Share your home buying horror stories!

[NoNo]

I'm currently in the process of buying a house. A process that was supposed to CLOSE last Friday. Yeah, that didn't happen. My mortgage company completely messed things up. They didn't have paperwork, they weren't prepared, they weren't calling people back. In the mean time, I had packed a UHaul full of my stuff, including all my furniture. Once we figured out the deal wasn't going to happen, we had to unload the entire thing into a garage that my aunt lent. The kicker is that my parents are going to rent the apartment I'm vacating, so they've been living with me for the last three weeks. Now I have to share a futon with mom while dad sleeps on the couch (his choice), we have no tv, no internet. I have no idea when the closing will actually happen, but the thought of moving all that stuff again makes me shudder.

So please humor me. Tell me I'm not alone in this. What closing horror story do you have that you now laugh about about how you got your house?

[ny biker]

As my realtor drove me home from the settlement, he told me that he had spent the last several days on the phone with the mortgage people to make sure everything would be ready on time. The mortgage guy we had been working with had left town due to a family emergency and his staff was not picking up the slack. He told me they almost didn't make it, but he refrained from telling me about it so it wouldn't upset me. (He is a great realtor -- I wish I could afford to buy more houses because he deserves the business.)

When I refinanced, I found errors in the forms that the mortgage people filled out, and also identified a bug in their software that automatically computed some of the numbers. They had to have a special training session for all their brokers about it.

If you want to know when to get the best mortgage rate, wait for me to refinance because the rates will plummet a week after that.

BTW I highly recommend the movie "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" with Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Melvin Douglas for anyone who is buying or renovating a home.

[lph]

Well, this isn't my story, but it might cheer you up. About three weeks after moving into a beautiful penthouse with a magnificent view, my brother-in-law decided to oil a few small tables, out on the rooftop terrace. He left the rags with linseed oil in a small metal bucket, as he had heard they could smolder, then went to hang out and relax on his boat for the afternoon.

Got called up by a vet a few hours later, who wanted to know if he was maybe the owner of this cat they had got in, with a little smoke in her lungs. Yup, the rags had ignited, the terrace had ignited, the full length windows had exploded in the blaze, the sprinkler system had gone off and the entire apartment was covered in soot and water and stank to high heaven. (The cat was fine!)

So instead of enjoying his lovely new apartment, he got to spend six months in his old teenager room, living with mom and dad while his apartment - and five more apartments below - were being renovated.

[IBrakeforPastry]

Well, this isn't my story, but it might cheer you up. About three weeks after moving into a beautiful penthouse with a magnificent view, my brother-in-law decided to oil a few small tables, out on the rooftop terrace. He left the rags with linseed oil in a small metal bucket, as he had heard they could smolder, then went to hang out and relax on his boat for the afternoon.

Got called up by a vet a few hours later, who wanted to know if he was maybe the owner of this cat they had got in, with a little smoke in her lungs. Yup, the rags had ignited, the terrace had ignited, the full length windows had exploded in the blaze, the sprinkler system had gone off and the entire apartment was covered in soot and water and stank to high heaven. (The cat was fine!)

So instead of enjoying his lovely new apartment, he got to spend six months in his old teenager room, living with mom and dad while his apartment - and five more apartments below - were being renovated.

Way to make an impression with his new neighbors! What a shame, though, and I'm glad the cat was okay.

[NoNo]

Wow! Glad everyone was ok. I guess that's got to be just as heartbreaking: Going through this whole terrible process only to lose everything right after. And now I've learned something about linseed oil!

[Helene2013]

Quite a story!!!

I bought 3 houses and sold 2 (still in the 3rd one since 1992).

But when we sold our 2nd house, the guy had visited many many too many homes before. He came visit ours probably 4 times. I will spare you all the discussions about questions that were useless, and even his home inspector did not do the right checks!!! Oh well.

But the worst is that we're about to close and go to the notary (in Québec notaries do closures - not lawyers). We get a call from him...when he should have gone through his agent. He said he was not sure he could take the house as he no longer had a job. WHAT!!! He already had his credit approved, we were 2 days from changing owners. I can't back away from the one we just purchased, etc... I called my agent who call his agent. It was a mad rushing thing! He kept bugging us until we told our agent that we did not want to hear from him and only see them (the couple) at the notary for the sign off.

Long story short....he made it there and we were able to move on. But we were always afraid he'd come back to hunt us about a hidden vice or somethig...nope...all was good. whewwww!

