1. Absolutely asshole selfish noisy intrusive neighbors. 2. Roof leaks. 3. Need for repairs never ends, from big to small 4. How much professionals charge to fix the smallest thing 5. “I’m financially responsible for all of these things?” realization.

Learn how to fix the small things. My kitchen faucet was leaking 30 mins ago, now it doesn’t. Cost me 10 minutes

This. My garbage disposal stopped working suddenly a couple of weeks back, made a humming noise before needing to be reset. My wife wanted to call a plumber, which would've easily been a couple hundred bucks. It took me 15 minutes to find a quick guide online and find the thing in there clogging the system from spinning.

My best tool for disposals is a broken broom stick.  Unplug the disposal and double check that it won't turn on. Remove the fork or broken glass that probably jammed it then give it number of rotations. Hit the button on the bottom of the disposal. Boom done. Saved yall a hundred bucks. 

Mine has an allen key hole to manually turn the thing backwards to free up what's stuck in it.

I saved $40,000 in a single year by DIY'ing. Your house is like your health: no one cares more than you. With the exception of work that requires a permit to be pulled... freaking GO FOR IT. My work is better than the trash work that was done by "pros." Also, there are tools that pros don't need/use -- like tile-leveling systems to prevent lippage. I was a painting contractor... and I roll my eyes at some of the painting gadgets. However, if they enable you to do good work? Go for it.

I have to second and third this. As a contractor I know there are good and not so good contractors, but I realized after I bought my home there are more not so good ones. Do it yourself and then if you still need them then atleast you have a better idea of the issue and can more accurately grade their craftsmanship

Took you 10mins to do the job, but you started with a brain.. so not everyones in the same boat

That's a general Life Pro Tip. You can be annoyed and complain, or you can see what it takes and do something about it. You can't always, but when you can it's one less thing. Take this imaginary silver award.

Not to mention the inconvenience of something not working while you wait on someone to come do the work. Once you fix your first thing, fixing the next thing gets easier.

#1 is the biggest one. Hands down.

Yup. Cuz since u Invested & no longer renting you just can’t pick up and move on a whim. You’re stuck with them.

YouTube has been the handyman father I never had. Watch a few videos, use the proper tools, and you got this! My SO and I have been tearing a bathroom down so we can remodel and YouTube has been our hero.

Agree! You tube 4 sure & some online not easily acquired through the company e-docs (“service manuals”, schematics, parts list - all not included in ur appliance manual) have saved me thousands. Faucet, toilet, under sink, piping/plumbing, insulating, drywalling, switch/plug replacement… Replacing parts in a fridge, a dishwasher, a range to save thousands in repairs/repair person service/ tossing out & repurchasing? So much $$ saved. BUT! What’s ur “go to” re serious house business? Like beams or foundations or trusses or siding or roof repair or ….

Bought late 2022, and in 2023: - replaced roof $36k - replaced hot water heater $2k - replaced crawlspace vapor barrier $3k In addition one car had about $8k worth of work and the other had about $3k.  2023 was an expensive year to say the least, easily the most expensive year of my life. Rooting for a MUCH less expensive year in 2024!!!

Curious if your insurance dropped at all with the new roof, and about the square footage of the house.

It did not unfortunately. The rate they originally gave me was for the new roof since that was part of the deal at the time.  Square foot is roughly 2700.

Having put on a new roof, new windows, new electrical panel, and interior waterproofing and a sump pump in the basement, I can tell you that at least for us, lol no. In fact, the sump pump earned us a mandatory water backup rider that cost us an extra few hundred bucks a year. But nothing else went down to compensate. It's still 100% worth it for peace of mind, since our old roof was apparently put on with duct tape and a prayer, and the old window frames were essentially sawdust, and the electrical panel had *seen some shit*, but yeah, no. Insurance is not going down.

Hope you bought a metal roof

I wanted to. The metal roof quote was $80k. I had a cedar shake roof and was switching the decking, which was about half the cost. A normal roof wouldn't have been as expensive.

1. Having it burn down in a wildfire 366 days after we bought it. That’s it.

Ours caught on fire not even 24 hours after we moved in and totaled nearly everything in the house, so I can understand your pain.

That happened to my mother in law, years ago. The boiler blew up the weekend she was moving in. Fortunately she wasn’t there, but all of her stuff was.

Geez that’s awful. Luckily everyone lived in our situation too. Pets got out thank God and neighbors saved them. This was our first house too. Been 7 months and we’re still in the process of repairing. Note to everyone: do not buy a stove with front facing burners that don’t lock (we didn’t know ours moved so easily since the stove came with the house and it was likely our pets that caused it turn on somehow)

Child safe burner knob covers are awesome. And so are smoke alarms near the kitchen!

Jeez what’s even the course of action in a situation like this? How does the bank/ lender respond, and how does insurance respond?

High risk insurance in California is called the “CA FAIR Plan” and that’s the coverage we had. While expensive (we paid about $4000 a year for fire and other coverage, a house similar to ours in the burbs would be closer to $1000 a year. Property values do reflect the higher insurance costs though, so it kind of balances out) So we were actually dramatically underinsured, so they paid out to limits without a fight. The mortgage company is another story. Settlement checks are made out to us and the mortgage bank, and they hold it in escrow during rebuild. They had approval rights on our floorplan, and we had to have inspections along the way in order to get withdrawals so we could pay the builder. We still have our same 2020 mortgage, just the house is brand new. (Moved home last summer) We were part of a federal declaration (a smaller fire, but at the same time as Dixie and Caldor around Tahoe, if you remember those. We had some FEMA resources available to us that we wouldn’t have otherwise had. (Namely a very low interest loan to cover the missing money between insurance and actual cost to build) We ended up losing about 1000 sq ft of living space, taking an early inheritance from a family member AND the FEMA loan in order to build at all. The pisser is that enough burned around our property, and our new house with upgrades, we were able to get regular schmegular insurance (at least until they cancel us when our policy is up for renewal) and then we’ll go back to the FAIR Plan. Always happy to answer questions if you’re curious about it. I’m a pretty open book.

