Feelings about house when you bought it vs. reality

[Anonymous]

I was excited before buying it. After buying it I felt like shit because we had to polish a turd. I had a lot of resentment for undisclosed water damage and delayed maintenance. Their teenaged boys also just beat the entire house up and the rooms upstairs smelled like socks. We had to prime absolutely everything to get the smell gone.

10 years later and a lot of hard work later, I absolutely love my home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The costs and hassles of maintenance are high. Even on a property that's generally in good shape, there are always things to fix, replace, etc.

This.

I wish I had 100k set aside for upkeep in addition to the down payment and closing costs. And never get so desperate that you waive inspection. This 100k is assuming that the property passes inspection.

Assume you will have to hire a plumber, electrician, and replace the HVAC and water heater as soon as you move in unless the units are less than 10-15 years old and you can verify this by asking the seller and looking up the serial numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love our lot and our square footage and the overall “bones” of the house. Like PP’s have mentioned though, DH and I did not do a good job of communicating our expectations on home updates. We were young and naive. I assumed we would update as things aged and we could afford to. He doesn’t want to replace anything that still functions at all. As in, we have original 1992 bathrooms that we can still bathe and poop in, so to him, they are fine. We have more than enough to do the updates in cash but he just has zero interest. He’s a good egg overall but we are just mismatched here and didn’t really discuss it in advance. I won’t buy another house that needs any work unless the work is done before we move in.

Just because they are fine for him doesn’t mean they are fine for you. Why don’t you just hire the contractors yourself and do the repairs you want? You have the cash.

[Anonymous]

I was excited about it and while the excitement has worn off, I still love the house and I'm very glad we bought it.

The house was built in 1940 so it is more of a money suck than your typical new build. We did a good number of renovations (and still have to tackle the kitchen) and we have struggled with basement flooding. But we anticipated the vast majority of these issues so my excitement about the house was in line with reality.

My husband was not excited about the house. He is afraid of commitment and the house was expensive. But it has appreciated a lot and has been great for our family. The space is so nice (especially since we bought just before the pandemic), he has a garden, and the kids have a tree swing. Even though he is frustrated with the flooding issue and kitchen drawers that are on their last leg, he is glad I sort of dragged him into home ownership.

I think if you are just very realistic about the costs of home ownership, both ones you know about and ones that are sure to arise, you're unlikely to have buyer's remorse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The costs and hassles of maintenance are high. Even on a property that's generally in good shape, there are always things to fix, replace, etc.

This.

I wish I had 100k set aside for upkeep in addition to the down payment and closing costs. And never get so desperate that you waive inspection. This 100k is assuming that the property passes inspection.

Assume you will have to hire a plumber, electrician, and replace the HVAC and water heater as soon as you move in unless the units are less than 10-15 years old and you can verify this by asking the seller and looking up the serial numbers.

Before someone says it's hard to land the contract if you have an inspection contingency, you can often inspect before you make an offer. We did that on a hot home we bid on (and wound up not making an offer because there were foundation issues).