But the stress level you can get to when you find something like this is unbelievable. Worst he still had his job...just different title, etc... I can still see him coming with his back pack (looked more like a student than an engineer!), checking out for couch sizes, wall sizes.... heck...you're buying a home that has a decent living room. If your couch won't fit...get something else and put this one in the basement. haha Would you believe it took him 2 visits...and hours wasted just to measure things like this!!! I do understand the need to have stuff fit. But there is a limit. You come out from a tiny apartment...into a decent bungalow. Certainly things will fit no???? argggh

----------

Ah while writing this...my nightmare in a few lines...we were young adults hubby and I (proabably 22-23) and moving into our 1st home. Family came to help. One brothers gets drunk and the other one is pulled over by the cops and arrested....because a friend of his use a small knife years ago...to damage a bench in a park. He had a search warrant on him but since he was living out of the province and never got arrested for anything, they nailed him.

So while I was trying to understand why he was taken in (we did not know anything at that time), the other "drunk" brother was almost making out in the u-haul with his girlfriend. arggggg The joy of moving sometimes!

Does that help you with our "humor". hihi

[SheFly]

We were moving from Mississauga, Ontario to Calgary, Alberta when I was a kid. Movers came and loaded all of our belongings onto a big 18-wheeler for the trip out. Somewhere in Thunder Bay, Ontario, the truck rolled over with our load, a car, and another household in the truck :eek: Much of our furnishings were destroyed, clothes (including my dad's underwear) strewn about the highway... It was a nightmare. Somewhere around 20 moves later, this one still sticks in my head.

SheFly

[ny biker]

Holy cow. I feel like I really can't compete here, and frankly I'm not complaining about that!

[NoNo]

I knew I couldn't be alone in this! Thankfully I'm only moving a mile away, so hopefully no chance of underwear being strewn across the road. Today I woke up at 4 with a terrible neck ache from sleeping on the futon. And by "woke up" I mean, gave up on the hope of sleep. I'm so used to having my own bed, this whole sharing thing isn't working very well for me. The good news is the mortgage company called last night and said I'm cleared to close, so the end is near!

[Pax]

Good deal!


When we were in the process of buying our current place here in FL, the mortgage company did everything in their power to make the process awful. Phone calls every day wanting "just one more" letter of explanation about our bank accounts (my mom had passed away and I paid many of the expenses while waiting for her life insurance to come in), after three weeks of their nonsense they sent us a packet of 75-100 pages of documents we needed to sign including a visa form to authorize payment for the appraiser... only to find the address of the property wrong on every page as well as multiple other mistakes. Thankfully we were in a position to switch our offer to cash; the mortgage people had the gall to seem surprised we no longer wanted to work with them.

[Crankin]

Wow, so many horror stories. I've bought 5 houses in 2 states, and everything went perfectly. The last sale, DH went to the registry of deeds to do both the sale and purchase, with my notarized signature. I had to stay home and supervise the movers, and drive several trips of clothing and bike stuff we wanted to do ourselves. DH arranged the dual mortgage stuff himself, but we also had a wonderful agent, who passed away, sadly, 3 years after that. We will be using her partner next time. The worst thing that happened was we had stayed the night at the Colonial Inn; the truck was supposed to deliver our stuff between 9-10, and they called us at 7 and said they were there (not sure why it was the next day, for a 9 mile move). We had to get our breakfast packed up, and let them in, to start unloading and for us, unpacking. Our rule is the kitchen is done before the first night is over.
No No, I hope it all works out!

[ny biker]

When I moved from NYC to DC (rented apartment to rented apartment), the moving company told me that it would be more than a day between packing up the truck and delivering my stuff, because I was not filling the truck so they would be stopping elsewhere to use it for another customer. So I packed a bag with some clothes and a pillow and my sleeping bag. After the truck left I went to my parents' house to spend the night before driving down to DC, thinking I had plenty of time and at least one night of sleeping on the floor in the new place.

A few hours later the movers called to say the truck would be at my new apartment first thing the next morning. But I would still be in NY then, and I had to pick up the keys to the new place before I could let the movers in. I totally panicked. Luckily a friend who was living in the DC suburbs at the time was a stay at home mom, and I was able to arrange for her to get the keys for me and let the movers start to unpack while I drove down.

Of course I made a wrong turn along the way, just to add to the fun.