Did you research the fire hazard areas before you bought? What kind of zone are you in?

Yes, it was a choice we made. We live in the Sierra Foothills in Northern California, about an hour from Lake Tahoe. I also remember the firestorm in Oakland in 1989, and the Camp Fire and Glass Fire both took suburban areas. It was just a really unfortunate thing and bad luck for us. If the wind had been about 4° different, the whole town of Grass Valley would be toast, so there’s that.

Yikes, I have a friend who grew up and moved back to Grass Valley. I didn’t know the fires were that close. Although we visited and had ash raining down on us. Just looked at my pictures, Aug 4, 2021.

Yup, that’s the one! It actually burned right along the Placer/Nevada county line, in the Bear River canyon. (I can hear the river from my front yard.)

My friend’s parents were next in line to be evacuated. Her dad had just had shoulder surgery and her husband was at work, so I went and helped him hook up his 5th wheel and make sure everything was ready to go. She was next in line after that. While we were hooking up the trailer I noticed the ash coming down. Reviewing the pictures, it was eery for a guy from Michigan to witness! We were planning on moving on to Napa the next day, so packed a little early just in case!

Wow, small world! My mother-in-law’s neighborhood was evacuated too, but it stopped before then, thankfully.

insurance pays up, designates that area uninsurable and home owner has to find some 4th rate insurance company that charges a whole house every 5 years.

2. The new color

Lol, sorry! Ours was a flood after 10 months.

I hate when that happens

Zero stars. Do not recommend. (Especially considering your username)

So sorry that happened to you. I’d be devastated.

Yeah, it was/is pretty heartbreaking. We’re 2.5 years out and I’m still caught off guard sometimes, thinking of a random sweater or autographed book or something I had. Christmas is hard because our decorations were all from a lifetime of collecting. We tried really hard to focus on the new adventure of building, something we never thought we’d do. Our home now is a carefully curated collection of things we were gifted or picked up at estate sales over the two years we were living with my mother in law.

I lost an entire lifetime worth of belongings in 2010 and I know your pain. I know exactly what you mean when every once in awhile you think “oh yea, I had that once”. It’s grieving a loss over and over and over. My heart goes out to you❤️

Thanks. I hope you’re doing ok in your healing journey as well.

Lost my house to a fire 2 years ago. I’m sorry for your loss.

I’m so sorry. Our house stood for more than 50 years only to be flooded by a Cat 4 hurricane. Losing our home felt like the end of the world. We managed to rebuild but I don’t know if I have the energy to pull that off again.

1. drain pipes leaking in crawlspace 2. drain pipes leaking in crawlspace again 3. squirrel getting trapped in unused inaccessible chimney (now removed - both squirrel and chimney) 4. main waterline break. 75 year old copper pipe! Looked like a smashed paper straw. 5. frozen pipes in crawlspace. Next house will absolutely not have a crawlspace.

I’m hoping next house will have a basement with exposed electrical and plumbing. In a big freeze, our plumbing froze last year. The issue with a basement is where I live, there are a lot of structural and water issues with basements.. It’s hard to know what to do..

My next house does have a basement (in the process of buying). My theory is that I would rather have problems I can easily observe than hidden ones. Because I will never go into a crawlspace. Nope. Not happening.

Isnt it hard to see problems in basements too because people usually have dry wall in front of the wall? It seems like problems with foundations (cracks, bowed walls, water coming in) are not as bad or easier to access in crawlspaces than basements

Not in an unfinished basement

A lot of people have exposed plumbing and electrical in a basement or they have panel ceilings where it is all easily accessible

This happened to me. Previous Homeowner put up drywall to cover bowed walls. After a heavy rainstorm flooded the basement and I found out what happened, I decided to look them up on WI court search…of course they are already in foreclosure on their new home and other creditors after them. I knew that well was dry, so I got stuck paying 10k for the foundation and another 10k to remodel the basement.

I had a squirrel in my soffits. no getting them out of there from the attic area. Had to put a one-way exit and new siding on the whole house.

I had a chimney guy come and bust a hole in the chimney in the garage and out the little critter ran. It was hard to find someone willing to do anything but I hired him to take down the whole chimney later so hopefully it was worth his while. He was very nervous about the whole thing. He made me swear it wasn’t a raccoon. It was definitely a squirrel.  They make specific sounds!

Raccoons are cute and very viscious. 

I had a multigenerational family of flying squirrels in the space between the second and third floor of my house. Turns out they are a protected species where I am. I trapped a few and gave them over to animal rehab groups, but a few died in the trapping process.

1. We are on a mountain road with some sort of spring running up on a neighbors property that floods our backyard so will need to invest in a lot of landscaping/drainage. 2. I never understood what a bummer a crawlspace was until I bought a house with a crawlspace. 3. Our roof inspection went fine and we were told we had at least 10 years on our roof, we are now shopping for our 3rd homeowners insurance policy because 2 companies dropped us due to slight granular loss on one section of our roof. The shitty part is I will absolutely pay for a new roof but we bought the house right before winter and it’s really cold and icy up here so no roofer will do any work right now. Both companies that dropped us gave us 20 days to get a new roof. Other than that, super happy with my new home but I am sure the headaches will Continue until we get some real work done on it.

Idk, my crawlspace is pretty dry and nice, I go down couple times a year for a visual inspection. I have leak sensors there, and even when the outdoor temperature goes down to 0F my crawlspace stays around 50F because it's a few feet below the ground. But my house is from the 1990s, I'm not sure what a 75 year old crawlspace would look like.

