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haggardhouseelf -- you or your home inspector didn't see any of this -- if so you still bought the house?... Did you know all this and negotiate down off the price? I hope.
We recently experienced sellers who cut down two gorgeous Doug Fir trees "because they made the property seem too private". I'm not kidding. We were really upset. I asked the neighbor about it, and he was upset, too. They provided great shade and according to him they were not diseased or unhealthy. Oh - but they left the stumps!
They also put down tons of thick plastic sheeting over the yard "to control weeds" and then what did they do over the plastic sheeting? TONS of dirt. So as soon as we moved in weeds were sprouting up. Not only did we pull a ton of weeds - we pulled up all that plastic, too! It rains a lot where we live, and we were very worried about drainage with all that plastic.
Also, they installed several electrical outlets upside-down.
They installed a new sliding glass door - inside-out. I'm not sure how to explain it... but the sliding part of the door should be on the inside, but it is on the outside. ??
They also painted.... without cleaning cobwebs or cleaning the walls first. So as they painted, the cobwebs and dirt that was on the walls just got all mixed up with the paint and dried there... it's really awful.
And one last thing, we didn't notice until we moved in that the baseboards that are in every room of the house are not attached to the wall. No nails or glue or anything, they just come right off!! As we were moving in, we bumped one, and the whole thing (about 22 feet of baseboard) fell over. We realized then that none of the baseboards were installed correctly.
Hopefully you were compensated for all those things that happened after you bought that house!
Left a bunch of clothes in the hall closet. Something told me not to throw them out so I dump them in the garage. Sure enough a day to two later he just comes by asking for the clothes like I knew and agreed to store his stuff behand.
In another house the homeowner had spent a nice piece of change on window treaments throught the first floor. It didn't hit me until after 2 days after moving in that I realized he took the curtains and the holders from the family room. They were held up with medallions not rods. So he unscrewed the medallions and the pullback hooks, leaving a bunch of holes in the wall. The homeowner was there during the inspection and I told him how much I liked those treaments. Guess I should've kept my big yap shut!
Also, they installed several electrical outlets upside-down.
I believe the recommendation is install them "upside down", here is why:
That pointed out becsue many cords are designed for installing them "right side up" it seems it's more practical. Stress on the cords or cords not seated properly because the weight of the cord seems like it would be a bigger concern to me.
If you watch that TV show, Property Wars, where investors are bidding on foreclosures, you will see all kinds of things people do.
The bidders don't have access to the inside until after they pay and take possession of the home. On one show other night, the buyer lifted the toilet set to find the former owner had filled the toilet and all the drains with concrete. They had to dig up the entire drain system to the tune of $12,000. Property Wars TV Series (2012 - 2013) - ShareTV
My father-in-law is a retired Air Force officer, did 25 years between 1956 and 1981. He's been practically everywhere and told me a story about how when he was leaving France they were abandoning the base housing (which the US built). Because the French were being such bastards they did exactly that, filled all the drains with quick-setting concrete. They couldn't take the buildings with them but they were going to make sure it wasn't going to be easy or cheap for the French to be able to use them.
They couldn't take the buildings with them but they were going to make sure it wasn't going to be easy or cheap for the French to be able to use them.
My uncle was in the army at the same time and place. His unit pulled down building and he said there was a group behind him using dynamite to make sure the foundations were useless.
We haven't ever bought a foreclosure, short sale or HUD home, but one of the homes we bought to rent out had the laziest owners ever as far as painting went. They definitely didn't see the advertisements for the Blue Painters Tape. They didn't take down the curtains when they were painting above them, so the paint was on the top of the curtains, not drips, like they had painted the entire top of the curtains. They painted all the outlet covers instead of removing them, so the plugs were said color as well as were the light switch plates. Apparently, their washer and dryer were too big for the laundry room and stuck out too far, so they dug out the drywall behind them when they could have changed the doors around so that they didn't hit the framing of the closet. It could have been worse, but replacing all the plugs, all the plates, fixing the drywall and repainting every single room made me hate painting so much. I didn't love the curtain selections so that didn't make me so sad after all.
We haven't ever bought a foreclosure, short sale or HUD home, but one of the homes we bought to rent out had the laziest owners ever as far as painting went.
We had a house fire and had to rent a home for 6 months, only thing big enough was a McMansion and not really much bigger than the home were in. They were trying to sell it becsue apparently the husband had died and the woman couldn't afford it anymore but they were having trouble finding a buyer.
Granted the woman had a very short notice to get out of there because it was either get out in 6 days or lose the rental. What a mess though, writing on the walls, we had to clean carpets, the kitchen, there was still food in the refrigerator, clothes in the closets and a fully stocked liquor cabinet!... LOL We spent an hour going through the whole place with a video camera but there wasnt any hassle when we left. Took two days to clean it and we weren;t happy becsue we had out own issues to deal with.
I bought my home "as-is" from an elderly woman. It needed mostly cosmetic things addressed. But, I've spent a handsome sum in recent months on non-cosmetic things like new windows, new pool deck, and pool refinishing job.
We removed some horrendous wallpaper from practically every room in the house and did a complete interior repaint.
One thing we did find was a pentagram painted on the wall in the large bedroom on the other side of the house. It had been painted over, but was visible through the new white paint when the lighting conditions were right. We painted the wall with Killz primer and then two coats of paint and now it's gone.
One thing we did find was a pentagram painted on the wall in the large bedroom on the other side of the house. .
We bought our house from a widow, same thing here... really bad wallpaper. Up on this one shelf way back in the corner I found a mugshot of husband, looked like it was from the 40's or 50's. LOL
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They painted all the outlet covers instead of removing them, so the plugs were said color as well as were the light switch plates. Apparently, their washer and dryer were too big for the laundry room and stuck out too far, so they dug out the drywall behind them when they could have changed the doors around so that they didn't hit the framing of the closet. It could have been worse, but replacing all the plugs, all the plates, fixing the drywall and repainting every single room made me hate painting so much. I didn't love the curtain selections so that didn't make me so sad after all.