Moving is like a box of chocolates...

[AppleTree]

I'm currently in the process of buying a house. A process that was supposed to CLOSE last Friday. Yeah, that didn't happen. My mortgage company completely messed things up. They didn't have paperwork, they weren't prepared, they weren't calling people back. In the mean time, I had packed a UHaul full of my stuff, including all my furniture. Once we figured out the deal wasn't going to happen, we had to unload the entire thing into a garage that my aunt lent. The kicker is that my parents are going to rent the apartment I'm vacating, so they've been living with me for the last three weeks. Now I have to share a futon with mom while dad sleeps on the couch (his choice), we have no tv, no internet. I have no idea when the closing will actually happen, but the thought of moving all that stuff again makes me shudder.

So please humor me. Tell me I'm not alone in this. What closing horror story do you have that you now laugh about about how you got your house?

Having worked for a big mortgage company for a number of years, I can tell you this kind of stuff happens more often than you would think. Agents and loan officers would pray that the loan processor would do their job well and things would go through as planned, but every once in while there was a major hiccup...credit rating went down, or inspection found something, or some other technicality. Most of the time it was someone didn't do what they were supposed to do WHEN they were supposed to do it...major panic ensued. It was a VERY high stress job. Big money and peoples lives affected by not crossing T's and dotting I's the way they were supposed to... glad I'm not doing that anymore. At the height of the refinance boom (before the crash) they would haul loan processors out by ambulance for nervous breakdowns every few weeks. :eek:

[NoNo]

I guess it's not happening today, either :( And it's been waiting on one person to sign a piece of paper since 5pm yesterday. Unbelievable. What drives me nuts is there's no accountability. One person messed this whole thing up, but I know he's not going to face any repercussions. If I messed up that badly at my job, I'd have been fired.

[ny biker]

I guess it's not happening today, either :( And it's been waiting on one person to sign a piece of paper since 5pm yesterday. Unbelievable. What drives me nuts is there's no accountability. One person messed this whole thing up, but I know he's not going to face any repercussions. If I messed up that badly at my job, I'd have been fired.

Boy do I know that feeling!

I hope it finally comes together soon.

[shootingstar]

Sounds as if one has to sell a house and then shortly, take possession and move into newly bought home, it gets complicated. I haven't been in that position yet.

I dealt directly with bank's mortgage dept. I've never dealt with third party mortgage companies. Things may be slightly different in Canada. The terrible US economic crash that we in Canada, read about bad mortgages or whatever the companies structured them, seemed like a lot looser at time of crash, in terms of regulatory controls.

All more the reason, not to accumulate too many assets ..to pack, move etc.

[shootingstar]

No, I don't have home buying stories.

Just personal stories that point to disasters where possessions are at risk.

[NoNo]

Nightmare no more!

17690

Although it was a fight to the very end, with them moving the closing twice yesterday. But once they handed over the keys, all was forgiven. Instantly started moving some stuff in, but I've rented a truck for tomorrow to reload and get my furniture over in. After dinner, it was off to Home Depot, for the first of many trips. Got paint for the living room and dining room, spray paint for the lamp post outside, and gutter extenders. Next will be the dehumidifier and something to control the little bitey things that like to live near the marsh. I'm so excited to get in there and start doing stuff!

[IBrakeforPastry]

Congratulations! Adorable house - looks just like mine, without the dormers. Have fun painting!

[Pax]

How wonderful, enjoy your new home!

[ny biker]

Yay!!

[Crankin]

No No, I are you in Branford, CT, like your signature says? I've driven through there...
Cute house! Good luck and congrats.

[ny biker]

We went to the Branford Trolley Museum when I was young.

[NoNo]

Yes, I'm in Branford. Feel free to come through again. This fall they're doing the first ever Tour de Branford, a 40 mile loop through town and over to the next town, all along the water. Should be fun!

Moved in this weekend. I'm at work now and it feels so nice to just sit. Painted the downstairs, replaced a faucet, eventually found the screws for my bedframe, put the patio furniture together, picked colors for upstairs, and did some weeding, on top of actually moving in Saturday. I also moved my cat in, which didn't go great the first night. She wouldn't leave the basement and just cried and cried. By the middle of the night she had ventured out and by the next morning she was totally at home, curled up on the couch and finding the bay window. There's still all the unpacking to do, but with my parents staying there temporarily, stuff will get done while I'm at work. By the time this weekend rolls around, I can see being relatively settled.