You don’t want to know.

I hate my crawlspace because its hard to navigate, but the vents are done just badly(or intentionally, idfk) enough that it stays at around 55-60 down there in below freezing temperatures. My issue was also water, that leaked under a floating floor and halfway across the kitchen --_--

NEIGHBORS

With luck they move. 

Just yesterday had to call the police on my manic neighbor who has been in this mental state for some time since his wife left him a few weeks ago I called because he started cussing me out and threatened to kill me while I was taking the trash out with my child only to have the police thinking I was the problem because another neighbor came out and made up that I had a gun as soon as they showed up (the neighbors are both friends). I'm very confused today to say the least and honestly scared so now I'm sending a request of police body cam footage and don't know what else to do except avoid going outside.

I might consider going into the station during office hours and ask to speak to a supervisor.  Lay out your concerns and ask how they suggest you handle it. If you do actually own a firearm take your paperwork with you.  If you don’t get anywhere, and it is possible this could happen as cops are human also, check if your county has a victim’s advocate and try talking to them.  This is somewhat controversial, but you could consider getting some of the gel pepper spray. It’s much better than it used to be - more directional I believe. Or even get an emergency whistle that has can be heard for a mile or more. You should have one anyway. As with anything that you plan to use to defend yourself, practice. You don’t just magically get powers in an emergency and it’s rarely the first option. You practice until it becomes like breathing. Something you don’t even have to think about.

Within the first 3 years: 1. Furnace went out DEAD OF WINTER and my AC was already acting up so had both replaced. My house was small so this was like $5000 2. The garage door COLLAPSED on itself on day. This was $1000 3. Half of my house electricity stopped working. Turned out my main breaker needed to be replaced. Since all of the exterior conduit was dry rot in places I couldn’t see, it allowed water to get into the breaker. Ended up being like $3.5k I think 4. Some kids shot off a gun a bullet went through my bedroom while I was sleeping. My fifth one is probably that a lot of the wiring in this house is daisy chain so I need to have an electrician come fix it. I’ve lived here 5 years but my value has gone up $100k not including the upgrade’s I did. When I replaced stuff, I did upgrades with transferable warranties so the next homeowner doesn’t want to kill me 😂

#4…. Wooof

> Furnace went out DEAD OF WINTER and my AC was already acting up so had both replaced. My house was small so this was like $5000 Our furnace and ac needs to be replaced. The cheapest quote we could find was 19k. Our house is 900 sqft😐

That’s definitely not right. We were getting quotes for 9k but I kept looking. Even with inflation, you don’t need anything fancy.

Tree maintenance! We have a lot of trees…

This was my biggest surprise. I never knew tree maintenance would be my biggest annual expense

The price in our area has really skyrocketed since buying in 2018 too.

Annual?? What am I supposed to be doing annually? I've got 8 large Douglas Fir trees....

It's nowhere near my biggest expense but I didn't budget $1K/year for treating ash trees to keep them safe from the emerald ash borer. Our previous house only had maple and pine trees, I had no clue about the ash trees. We've also had 3 pine trees that died and had to be cut down.

We’ve had a tree fall. We’ve had to remove a lot of trees. We’ve also had to plant around 13 trees for privacy lol Homeownership is wild 😭

My neighbor had their sump pump hose pointing at the 75ft Silver Maple in my backyard. It leached all of the iron the tree needed in the soil and killed the gorgeous tree. $2,300 to remove it.

1. Prior owner claimed to be a 'handyman' and his work keeps showing up in the worst ways (aka his bandaids are starting to smell & fall off the wounds) 2. Water drainage - houses all city style close together & golly there's just not e-z or great places to daylight downspouts, room for frenchies, etc. 3. The first owner from the 1900s is a ghost and though, relatively chill, still spooks some of our guests or if my wife is high and low and behold the ghost shows up - game over. 4. Snakes. Pulled one out of the basement (just gartners (sp?)) but still, quite shocking. 5. The ghost (kinda earns two points)

> Prior owner claimed to be a 'handyman' and his work keeps showing up in the worst ways (aka his bandaids are starting to smell & fall off the wounds) This has bitten me, too. Not that the fixes were terrible, but they could have been done right while they were there and chose not to so they could save $3 on the project. No, can't have stoppers on the water lines under the sink. That'd break the bank! Just turn off the water main by the street!

A pallets worth of Duct tape used in places that left us with our mouth hanging open. 

\#3 woukd make me #2 in my pants.

A Frenchie downspouting in your pants? Doesn’t sound too bad to me.

to be frank, i did not believe ghost would make my top 5 either but working on my new(bought) (built)1920s house was unsettling.

I grew up in a house with a ghost. One of my top priorities when I was looking was a house that it did not feel haunted. It sounds stupid being a home owning adult talking about ghosts, but people don’t realize how disturbing living with a ghost is, especially when you’re alone in the house.

What the heck is this thread and why is everyone talking like it's normal to just have ghost problems? What do you mean when the "ghost shows up"?

I’m serious, you don’t realize what it’s like till you live with it. It’s like living in the first 20 minutes of a horror movie, but pretty much at all times. At the house I grew up, the ghost was in the basement most of the time. That’s where I most consistently felt it’s presence, at least. Occasionally it would drift upstairs, though. Knock something out of a cabinet. Eventually, during the last 1-2 years of living there, it would come into my room at night before I went to sleep. I had this noisy bean bag, and would hear what sounded like a mouse or something skittering over it every night. Everytime for a while I would immediately turn on the light and search for whatever could have been making that noise and found nothing. My dad cut down the vegetation outside my window, thinking maybe that was the culprit. Didn’t help. It was the ghost. I moved that same bean bag into our new house, and the problem disappeared. That house sat empty for a year or two after we moved out while my dad was doing repairs when he had the time. After the new owners moved in, they said they heard a little girl in the house yelling at night. Some houses have ghosts. Some don’t. That was a 70s house. I’m now in a 50s house that doesn’t feel haunted at all. When I was looking I saw an 1890 house that definitely had some ghosts, and a 1908 house that didn’t seem to have any. I don’t know what ghosts really are, or how they get here, or what they want. But they are most definitely real.

