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We're in the process of house hunting, and I need a distraction from this nerve wracking process, so I thought it might be fun to post house hunting/buying horror stories.
Anyone have some good stories to share?
I'll start....6 years ago we were virgin house hunters and put an offer on a house that needed some work: kitchen & bathrooms all needed updating, popcorn ceilings removed, pot belly stove removed & replaced with a traditional fireplace, and a pool that looked like it needed work. It was a seller's market, so we were being outbid left & right, but this house had just fallen out of escrow. It didn't give us a great feeling about the house, so we scheduled multiple inspections: general inspection plus specific inspections for the roof, pool, electrical & plumbing. In addition to the cosmetic upgrades, the house needed a lot of other work. The roof needed patching in several places, the plumbing needed to be replaced with copper, the pool needed resurfacing & a new pump. It ended up appraising for $70K less than we offered, so we reduced our offer to the appraised value & they declined. Four months later, they ended up selling it for more than the appraised value, but less than we offered. I was massively relieved to be out from under that money pit. We really dodged a bullet.
It's not really a "horror story", but if I ever bought a house again (especially an old one), I would get my own home inspector and not one who was recommended by the agent, even if it's a buyer's agent. So what happened to me is that I did exactly that. I was excited about the house, had never bought an old house before (only new-construction) and didn't want to just pick an inspector from the phone book. I used the inspector recommended by the agent from the listing brokerage.
I must say, the guy was thorough. He dragged me along through the whole house, pointing out and explaining all the various systems, including the sump pump. I'd had one before, so whatever. He suggested I buy a whole redundant sump pump system, in case the first one failed. Yeah, yeah, whatever....overkill. And it had a battery backup, so I didn't get the point. After I get in there, I realize that sump pit is filling with water ALL THE TIME, even in the middle of July when it's dry as a bone....the thing is always running! He says no problem, the thing is working and that's a good thing. But then I find out that the battery backup is only good for 5 hours, so if we have a major power outage, the pit is going to overflow. The redundant system that he recommended wouldn't have helped in that case, anyway.
The bottom line is, I believe if he was not referred by my agent, he would have more clearly explained to me that this house has a water problem. It sits at the bottom of the hill, has clearly had water damage in the past, and the water table is high. All the streets in the neighborhood are named after "water" -- Swiftwater, Edgewater, Clearwater, etc. -- underground streams much? I think he was being tactful and didn't want to an alarmist and thereby jinx the sale. Luckily, my house escaped Hurricane Irene and Sandy unscathed, while houses around the block lost power for days and their basements were ruined. So glad to be outta there!
It's not really a "horror story", but if I ever bought a house again (especially an old one), I would get my own home inspector and not one who was recommended by the agent, even if it's a buyer's agent. So what happened to me is that I did exactly that. I was excited about the house, had never bought an old house before (only new-construction) and didn't want to just pick an inspector from the phone book. I used the inspector recommended by the agent from the listing brokerage.
I must say, the guy was thorough. He dragged me along through the whole house, pointing out and explaining all the various systems, including the sump pump. I'd had one before, so whatever. He suggested I buy a whole redundant sump pump system, in case the first one failed. Yeah, yeah, whatever....overkill. And it had a battery backup, so I didn't get the point. After I get in there, I realize that sump pit is filling with water ALL THE TIME, even in the middle of July when it's dry as a bone....the thing is always running! He says no problem, the thing is working and that's a good thing. But then I find out that the battery backup is only good for 5 hours, so if we have a major power outage, the pit is going to overflow. The redundant system that he recommended wouldn't have helped in that case, anyway.
The bottom line is, I believe if he was not referred by my agent, he would have more clearly explained to me that this house has a water problem. It sits at the bottom of the hill, has clearly had water damage in the past, and the water table is high. All the streets in the neighborhood are named after "water" -- Swiftwater, Edgewater, Clearwater, etc. -- underground streams much? I think he was being tactful and didn't want to an alarmist and thereby jinx the sale. Luckily, my house escaped Hurricane Irene and Sandy unscathed, while houses around the block lost power for days and their basements were ruined. So glad to be outta there!
I've never seen a basement in Florida. Also, you either get a realtor's recommendation or start blind calling around, or ask a friend is you know people in the area you are buying in.
My first house buying problem was a HUD home, when I tried to turn on the water to inspect they told me the home had a compression problem and they would not turn it on so there was no way to proceed in getting a loan. I liked the home but it needed a lot of things including AC.
The second problem was a home that I wanted to buy that appraised so much lower than asking that it killed the deal. The appraiser was Hispanic and so was the family renting it, my agent said I didn't have to attend, but I should have because the lady renting it with two little kids spoke to the man in Spanish and the agent didn't understand, I bet she begged him to let her stay, I'm sure she didn't even know who he was. In retrospect it was good because I found a better place that should close soon, in a better area and with an extra small bedroom plus the roof should last 15 more years, the other one only had 4 years left.
I've never seen a basement in Florida. Also, you either get a realtor's recommendation or start blind calling around, or ask a friend is you know people in the area you are buying in.
Oh, you've never seen a basement in Florida? What's that have to do with anything? Did I say it happened in Florida?
I don't care what you say, an inspector referred by an agent is NOT likely to give information to the buyer that could possibly kill a deal. What was he going to say, "steer clear of this house unless you want constant water problems"???