[Trek420]

Way to make an impression with his new neighbors! What a shame, though, and I'm glad the cat was okay.

Glad the cat is fine. How're the bikes? :D

I'll post later when not on the tiny screen. My Yelp revue of our mortgage broker should just read thus;

"I deeply and daily regret not going through our credit union for our mortgage"

The rate was/is great but it was the worst customer service experience ever.

[malkin]

Late to this party, but here's another story:

We were working with our bank for the mortgage, and the loan guy misspelled my name which is Virginia to another word that starts with V, with many of the same letters, but with a two times and only one i. Perhaps an ok name for a porn star, and certainly a fine bit of human female anatomy, but not really what I wanted on my home loan. The bank insisted that it could not be changed. We went to another source for our mortgage.

[Wasp]

This moving in day horror happened to my best friend whom I helped move. After a rather nasty divorce my friend was finally getting her life together and moving forward. A huge part of her "new" life was her purchase of a really nice 3 bedroom home. Included in the sale was all window covers, kitchen appliances (fridge,stove,d/w) and washer/dryer. It was written into the sales contract pretty much the way I just wrote it. Moving in day arrives and upon arrival to the new house she invites us all in prior to unloading the trucks to check out her new digs. Everything was fine until she walked into the kitchen. The appliances she thought she was getting with the house were no where to be seen, instead the former owner had replaced all the appliances with second hand shop 20 year old miss matched appliances. The fridge was replaced with a bar sized fridge (white) the stove was a nice olive green 20 yr old stove, and the dishwasher replaced a really old almond coloured dishwasher which the inside had a huge amount of rust stains plus wasn't even hooked up. The full sized washer/dryer had also been replaced with apartment sized washer/dryer stack. Needless to say she was completely distraught and after many frantic phone calls the end result was she had no legal recourse because the sales contract did not contain any make/model or serial numbers of the original appliances. It only stated that included in the sale was fridge/stove/d/w and washer/dryer which was all there but total junk. Lesson learned!, need to be very specific about including details in a sales contract.

[ny biker]

Late to this party, but here's another story:

We were working with our bank for the mortgage, and the loan guy misspelled my name which is Virginia to another word that starts with V, with many of the same letters, but with a two times and only one i. Perhaps an ok name for a porn star, and certainly a fine bit of human female anatomy, but not really what I wanted on my home loan. The bank insisted that it could not be changed. We went to another source for our mortgage.

This is too awesome for words.

I would have written to the CEO to tell them exactly why I was taking my business elsewhere. Beyond the humor of the incorrect name, they were insisting on issuing a loan to someone who does not exist. None of your documentation -- pay stubs, etc -- would have matched the application. It's just mind-blowing.

[Helene2013]

This moving in day horror happened to my best friend whom I helped move. After a rather nasty divorce my friend was finally getting her life together and moving forward. A huge part of her "new" life was her purchase of a really nice 3 bedroom home. Included in the sale was all window covers, kitchen appliances (fridge,stove,d/w) and washer/dryer. It was written into the sales contract pretty much the way I just wrote it. Moving in day arrives and upon arrival to the new house she invites us all in prior to unloading the trucks to check out her new digs. Everything was fine until she walked into the kitchen. The appliances she thought she was getting with the house were no where to be seen, instead the former owner had replaced all the appliances with second hand shop 20 year old miss matched appliances. The fridge was replaced with a bar sized fridge (white) the stove was a nice olive green 20 yr old stove, and the dishwasher replaced a really old almond coloured dishwasher which the inside had a huge amount of rust stains plus wasn't even hooked up. The full sized washer/dryer had also been replaced with apartment sized washer/dryer stack. Needless to say she was completely distraught and after many frantic phone calls the end result was she had no legal recourse because the sales contract did not contain any make/model or serial numbers of the original appliances. It only stated that included in the sale was fridge/stove/d/w and washer/dryer which was all there but total junk. Lesson learned!, need to be very specific about including details in a sales contract.

OMG. I never thought people would do such a nasty thing..I'll remember that one for sure if I ever get another home (or something that says : include such and such item!)

I remember when we purchased our 2nd home, we thought the alarm system was functioning. NOT! So we had to have it changed and it did end up costing lots of $

So when we moved into our current home, we had an architect do the inspection and he tested EVERYTHING that was checkable! Even run the water in the tub to check if the jets were working. Owners were going nuts. haha It was a $600 well spent! I would not be caught off guard again for some things...but never thought about people switching something when it was specified it would be included.