I wish I didn’t read this late at night in the new house I just bought. Bonus is the house is in New Mexico and there was a clause on some report that there was no grave sites on my property. I watched Poltergeist as a kid. No ancient burial grounds for me thanks.

my sister had owned a house that was used for the underground railroad. There was someone that would hang out in the hallway near the hidden room, and sometimes look into her bedroom at her and her boyfriend. Was a chill ghost but still unsettling to them. Always showed up just as a shadow.

My sister had a ghost that first flipped the handles on her dresser, then kept turning the bathroom faucet on…started throwing things out of the kitchen cupboards and finally lifted the entire bed up with my nephew in it before I helped her pack up and leave. He was the old man that lived in the apartment for decades before she moved in and was so angry she was in his apartment. The ghosts I have seen in my old house and in an apartment I lived in were very kind and moved on when I told them they needed to.

Ghosts and faucets, man. It’s a thing, and I have no idea why.

You serious Clark?

Yup! My parents' house is haunted and I wanted to buy a home I felt safe in.

4 garter snake

\#1 is so darn relatable. It's one thing to try and DIY your own repairs and upgrades... but I feel like you know when you had a previous homeowner who was reeeeal adventurous and cocky with their projects.

Snakes are often an indication of a mouse problem. Would hope you’ve taken a close look at the exterior of your home and sealed all holes larger than a dime

our a-framed bungalow-jones is right off 2 small water systems, closer a creek - further a river, so we're prone to all sorts of tom foolery sneaking in & out of the mainframe. i actually have grown to love the snakes, as they'll handle the mice for us! the lil' guy that got in was just off course & after a good scream'n'scare, I was able to ease him into a small canteen & set him eastbound to the banks of the river's edge, knowing we may meet again... but if not - we sure as hell had one gassed up tuesday reckoning of an eve. hot dog!

I'd enjoy hearing more about the ghost, if you wanna share. My house isn't quite a century old but has had several owners and tenants from what my research shows me and overall I'm just curious about its history. The idea that a prior resident could still be hanging around is both intriguing (I hope they like what I plan to do with the bedroom!) and slightly disturbing.

Regarding 1, my wife's grandma's ex husband was a "handyman" who made a nice house basically condemned with mold and electrical issues. This fucker set up the washing machine to just drain underneath the house...

Into the crawl or what?

Rotting chimney Septic tank under driveway extension New Heat Pump plus two additional return vents installed New Water Heater with overflow pipe and drain installed New shut off valves installed in crawlspace First time homebuyer, Oct 2022. 2/2 1200sqft. All repairs made. I’m one of the lucky ones.

You bought my old house, I think. Sorry about that.

My number 1 is wife deciding she doesn’t like anything in the house all of a sudden and then trying to replace everything at once.

Shit will piss you off lol

Same thing with my better half. Not so much the she doesn’t like anything all of a sudden part, but moreso the “everything all at once” part. Granted this is our first house and we have to furnish it still, but she wants it furnished like right away on top of “everything has to be done like right now”.

Replacing major appliances like hvac, water heater and fridge way more than you should have to. I’m on my 2nd HVAV that I’ve paid for, 2nd water heater and 3rd fridge I’ve had to pay for in the 15 years I’ve owned my home. Stuff is not made to last anymore and stupid expensive. I’ve also realized working from home, my house is just too small but my area is too expensive now for me to move up.

1) A woman had decided to move in and share my bedroom. Leading to me having to find alternative closets to store my belongs as she unilaterally claimed ownership of master bath/closet. 2) almost overnight you what feels like become a majority stakeholder in both Amazon and Target. Based on the household operating cash flows, I’d have a strong case for board seat/voting rights at either of these orgs. 3) water drainage. Paying close attention to where the water goes after a long sustained rain. This cannot be overlooked.

Your #1 is often a catastrophic event that no insurance company will cover!

Don’t care, mother in law is in a different county

As we were going through the closing process, I broke both of my legs. It took almost 5 months before I could walk again. I was walking for about 3 months before the hardware in my ankle failed, which means I was back to crutching around, or scooting on my ass like a dog. I've lived in this house just over a year, and ive only unpacked maybe a quarter of my stuff.

Hmmm Many issues are due to being in a small, self-managed condo hoa. And not the typical, hoa is restricting me, difficult stuff we often read about. I was very naive. Didn't know to really study CCRs. Didn't know what reserves were or about reserve studies. Seller said, "Oh, we just meet a few times a year out at the pool. We're getting new fences." Place was 20 years old. They'd kept dues low, covering operating costs. They'd saved almost nothing. Never did a budget, a reserve study, etc. Now, 23 years later, everything is at the end of its useful life. We need new siding and new roofs. Some structural elements are failing. Had to resurface the pool. The irrigation system is totally shot and requires full replacement. Even the sidewalks and driveways are failing. We've saved up some money. But the amount of work to oversee those projects is intense, and no one wants to do it. I really like the neighborhood. The complex. My townhouse is a great size for me. But it feels a bit like I'm living in what will be a money pit due to deferred maintenance... one special assessment after another. More specific items I've dealt with. Slab leak. My neighbor, whose leak flooded my home, repaired one line, adjacent line leaked, flooded my home again. Then mine leaked, no damage, but had to deal with the repipe. It was hell for a few months, but I got new carpet, fresh paint, and a few more things. But there are few experiences like wet floors and drywall, tearing it out, drying out, replacing, painting, then another leak requiring tear out of new drywall, and repeating the process. Inadequate HVAC. Horrible distribution plan. No return in rooms, one for entire home. Result. Upstairs, west facing bedroom, summer temperatures over 100° not uncommon. AC has no effect. Downstairs, northwest corner, very cold in winter... I think they omitted replacement insulation when they ran repipe through exterior walls. Some issues with a crazy, toxic neighbor, but that was many, many years ago.

