Though there were a few showings, no offers came and they took it off the market in January 2022.
The couple chose to move to Ocala specifically because Suzy has health concerns and wants to be close to medical specialists in the area. Suzy Stam said she is especially worried for herself and her other neighbors with medical issues because, she said, neither Marion Landing nor the FDEP will tell them what chemicals are being used to treat the wastewater.
Blurring the lines
So far, representatives from D.R. Horton, a nationwide company that bills itself as “America’s Builder,” have declined numerous requests for comment from the Gazette.
Records show that the majority of the homeowners impacted by the water treatment plant got their mortgages through DHI Mortgage Co., which is a subsidiary of D.R. Horton. The mortgage company touts itself as a “one-stop solution’’ for buyers and emphasizes that the lenders are “in regular touch’’ with the builder, D.R. Horton.
This relationship takes on greater significance because the mortgage lender chooses the appraiser who assesses the value of the property before the mortgage loan is issued. The intent of the bank ordering an appraisal is to seek a neutral opinion on a property’s value to insure that it satisfactorily secures the mortgage they are issuing. The neutrality of that opinion could be eroded when the lender and seller are part of the same company, and the appraiser hopes to receive more work from the company.
When conducting an appraisal, the appraiser will consider the home’s location, which is critical in valuing a home. They will assess the home’s proximity to desirable schools, a low crime rate, and the home’s proximity to a hospital, fire station, and police station. They will also assess other factors that impact the property value, including environmental.
Karen Humphrey, Carol Lovas and Susan Stam, left to right, talk about their frustrations with the Marion Landing wastewater treatment plant that is located directly behind the backyards of their brand new retirement homes in JB Ranch on Southwest 88th Loop in Ocala on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.
Homeowner’s backyard with sewage plant behind the fence. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.
No smells in a virtual tour
The due diligence period in Florida can vary from contract to contract, but the standard time period is usually 10 to 15 days. This allows time for the buyer to conduct inspections, do further research and generally find out what they want to explore about a neighborhood.
Florida law for seller disclosures is based on the assumption that sellers know best of any “material facts” and defects about the property, and specifically those not readily visible—called latent defects—such as termite damage, plumbing in concrete slabs, basements that flood and the like. Disclosures rarely have to encompass the area outside the property lines with the exception of known environmental hazards such as coastal erosion.
The original case law was a result of Johnson v. Davis, 480 So.2d 625 (Fla. 1985). It stated that, with some exceptions, “a home seller must disclose any facts or conditions about the property that have a substantial impact on its value or desirability and that others cannot easily see for themselves.”
Virginia Wright, president of the Ocala Marion County Board of Realtors, is seeing this type of problem more often these days. It’s more common now for the entire real estate transaction— showings, inspection reports, closings—to take place longdistance with a buyer never setting foot on a property until after closing.
“We’re getting into this now with more and more buyers from out of state, using virtual tours and virtual showings,’’ she said. “We know as a Realtor® that they’re not coming down to see this property until the day they close.”
Ideally, she said, a virtual tour should include the entire community and a drive-by of the lot, showing what is there.
“It’s a challenge with virtual tours and virtual inspections,” she said. “As a Realtor®, I feel you have an obligation to that buyer to complete that due diligence. But that’s not a legal requirement or standard.”
She said she would like to see the law changed to better protect buyers and hopes for disclosure statutes to reflect virtual tours in the future.
So-called “non-latent” defects, which are readily and easily seen by the buyer, do not have to be legally disclosed. A home’s proximity to an asset or defect—a major highway, a golf course, a cattle farm or a horse farm— or the like is presumed to be obvious, per the law.
“The seller does not have to legally disclose a sewage plant is near because you can see it when you drive through a neighborhood,’’ Wright said. “Federal housing laws restrict what can be said [about a property or neighborhood.] There are no smells in virtual tour.”
Carla Lord, a real estate broker and owner of Ocala Homes & Farms Realty, said the adage of “location, location, location” is still true, and a lot’s location has clear impact on its ultimate value.
“Typically, homes close or nearby to heavy traffic and highway noise have a much longer time on the market,” she said. “The same can be said for homes or properties located near industrial or commercial areas. These are the least desirable area for potential buyers.”
The Lovases assumed that all the D.R. Horton staffers were real estate agents; in fact, none of them were, nor are they required to be in the state of Florida when selling home and land packages.
Karen Humphrey said that before she and her fiancé, Hunter Matassa, bought a home and land package from Horton in 2021, she did look at online aerial images of the site and saw the water of the Marion Landing plant. Thinking they were ponds,
Karen Humphrey