[DebSP]

Well I guess that explains why one of the couples buying our house wanted pictures of the appliances and the serial numbers. I was totally insulted. I would not even consider that offer. I cannot believe that people can be like that. Is there no honour left in this world?!?

[ny biker]

Before I bought my condo, I noted a nice wall cabinet in the bathroom. After the settlement, the cabinet was gone and in its place was two ugly towel bars. The sellers lived out of state and had rented it out for years, so I assumed the last renters had taken it, and maybe they had put it up themselves. I didn't say anything about it because I was too focused on replacing the harvest gold stove from the 1970s and painting over the matching harvest gold tile backsplash in the kitchen. And replacing the dryer that took all day to dry my towels. And ripping down the awful wallpaper in the kitchen. Did I mention the sellers hadn't actually lived there for years?

(Years later I'm finally having the bathroom gutted and completely renovated. The new custom vanity will be delivered on Tuesday, along with a matching wall cabinet that will be nine inches deep. I can't wait to have all that extra storage space. And it will be partially recessed in the wall, so it won't stick out much more than the type of cabinet you can buy at a big-box store.)

I can't imagine pulling a bait-and-switch with the appliances if I ever sell this place. If I want to take anything with me I will have it replaced before putting it on the market, or make my intentions clear up front and offer a discounted price as a result.

[Crankin]

I can't imagine it, either. The first house we bought in MA had a Jenn Aire range, but the owners made it clear they were taking it with them. The original oven was fine, just not upscale.

[Trek420]

More detail. I was in favor of going with our credit union for the loan but our realtor has a mortgage broker he works with. We were expecting a bidding war. He felt that having their mortgage would give us an edge. Whatevah, we went with them.

Approval for the loan went smoothly and then the paperwork began. "We have this online tool to submit your paperwork" they said "it'll be easy" they said. Nothing worked. "You can fax everything" they said "24/7 right to our desk" they could not find anything we sent" lord knows where our social security numbers are now.

Their office is near my work so I started going in early, drop the files off, go on to work. Over and over again I'd be in their office, we'd go over the paperwork "here it all is, my favorite color, the deed to my first born child, list of my tattoos ....is this everything you need?" Yes, they said. Perfect, they said. And I head off to work 5 minutes or less away and by the time I get there, I get a text or call from Knott that they are missing documents WE JUST CONFIRMED I DROPPED OFF IN PERSON!

Insurance, they wanted to verify we have insurance. I drop off cards and policy statements, they want to call my agent which they do and then .... "We don't show that you have insurance" WTF??!! You called our agent. How did you call our agent if we don't have insurance?

We got part of the down payment from my now late Mom. And the worst thing was they were rude to her and me. The incompetent office manager who kept losing paperwork tried to finagle my bank and my mom's bank into releasing account information to her. She tried to call both our banks and gain info about both accounts by posing on the phone as me and as my mom. :mad:

This was a point I told realtor, mortgage broker we're about to cancel the deal and file identity theft charges on the mortgage broker. You.do.not.try.to.gain.access.to.someone's.account. You do NOT do this to my mom :mad:

Want bank statements? You got it. Want me to drive them to your office 5 times? Not unexpected. But you do not try to impersonate me or my mom on the phone. :mad:

Let's see, they put the wrong address on many documents, were still straightening that out. But must admit the rate on a 15 year mortgage was exceptional and other than the crazy neighbor (see Crazy Condo Neighbor thread) http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=53328 we are very happy.

If you are in the Seattle region ask me who NOT to use for your mortgage needs. :rolleyes:

[IBrakeforPastry]

We got part of the down payment from my now late Mom. And the worst thing was they were rude to her and me. The incompetent office manager who kept losing paperwork tried to finagle my bank and my mom's bank into releasing account information to her. She tried to call both our banks and gain info about both accounts by posing on the phone as me and as my mom. :mad:

This was a point I told realtor, mortgage broker we're about to cancel the deal and file identity theft charges on the mortgage broker. You.do.not.try.to.gain.access.to.someone's.account. You do NOT do this to my mom :mad:


If you are in the Seattle region ask me who NOT to use for your mortgage needs. :rolleyes:

Did you file charges, or at least make a formal complaint? The other stuff sounds like sheer incompetence, but this seems much more serious. Did your mother's bank refuse to release the info? I think I would be livid.