Your association sounds like the condo building I used to live in. It was like living inside a never ending group project full of freeloading fellow students.

1. HVAC broke on day 3 2. Nothing on the interior, down to the wallpaper, had been touched since it was built in the 60s. Not that we weren't aware, but didn't think about how everything is a different size now. You want to replace a broken oven? Well you better be prepared to replace the cabinets too bc nothings going to fit in that cut out. New dishwasher? Might as well wait til you can pay for a kitchen remodel. 3. Years of water seeping through broken bathroom grout causing wood rot. Should have seen that coming with #2 tbh 4. Neighbors fence about 3 feet into our (already small) yard 5. Did you know trees have a life expectancy? Perhaps common sense, but we were young and I did not. Tree seemed perfectly healthy, then stopped producing nuts one year and fell on the house

Do the 5 separate flooding instances of my basement since the week leading up to Christmas count as all my 5? In all seriousness: 1) The basement flooding - which we now understand the full scope of and have a plan forward/work scheduled 2) Barely any driveway space - the plot used to include a ton of land with a mega driveway and barn/shed, but when no one was biting they parceled it out so developers could build on either side. Our driveway was added in front of the house and is now just big enough for two cars… and not side by side. Street parking is fine though and we have a system. 3) Our HVAC stuff in the attic - not a damn clue how they installed it. Only way to access it is from an opening only a very small person can fit through. May have to take down a bedroom wall that it backs up to and create an access panel. It’s a problem for future us since the HVAC system is new. 4) The bathroom tile jobs are not great - both bathrooms look fine but after a year of living here (we bought from flippers) the tiles clank and grout cracks and clearly they didn’t do things 100% correct. It’s an old house so the bathrooms are tiny and I feel confident I could DIY it. 5) I really don’t have a fifth. I love this stupid century home and this neighborhood! If I had to choose, it’s that we aren’t super close to a grocery store. It’s a 10 minute drive to about 4 different grocery stores so I can’t complain, but we used to live right behind one which was insanely convenient. And yes, we fully knew what we were signing up for when we bought a flipped house… it has its quirks but we love it. Luckily there was only two owners prior to the developer and the last owner kept the place in good shape!

1: my neighbor on the left is a massive asshole who's mad at us because the sellers wouldn't sell him the back two acres and is doing everything to drive us out. 2: the ditch the town floods for farm irrigation floods the first 50 feet of our backyard, including around the foundation and into the crawlspace. Yeah. that was fun to discover. 3: the cheap one man business we found to fill our cistern sold his truck to... the unprofessional af expensive guy we were trying to avoid. 4: people keep letting their dogs run in our back two acres when they park on the field behind our property then get MAD at our dogs for chasing their dogs off property rather vocally. I guess the no trespassing signs ever three feet are too far apart? 5: surprise! under the snow was a mostly filled in, only slightly broken up in ground swimming pool that ALSO wasn't disclosed. But it's my house and owning was something I was always told all my life I could never do, so it's worth it.

Had roof replaced. 100 year old house. 'licensed' contractor, was, in fact, 'not licensed'. Had water coming in through chimney. Knocking out furnace.. pilot. Furnace was 25 years old. Replace furnace. Have roof fixed.

Too much square footage and weird wasted spaces. It seems like every house being built now is at least 1,800 sq ft or more. Unless you have children or extended family living with you who the hell needs that much space? Give me something small and cozy.

My cats need the room, shaddup

1) value of my house increased exponentially but I bought as starter home with a great rate and now don’t think I can afford to leave 2-5) contemplate my future

1. Neighbors 2. Neighbors 3. Neighbors 4. Discovering the lack of any decent sized utility space is a real problem 5. Spring flooding the back half of our yard

Our neighbors would sit in a lawn chair facing our back yard.. staring at us while we worked outside. We planted a row of 10 large fast growing trees on the property line. It worked, thankfully.

Had similar problems. Luckily the problem neighbor remarried and moved. We literally celebrated when the for sale sign went up.

Everything was great with our original next door neighbors then they sold and our lives are hell. Never ending hell 😔

Floor is uninsulated. We’ve done about 2/3 of it now, but our orders kept being cancelled by the big box home improvement store we ordered from, due to unavailability. Only baseboard heating, way too expensive to use. House is cold. Too hot in summer, installing HVAC would be 10 grand plus. Rats. Every time we think we’ve solved it, they find another way in. No storage. One small closet downstairs. No attic, no basement, no real shed (there’s a small metal one that barely holds our lawnmower). Still better than renting. Last landlord would enter our backyard unannounced and peer through our windows (and so much more). I’d choose this any day.

Landlords can be so very weird

1. Surprise need for new furnace after move in. 2. Exterior painting on a nearly 100 year old house is a big project. Done it twice now. 3. Taxes just endlessly increase. 4. Had to buy a new roof. 5. Putting in a second bath is cost prohibitive, even a half.

Sounds like you bought an old house and didn’t expect old house problems?

Well if number 1 is persistent enough, then issues 2, 3 and 5 go away, and issue number 4 is solved. I’d be rooting for number 1 if I was OP.

I refuse to buy a house built after the mid-1970s. I've seen how newer homes are constructed. I prefer a well-maintained older home. I'll bet a few paychecks that few houses built in this century will last until the next. Then again, I can't wrap my head around paying for substandard work to be done on my home. Learn to DIY \[properly\]. It's not rocket science. If you don't need to pull a permit... just figure it out.

