30 Times People Bought A House And Realized They Should Have Done More Research Beforehand

Always leave yourself financial wiggle room, things rarely get cheaper!!!

My mortgage broker of all people gave me this advice - he said don’t take more than 2/3 of the mortgage they approve you for and make sure you are still comfortable with the payments if interest rates go up. Good advice.

That's why I'm still renting. Was thinking about buying, the initial payments are looking too good. Then I realized, on top of mortgage payment there is insurance, bills for utilities. All together it came up way more than I feel comfortable. And as down payment I will have tu use most of my savings, so if anything will happen, I won't have any financial cushion.

Also most people including real estate agents tell you, oh your mortgage payment will be say $1000 a month but they don't mention the property taxes also, which go up yearly here in NJ. Always find out what your monthly taxes will be

And look how many spend tens of thousands on weddings and dresses that could've been used as a down payment on a nice home. Stop trying to impress everyone and keep it simple. Here's a news flash for those, no one is impressed. No matter what they say to your face, in the end everyone is talking about how stupid and wasteful your big wedding was.

The difficulty is that you can check out the neighbours as much as you like but people don't stay put. Everyone may be wonderful when you first move in, even for years, and then your neighbours sell their house and suddenly you are living next to a nightmare. Ask me how I know...

You should ask to video tape him. Then someday if he becomes famous you can show the tapes of the beginning of his career. Have him sign off on it and boom you may be part of the band!!

And this is just 1 of many reasons I preferred living in the middle of nowhere 😂

Heh heh ... funny comment!

Yes! My son and his wife recently bought their first home and the agent attempted to schedule his mom to do the inspection. When the kids realized what their agent was attempting they refused. The agent turned into a complete jerk, stopped answering or returning calls and didn't even bother to show up for the signing, or even send a congratulatory text for being first time home owners. Worst part was my DIL graduated high school with their agent.

Can I give this 1 million up votes?

Take pictures/video of everything brought up. If you can schedule during a wet season, do so cuz more issues will pop up when it rains or snows or is too cold.

Or one recommended on Google...mine was a waste of time, found nothing I hadn't already seen, somehow missed the roof leak on a rainy day

And get yourself a separate furnace inspector in case the house has something like a wood/oil furnace. Ours went in 5 years and we also had to replace the oil tank.

Especiallly when you buy a newly build house. You will need to pay for al lot of curtains, paint and floor covering.

Also you don't have to heat the rooms you don't use. Saves a lot of money this way.

Usually 2 yards of fabric makes a decent curtain. You can keep it up with thumbtacks, or use a cutain rod and a bunch of safety pins.

We lived with paper blinds (i.e. big pieces of paper folded to look like blinds from a few places away) for years because even basic blinds are expensive when there's a whole house.

And many curtain rods were made by Satan himself and are nearly impossible to put up without some sort of engineering degree...at least in my experience.

Seriously. I'm Fixing up my mom's house when I can and there's so much damage from water. Just little leaks here and there over the years, an unnoticed leak from the roof that went inside the walls to the rarely used basement area, and wood rot from the bathroom floor not being dried fully after twenty years of four kids taking showers. Water is the WORST enemy to a house. I'm finally almost done with the worst but there was a ton of mold and mildew in hidden spots. She's always kept nd still keeps the house clean...water is just a sneaky bastard.

Yes! We noticed our yard would flood but didn't realize that water was pooling under the house, too. Luckily, our handy man noticed and we had him install French drains. They work wonders but were an expensive, unplanned expense. Unfortunately, many of our neighbors also have drainage issues so we still have to deal with hordes of mosquitoes.

All the problems with my house are water...water flow through the yard, under the house, missing downpipes, leaking roof...and on it goes...I used to love listening to the rain, now it stresses me

I lived in my sister's rent house for 16 years. It turned out to be a money pit. The previous owner who lived there before me and sold the house to my sister lied about everything. We even used a realtor.

