12 People Share Their Costliest Home Repair Mistakes » TwistedSifter

Owning a home is a great experience… but it also comes with a lot of headaches and hassles.

And if you ignore certain issues or make mistakes when it comes to your home, you’re going to run into serious trouble.

Let’s hear from 12 people who shared their most expensive home repair mistakes.

“$200 saved by not doing a sewer oscilloscope or septic tank inspection.

Oops.”

“Many unexpected expenses are not taken into account.

Our property transfer tax was over $14,000 and had to be paid in advance, is not included in your deposit and could not be combined with our mortgage.

It nearly sunk us as we scraped together every dollar we had for the deposit. A big oversight on our part I suppose.”

“We bought a house with a wrap around deck because it looked great! Big mistake. A fresh coat of paint made it so we didn’t feel the need to inspect it closely.

Now, four years later, we have a deteriorating deck that hasn’t been updated in years. It’s a massive security risk and will cost around $50,000 to $60,000 to fix.”

“Shopping in a city I didn’t know.

I live this city, but I’ve been stuck here for a decade now because I can’t afford to move to a new city.”

“The most costly mistake I made was giving my husband the house in a divorce. I had done surrogacy and used the money as a down payment on the house.

During the divorce I was dying to get away from my abusive husband as quickly and easily as possible. He wanted the house and I gave it to him.

He sold it months later and five years later it’s worth more than double what I paid for it. Women, know your worth and do not let men take your wealth.”

“I bought a house with lots of trees as a single woman. That was 23 years ago and the trees are getting huge. It’ll cost me a pretty penny to get rid of the pines.

The walnuts can only be trimmed every so many years. Wouldn’t do that again. Also, check property taxes and school taxes before you buy. This can also be very expensive.

My high school in town built an indoor pool, and guess who’s paying for this thing? Taxes doubled.”

“I bought a house that was way too big for us. It took so much time to clean and the cost of heating, maintenance and decoration was ridiculous.

I sold it after just two years for more than I paid for, but still lost money in commissions and closing costs. I just closed a smaller house and couldn’t be happier.”

“Didn’t get a poll. We didn’t want to do a survey because it was an extra £300.

But not doing it ended up costing us around £2,000 because they found problems they could have found after the survey and the seller would have paid for it. Take a poll!!!”

“Not asking about a neighbor’s tree root lifting up the concrete on our side of the fence.

Inspector and owner said it was fine but long story short the roots were extensive and growing right in and under my house and down to the foundation.

It ruptured pipes and other minor damage. It would take around $15,000 to fix this if all goes well, not to mention the other issues that might be discovered.”

“I don’t do a final walkthrough.

I was buying a home for the first time and didn’t think to ask as I was present for the house viewing and my very experienced agent had never offered or arranged it.

Not as big of a horror story as some of the other posts here, but the day I got the keys I realized the house wasn’t really completely cleared out – clothes in closets, script meds in closets, used soap in the shower , food in the fridge and freezer, pots and pans in the kitchen, etc.

The clerk claimed to have “cleaned” the house, but all she did was wipe down the countertops and vacuum the shop floor. There was nothing clean about that. Also, the sink fell completely off the countertop. I ended up having to replace the whole thing. It was improperly installed from the start and the home inspector overlooked it.

Do one last walkthrough.”

“I didn’t pay attention to my basement entrance from the outside and monitored the sump pump. You had to go down a few steps to get to the basement and there was a sump pump outside the door.

I honestly didn’t check it regularly, and the pump would die or get clogged with leaves. Rain flooded my basement more than once and once killed my HVAC system in it. I don’t live there anymore and I refuse to have a sump pump in a future house.”

“A friend of ours had a beautiful, huge house newly built in a new development.

In the first week she attempted to install the ice/water line on her refrigerator, drilling into the water line and causing water damage in her basement.”

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