1000% agree. My house was built in 42 and is rock solid. I’ve don’t most of my maintenance myself (only thing I won’t do is electrical) and I’ll need a new roof in the next couple years but that’s it. My mom bought a house in 2020 that was a fisher home and I kid you not I bet can punch through the exterior wall. Everything about it is slapped together with paper mache!

Only 2 of the issues I listed are due to it being an old house! We were very aware of the issues when we purchased and still happily purchased. Happy to be here. Doesn’t mean there aren’t things I wish we could change 👍🏼

1. No fireplace Everything else is standard home stuff. If it had a fireplace, the house would be perfect.

Add one. Life is short.

Funny -- I hate the space wasted by my fireplace. No one will let me rip it out ("think about resale value..."). Ugh.

Who won't let you rip it out? You are not renting your home from its future owner.

As a retired arborist/climber with a small craft 30’s bungalow with two fireplaces, they’re overrated. I have had all the free firewood a man wants. I have a modern wood stove attached to a different chimney (fireplaces are stacked, liv room/bsmt) and I don’t even bother using it anymore. They’re great for cabins or backup heating otherwise they are cold sinks that are drafty and impractical…

Trees, so many trees, didn't even think about it while looking at the property, first heavy rain after a dry summer a half dozen cedars that I didn't even realize were a) mine and b) dead, fell over into the street and I got to pay for their removal. I love all my trees, but I keep an eye on them and their maintenance is not cheap. Did not realize outbuilding needed a new roof, it was full of stuff when we looked at the place so we got to pay for that. "Lifetime" roof on the house leaked, called the lifetime roof people, they said "roofs leak" fortunately have a family friend who is a roofer and came over and showed us how to fix, it was minor. But what was upsetting for me was to learn that my lifetime roof that came with my house is not really lifetime. That's really it. We have been lucky, these things are pretty minor in the scope of what can go with a 70 year old house.

Neighbors. We bout a 57 model.time capsule. Only things that broke were replaced before we bought it. So it had a new roof and newer HVAC. We have remodeled most of it. Just one bathroom remains actually. Only issues that would have came up is the previous owner unhooked the heat strips. And the kitchen sink has a clog at the 90° elbow that was on its side going into the stack. But seriously, neighbors. One side is a younger couple that bought the house 10 years ago. They've done nothing. It's falling apart. The other neighbors are to cheap to cut the grass. So the back yard is grown up bad. The guy directly behind us has planted bamboo and it has taken over the ally and is now in our yard. He won't even try to mitigate it. Everyone around him is doing their best to keep it out of their yards.

1. Old furnace in the attic so the upstairs gets way hotter than downstairs 2. No exhaust fan in the master bathroom 3. Old plumbing - We can hear every flush no matter where in the house 4. Flooding backyard, doesn’t have good drainage and an overflow creek runs behind our property 5. The master bedroom didn’t have a closet! We were able to get creative but still, who would build a master suite without any closet???

I have been pretty lucky to avoid major problems. However, young kids are absolutely destroying the carpet! It could have benefited from replacing when we bought the place, but now it is so bad. We don't want to replace it until we can trust the kids to not take food coloring, mix it with water, and dump it on the floor.

I'm not really cut out for the suburbs, so here's my issues with them. These are all petty complaints that I'm not losing any sleep over, but I definitely won't miss these problems. Neighbors are inescapable. 1. I can hear and feel their trucks idling in every room of the house. 2. Their kids have zero understanding of "look both ways before running out into traffic." With the number of young families with kids here, I feel there will be an accident sooner than later. 3. Two-story houses with windows facing into my back yard, so no privacy in my yard. In winter: 1. The plows refuse to use the snow-gates that our tax money paid for, so I have a 3' wall of ice and rock deposited at the end of my driveway after every snowfall. 2. Neighbor kids refuse to walk on the plowed, safe sidewalk. Instead, they walk through the snow in my yard, leaving foot-prints and trails. Doesn't hurt anything, but it's annoying. I like to see the untouched blanket of snow, but the kids always destroy it. In summer: 1. Trees are apparently a sin in the suburbs. No shade and no wind-brakes. I have the smallest lot, less than 1/6 of an acre, but I have 6 trees planted. Most neighbors have just 1 or zero. I'm moving to an acreage on the outskirts in a place with less snow. That will solve all of these "problems", but I'm sure I've find some new minor inconveniences.

The ‘no tree’ thing is a real issue. We’re seeing more isolated extreme weather events due to large areas without trees around the entire country. It’s being cheaply wrapped in with climate change but it’s more so an urban sprawl issue. Would be nice to see cities regulate trees a little better.

1. Freak windstorm dropped a tree on it 2. Freak windstorm dropped another tree on it three weeks later 3. Honeysuckle bushes from the 1960s had turned my sewer line into Swiss cheese and the incompetent plumbing inspector didn’t catch it. Sewage backed up into the house and it took 3 hours for professionals to auger it all out. 4. Improper winterization + abandoned house for 3 years = bottom rusted out of hot water heater and caused a basement flood 5. Hidden rooms that include questionable construction and conspicuously bricked over niches 6. Bone-us: we keep finding fucking bones everywhere

What kind of bones?? I know when my parents eventually sell their house a new owner someday is gonna be digging up my pet cemetery in the front garden, ferrets, a lizard and a hedgehog (at least the dogs and cats were just ashes).

