Share your home buying horror stories!

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.

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.

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:

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Originally Posted by Trek420

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:

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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.

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Originally Posted by IBrakeforPastry

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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.

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!

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Originally Posted by 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!

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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!!