The other thing was, his inspection did not include the sewer pipes out to the street. Which I later found out were old clay pipes that were falling apart and root-bound, causing backups. In looking at an old Google Earth photo of the house, I realized there had been trees in the front yard that had been removed by the owner. I'm sure he didn't removed perfectly good trees for his health -- the roots were probably causing problems. BUT, he didn't replace the pipes -- an $8K job -- so the first time I ran the washer, dishwasher and shower at the same time, the basement toilet overflowed. This was another thing I didn't know anything about (sewer pipes) and the home inspector didn't mention that I should get them checked or that his inspection specifically excluded them but they could be a point of failure. My advice still stands, find an independent inspector.
Last edited by Avalon08; 03-29-2016 at 10:52 AM..
Reason: typo
Actually my house hunting/buying experiences don't sound that bad when compared with some others. Real estate transactions drive me insane, though, so I worry a lot and go through a lot of self imposed torment. Still, as I typed the following "horror story" I found myself laughing rather than suffering from the memories. I can't believe all that went on! Hilarious.
OK, here goes.
When I bought my present house, the sellers delayed closing 5 times. The first closing date was on May 29th (my offer was accepted on May 3rd). So, I frantically packed everything as quickly as I possibly could. Since I had no idea how long that would take, on May 17th I suddenly found that I was completely done packing. Oops! From May 17th to the actual final closing on June 26th and then until moving day on July 1st, I lived out of a suitcase and my two "open me first" boxes which at least had bedding and a towel, but not much else. My life was pretty barren living amid towers of packed and sealed boxes stacked to the ceiling everywhere. Oh, and by the time my real estate guy said things were certain enough that I could schedule the move, the earliest date the moving company could give me was July 1st.
I guess that doesn't sound too horrifying but I don't recommend it for fun! I couldn't even cook because everything was packed up, so it was 45 days of cheap restaurant food and ready-to-eat, ugh. I had thrown my back out, got stung by a bee, and broke a toe; it didn't help that I had been overdoing while packing. By June 20th I was freaking out because there was no sign that the sellers had moved anything out at all.
I really couldn't object to the sellers delaying closing so many times, because they had $25,000 in under-slab plumbing replacement that they unexpectedly had to get done, before the house could be sold. So, I got free plumbing out of all of this, thanks to my wonderfully diligent plumbing inspectors. It was just kind of awful to wait so long. I should have checked into an extended stay place, but I kept thinking it would only be one more week - - and then they would delay closing another week. LOL
I bought my last house from an elderly lady who did not really want to sell (she only put it up for sale to get her daughter to move out of the house - she herself was living elsewhere). Even though we offered the asking price, she threw every obstacle she could at us. Two days after we made our offer, we went with our inspector and realtor to the house to find out that she had had the power and water shut off the day before. She was LIVID to find out that she had to cut the utilities back on (at her expense) in order to do the inspection. Then she showed up at the inspection and threw a fit about everything, screeching "WHY DO YOU HAVE TO CUT ON ALL THE FAUCETS AT THE SAME TIME???? THERE'S NO REASON TO CUT ON THE STOVE AND OVEN!!! NO, YOU CAN'T PLUG IN THE REFRIGERATOR! IT'S SUMMERTIME....THERE'S NO NEED TO CUT ON THE FURNACE! DON'T CUT THE WATER ON OUTSIDE!!! DON'T CUT MORE THAN ONE LIGHT ON AT A TIME! WHY ARE YOU RUNNING HOT WATER???? I DON'T WANT THE GARAGE DOOR OPENED!!!"
We almost walked away at that time but persisted. It was worth it, but why put a house up for sale if you truly don't want to sell it?
our horror story involved an underwriter who for some reason decided to just go home at 3 or 4pm one day even though she was supposed to work on some urgent documents so we can close on time! there was no family emergency or illness, she just decided well I'd like to leave early today!
We were ready to close on a new construction home ... They accepted our offer and the realtors failed to tell us that the builder had ZERO building inspections done because the home was out of the city limits... We were approved for an FHA loan and had only 3% of our down payment prepared to give them.... we could not do an FHA loan because they required certain inspections of new homes so we had to do a conventional loan and come up with an additional 2% down payment... Which wasn't THAT much money but as young recent college grads and newlyweds finding an extra couple grand hurt!
We were extra thankful that we had hired a good home inspector after learning no inspections were done during the building...
I agree with Avalon on the whole NEVER hire an inspector a realtor recommends. With a different home we owned we knew of some issues when we bought the house...( And we bought the house anyway... ) They were minor things but still we expected they to be brought to our attention and the building inspector that the buyers realtor hired caught NONE of the red flags. The buyers realtor was there at the inspection too and she wrote him a check and he was in and out in maybe an hour if that long. After we experienced that we decided we would be finding our own inspectors from then on...
I bought a house from a drug addled wackadoodle fruit loop. All the neighbors were terrified of him. He owed years worth of HOA fees and the HOA said they would forgive all the past due fees if I would just buy the house and get him out.
Halfway through the sale, it was discovered that he'd put his minor child on the title so it had to go to court to get permission to sell the property.
When it closed escrow, he made no effort to move out. He said he had no way to transport his stuff so he couldn't move. His agent and my agent were terrified of him and afraid to go tell him he had to get out.
I went up and got him to sign a receipt that said he had to get out and anything left in the house on Monday belonged to me. He took off and left everything, including a sink full of dirty dishes covered in vomit, 6 layers of filthy carpet, light fixtures wrapped in aluminum fojl, and extra layers of drywall nailed to the bedroom walls.
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From May 17th to the actual final closing on June 26th and then until moving day on July 1st, I lived out of a suitcase and my two "open me first" boxes which at least had bedding and a towel, but not much else. My life was pretty barren living amid towers of packed and sealed boxes stacked to the ceiling everywhere. Oh, and by the time my real estate guy said things were certain enough that I could schedule the move, the earliest date the moving company could give me was July 1st.