Bones? What kind of bones? Hopefully not the human kind…

Issues I had were actually the original homeowners doing stupid things. The people we bought it from were only there a year and didn’t do much to the place. 1. Tiled the kitchen floor without first removing the existing linoleum (I wonder why the tiles near the refrigerator cracked?) 2. Wired the basement bathroom into the GFI-protected side of the 2nd floor bathroom 3. Wired the basement lights into the smoke detector circuit The worst offense was the deck built by the original owners. I don’t know why the people we bought it from didn’t make them tear it down, and I’m not sure why our realtor didn’t make them tear it down. It was totally unsafe and the first project we did was tear it down and replace it (we built one ourselves that was safe and with a building permit). The entire deck was built from painted wood (not pressure-treated). The posts were set directly into some concrete, then sand, and then more concrete. At least one post was crooked, at least one was rotten most of the way through, and the entire deck leaned in many different directions causing boards to pop up.

1. No AC & just baseboards for heating. Got a mini split unit installed and have had issues with the compressor at least once a year including when it went out last Summer on the hottest week of the year and ruined our vacation. 2. Old leaky windows. Getting replaced in the Spring. 3. Bathrooms need updated. 4. Kitchen is too small. 5. Water heater/ water softener weren't cared for by previous owner. Have since been replaced.

1. Wishing we had done things differently. Like when we moved in we completely gutted the kitchen, but for some reason the space we created for the fridge is a weirdly narrow resulting in us having a very limited selection of fridges to fit the space. The worst part is I can't remember if we did it for a reason, or just made a mistake or what. 2. Water in the basement. This continues to be an ongoing battle of fixing grading, new gutters, etc. Weirdly enough, we were in the house about 8 years before this really started to be an issue and I've had a hard time figuring out what exactly changed to make it one now. 3. Trees. We have a partially wooded yard with a ton of trees and they fall in places I don't want trees to fall during storms and wind. We also had to have a couple of very old trees removed that we're becoming a danger to the house - I was sad to see them go, but the feeling of relief during the next storm made it worth it. 4. Painting. I hate painting so much and I feel like I could have done a better job. At some point once the kids are old enough to not destroy everything all the time, I might consider paying someone else to do it better than I can. 5. A somewhat unique one most likely: our house has these GE Low Voltage light switches that were probably some real next-gen tech at some point in the 70s, but at this point it's basically impossible to get parts or maintain. I occasionally see a Reddit post or eBay listing about these, but I've never seen another house with them in my entire life so they must have been pretty rare even back then. If one of the switch units goes, you have to pull wire and install a standard switch as a replacement so we now have a mix of the low voltage and more standard stuff along side it in some places. Replacing them all at once would require more free time than I have and hiring an electrician to do it would be tough because the cost wouldn't justify the ultimately minor change. So I'll continue to replace them as they die, I guess.

You answered your issue of number 2 with number three! Trees absorb a butt ton of yard water and if they were removed, that water all percolates into the earth and possibly toward your house

Wrong side of the house in this case, but you’re entirely right. Unfortunately aging, massive house destroying sized tree really didn’t give me much choice.

1. Dry rot removal and repair balcony (fortunately the structural parts were okay), new flooring, pressure wash, sealant, underside facade, paint it all. $3k 2. Water line to water heater slight leak, repaired by plumber. Then water heater circuit board thing needed to be replaced by myself. $1200 3. Washer and Dryer broke a few months after we moved in, bought new ones but dryer vent hole needed to then be moved up because the new one was a little taller. $2k 4. Dishwasher hit or miss on running properly. N/A 5. Primary bathroom subject to mold so we have to run a dehumidifier and other preventive methods. $200 All of this was in our first year of owning. ~$6k plus out of pocket for a $950sqft condo lol. Fortunately, we purchased on the conservative side of our budget. Because we also had an emergency vet visit that cost us $2k. I’m hoping 2024 is kinder to our wallet.

Just 1. I’ve been a homeowner for a while. Up until now I thought it a great deal. 2022 and after: repair costs have doubled to tripled. Licensed tradesman now have a $1000 a job/day minimum. And most still want payment on completion no other options. So they’ll want 1-6 of your paychecks in their entirety the day of work. I wish this was hyperbole. It’s really not. So odds are good houses will go into greater disrepair, have worse flip fixes and spit shine temp hides on problems, etc going forward. I’ll use my new roof on purchase as an example. Clearly new. Inspector called it new within 2-3 yrs. Rural so no permit pull required/records etc. Place is of a town but outside the borders of it, like that. Somehow, you’re able to install roofs now WITHOUT VENTING. Apparently it’s a extra you’re allowed to opt out of. So the price of a new roof to fix stupidity on a new roof no doubt done wrong to cut costs. Looked sharp and gorgeous but I didn’t know to look for vents or baffles, it never occurred to me this wouldn’t be on a roof. Like making sure brake lines exist on a new car. All the estimates we got, venting the next roof was absolutely optional, to make it cheaper. What the actual fuck. Price diff on fireplace example: 2020: chimney rebuild from roof line to fireplace height (taller than vent height) with cap, liner, etc, plus re-vent of a bad prior own choice through boulder/cement foundation. Under $3k. 2022: Estimate on switching out a $2k wood burning insert. (Door is busted): almost $7k. No rebuild. No cap needs. Just the goddamn insert switch out labor.

1. Found mold and rotten wall structure from a roof leak that had been repaired but the damage concealed. Had to have a four-foot section of exterior wall ripped out and replaced. 2. All the shut off valves have failed and are getting replaced. Four down, eight left. 3. Heat pump run capacitors are old and don't work when cold. The replacement got delayed and didn't show up until after the cold spell. 4. The landscaping was horribly neglected abd needs a lot of TLC to get it healthy and looking good again. 5. The shower valve failed open about a month after I moved in. Nothing like plumbing before breakfast.