[Trek420]

Did you file charges, or at least make a formal complaint? The other stuff sounds like sheer incompetence, but this seems much more serious. Did your mother's bank refuse to release the info? I think I would be livid.

My bank and her bank notified us that someone with ID information had attempted to call and get info. Customer service at both banks had wisely not given anything. Mom, then 91, smart as a whip and had a password on her account. Everyone should get one.

I had a cow but am mostly satisfied that it's likely our realtor who is popular, successful and deals with some moto expensive properties might not be using them anymore. At minimum they got a harsh talking to from one of Seattle's best or lost a great client.

[shootingstar]

In Canada, one can go to a mortgage lender...but I've stuck to one of the major 6 national (or now international since Canada's brand has gone beyond our borders ) banks for mortgage. I just can't be bothered to deal with an independent small firm/person.

[zoom-zoom]

Our new next-door neighbors were told that the house they just bought included sprinkling...it does not. Just one more way our previous neighbor was a jerk. How does one knowingly sell a home with features listed that don't actually exist? And they discovered that their garage is too shallow to park their minivan. This house is <2 years old. I'm not even sure how a garage so small meets building code.

We got semi-screwed when we sold our previous place this past Dec. It was an old fixer-upper. Like everyone else who bought ~2000 we lost money selling 13 years later. We were just happy to have TWO offers within 24 hours of listing, since we live nearly an hour away and were tired of the long drive to maintain the old place. We accepted the first one (both offers were nearly the same amt). Both were rural development financing. No one informed us that this meant that many things needed to be above and beyond standard code (our realtor doesn't really sell up in the rural area where this house was located, so it wasn't a scenario he was familiar with). So we ended up paying thousands of dollars to fix several minor things that wouldn't have required repair with standard financing options.

We also had a couple grand put in escrow, since the detached garage needed repainting. This was to be done as soon as the weather improved enough for painting. We rode our bikes past our old place maybe a month ago and painting still had not been done...and our money still sits in escrow (and a broke-down car sits in what was our backyard). If they're not going to use it, then I wish we could have it back.

In hindsight, had we known this would likely end up a rural development loan situation, we likely would have asked $5-10k more, or simply not accepted anything other than standard mortgage offers, to begin with. We ended up having to write a check for a couple grand at closing. When we accepted the offer we thought we'd be the ones getting a small check.

[Trek420]

In Canada, one can go to a mortgage lender...but I've stuck to one of the major 6 national (or now international since Canada's brand has gone beyond our borders ) banks for mortgage. I just can't be bothered to deal with an independent small firm/person.

Best to pre qualify for the loan with a bank or credit union before you even look. But our dog found this condo before it listed and we needed to move and bid fast. All's well that ended well. :cool: Have always pre qualified before on the other home buys.

[NoNo]

My mortgage company was incompetent, but at least they never tried to impersonate me! How unprofessional!

So far the house has been as advertised. I did find a dead outlet behind the couch, and we did have to move a massive wardrobe that was left from the living room to the basement, but everything else has been fine. I did try to turn on the A/C just to see if it runs, and it did, although not particularly strongly. I was kind of worried there was something wrong with the house when I first looked at it because there had been a successful open house just a few days earlier, yet no one had made an offer. In my town, cheap houses are snatched up, so I was puzzled. Still don't know what people didn't see in this house, but I sure do love it!

[ny biker]

My mortgage company was incompetent, but at least they never tried to impersonate me! How unprofessional!

So far the house has been as advertised. I did find a dead outlet behind the couch, and we did have to move a massive wardrobe that was left from the living room to the basement, but everything else has been fine. I did try to turn on the A/C just to see if it runs, and it did, although not particularly strongly. I was kind of worried there was something wrong with the house when I first looked at it because there had been a successful open house just a few days earlier, yet no one had made an offer. In my town, cheap houses are snatched up, so I was puzzled. Still don't know what people didn't see in this house, but I sure do love it!

I assume there was an inspection before settlement, and that should have uncovered any real issues. Your house might be like my condo -- at a time when things were selling fast and prices were climbing every week, I was the only person to put in an offer on my place. The reason was that several other comparable 1BRs went on the market the same week and they were all in better shape, and mine needed more work so it was no one's first choice.

At the end of it all, what matters is that you love it.

If it's central A/C, having it cleaned might make it run better.

Enjoy!!