This should be higher on the list. Also check out on what side of your house that the sun rises and sets in regard to your front door, large windows, patio... it will have an effect on your comfort and the cost of heating and cooling your home especially if say the evening sun is blaring in your giant bay windows or the like. Window coverings that size are expensive! The same if there are no trees in your yard. Your AC unit will be working double time in the summer of there's no shade and you live somewhere where it gets hot like I do. A side note for fellow southerners...check the near area for standing water/ponds/ditches/etc and consider that bc you will likely be sucked dry by mosquitoes in the summer and even well into the fall if you don't consider that.

When we were buying, our inspector said ours was the oldest furnace he had ever seen. They stopped making them in the 70s, this one probably went in during the late 60s. We bought in 2018. But it still works well!

When my wife and I bought our first house, in the US, the asking price was $115K. We knew it was more than 30 years old, so we had it inspected. Turned out, it needed a new roof. The seller said, "If we put the new roof on it, you can have the house for $110K. If you do it, you can have the house for $98K." We knew it wouldn't cost anywhere close to 12K to put the roof on (turned out to be about half that), so we accepted the 98K selling price.

Windows are another big ticket item that you should check for. Ensure the seals aren't broken, that they aren't growing mould, that they can be opened (if they're made to open), etc.

Replacing all three of these is a few thousand dollars. If you like the house, buy it anyways.

Always get with a real estate attorney as well especially if it's your first time buying a house.

They mostly make everything look good on the surface, they kinda just make-up the house (paint the walls, putting new tiles, ..) while the problems still remain underneath all that and shall be visible again on the surface in a couple of months

My MIL moved to "nice" small flat couple of years ago. She bought it from person who buys it cheap, makes fixes, replaning redecorating and sels it at much higer price. At first look it was nice place, but then she asked me to add some lamp by her bed. I opened the outlet and all c**p started to float up. All wiring was made like bad examples from "do not do that way" list. Workers were saving every penny on materials. Ceiling lamp was fixed to ceiling by 3 different screws. Workers could not fit plug to one old drain pipe tee. Instead heat it a little bit to make softer ant put it in, they just clogged hole with some tissue and concrete. It all started to leak after year. I had to make hole in drywall bought new plug for 0,50 euro and made it ok in 15 minutes. These people is greedy bastards with no shame...

House flipping is the epitome of this, and is nothing short of a plague. Those incompetent, lying scumbags fill the listings with crappy houses that have been rushed to appear presentable but have huge underlying issues. Those houses sell for premium value because they look cool, then you are in for years of very expensive fixes. I'd very much prefer to buy an old house and fix it myself instead of buying one of those fake renovations, but their scam business model is so good they can afford to spend more than the market's value and this drive the prices up.

Get a professional home inspection to look for issues. Home inspectors are thorough and a good one will provide you a ton of information on what needs fixed and how to fix it or who to call.

Is there a deal between Panda and DeWalt? every image of a power tool I have seen has been DeWalt.. I'm not complaining, I pay the premium for DeWalt kit, so well made, the Audi of tools

With this current tight market and shortage of homes for sale, buyers may have to take what they can get. If you demand something from the seller, there are going to be ten other people who will jump on the house as it is.

As a seller I would never agree to that. Move-in condition is very subjective. That wouldn't have flown in the hot 2018 - mid 2022 years. You could have pulled that off in the 2009 - 2012 market when houses were harder to sell.

It used to be illegal for realtors to sell houses with known issues. Not anymore. It's buyer beware. The realtor is only going to look out for their commission. If you're not experienced in how to do so, get an inspector. there's a better than 50% chance there'll be an issue with the roof. The roof is almost never as new as they claim it is. Even if it is, there's then a 50% chance there's a problem with it. Roofing is not as easy at it looks and just because someone is in business doing it, doesn't mean they know what they're doing. I worked for a roofing company once and I can't list all the issues we encountered from previous roofers, some of it illegal all in the name of making more money on the job. Metal roof? That's nice. Can you see screws? If so, that will someday be a leak, guaranteed.

Our inspector did this. He turned on multiple lights, ran the dishwasher, turned on the stove, turned on the showers, and opened and closed windows. I'd highly recommend doing these things yourself if your inspector doesn't.

Also, turn on several taps at the same time to check the water pressure. It is no fun if you are in the shower and get scalded when somebody flushes the toilet.

There must be a fascinating story behind