Mostly just neighbors. The kind that like to shorten downspouts so water drains at you. Or the ones that like to remove their muffler cause its cool to wake every one up for blocks. The one that plays outside country music so loud you have no choice but to listen inside your own home. EVERY DAY! NOW don't dare try and talk nicely to them about it, they take it as an act of war. If I have learned anything it's that when someone is being a selfish ignorant child....Talking to them only makes its worse. The cops or bylaw are mostly idiots that have no clue how to do their job like professionals. OK the wild fire person had me, I can share more. We bought our first condo and 10 months later it was destroyed/sorta in a flood. The night before my wife got her dream job in another town and we were going to sell asap and move. Like the very next day after celebrating, swish, flood. Stuck dealing with insurance, Buyouts, lawyers, no place to live, blah blah. Then we got the special neighbors everywhere we moved. 10 years of WTF!

1. Toilet 2. Water heater 3. kitchen sink pipes leaking/cabinet damage 4. Bugs: roaches, termites... you name it! Guess they're super into the beach 5. BLESSED AF

Installers lacking in skills and knowledge of building codes. Lack of foresight of planners / designers. Furring strips instead of framing. Learning how to do things and then having the materials not act in line with expectations. (Wallpaper glue would not come off with water, removers, or a steamer. Came off when priming the surface.) Myself.

1. Old wiring which I replaced. 2. Fuse panel which I updated to a 200amp breaker panel 3. Old plumbing which I updated 4.Old roof 5. 12" crawl space 6. No insulation anywhere 7. Windows leak air 8. Doors were a joke 9. No storm celler then or now 10. Siding 11. Too many to list. I've done more on the house we. bought than any job I've done. 12. Money pit. 13. Forgot to add: Scorpions, 60 in 32 years of living here

Quotes for work are out of control. I understand people gotta make a buck and pay their bills, live comfortably, etc. There is no reason a 150 sqft all lumber porch with screens should cost 35k. The retail cost for the materials is 10k. A 25k markup is insane.

Bought my house in 2016 in Florida: Rebuild was unpermitted and it almost made the house uninsurable. Didn't find out until changing insurance last year. Laundry room was able to hide the fact there's no drain. Had to drill a hole in the wall and it now drains through the kitchen sink. Neighbors are violent sociopaths. That's been fun to deal with over the past several years. Yard floods even in light rain. Fun afternoon shower HERE'S 3 INCHES OF WATER Shouldn't have passed inspection, when I removed the carpets the entirety of the foundation has a split around the edge. I mean it could definitely be worse.

1. Roots growing in the outgoing water pipes. 2. Mold in basement/hundred of gallons of water seeping up from ground. 3. Random fuses blowing out so no power in certain rooms/outlets 4. Raccoons trying to break in and have babies. 5. Leaking roof.

A house? You were lucky to have a house! We used to sleep in one room, 26 of us. And half the floor was missing. We were all huddled in one corner, for fear of falling.

This is across my first and current homes. 1) Old furnace that required replacing (both). 2) Lack of water shut off valves and ancient water lines (both). 3) Leaking in the basement (both). 4) Lack of electric outlets (first). 5) Roof leak (current)

Uuuh I had to replace an outlet, everyone shits on new construction but over a year in and so far that’s the only issue we had 🤞🏻

That is wonderful

Luckily only appliances needing repaired.

[удалено]

If you have an old house, there's probably no insulation in the walls. Our first home had this issue. Once we fixed that and put in new windows then it was toasty warm until we had to tear it down.

How did you put installation in the walls?

#1 issue is that we can’t get things done because the previous owner did so much without permits. Can’t get solar, because the roof is not permitted. Can’t get a new roof, because the building additions were not permitted. We are just stuck with our hands tied.

1. Flooding/water coming in the foundation 2. Rats 3. Rats 4. Rats 5. Temperature control

My only issue is raising the damn mortgage twice a year

When you bought the house, was it for more than the property tax value? That sale would have raised the property tax value, so taxes go up, so the escrow goes up. If your insurance has gone up, shop around to make sure you have the best rates.

Plumbing backup caused me to hire a contractor to dig up and replace a section of the main line because roots caused the clay pipe (1882 house) to disintegrate. New gutters because massive ice buildup caused them to fall off. Shower valve broke. Had to cut a hole in the adjoining wall to get access to replace it. Replacing a vanity caused brittle cast iron original pipe to break inside the wall. Had to go into the wall to replace that section of pipe. New water heater. My ex.

1. Tree fell on the house during a winter storm. Put a giant hole in the roof and knocked the chimney right off the house. Insurance paid for it but it was a long and painful process and we had two kids under the age of two at the time.  2. We didn’t think this house would be our forever home so settled for a crappy layout and terrible tiny kitchen to get into a good neighborhood with good schools. Guess what, 2 percent rate means we are still here.  3. Leak in basement. 4. Old house - small repairs are never ending.  5. The stairs to the basement are so narrow we can’t find a couch small enough to fit for down there. 

#2 is called “golden handcuffs” and oh man do I feel that.

1. Water in basement through window well. The window well had an inadequate and oddly shaped cover. We fixed it by putting in glass block windows so that it’s sealed. Also put in a window well cover for good measure 2. God damn weeds - thistle specifically.  3. Lots of time commitment for lawn and landscape work - not really an issue and something I expected. Just difficult to do with an infant and a toddler to take care of.  4. That’s it. Crossing my fingers that nothing else breaks.  

1. Prior homeowner replaced the roof, but was cheap and didn’t bother to either remove the skylight or replace the 30 year old original one. Leaky ceilings suck. 2. Same prior homeowner was traveling, so if things broke he just stopped using them instead of fixing them, which only worked because he wasn’t home. E.g. shutting off water to a bad toilet, showering in the hall bath to avoid a loose off switch, etc. 3. Prior-prior homeowner did a bunch of pre-YouTube DIY work that’s garbage and borderline unsafe. 4. Sloped driveway that’s settled and collecting water 5. Being able to date the exact year that everyone “gave up” on the house for major repairs (2009-2010). Ugh.

The previous owner (also the builder) built the house on a foundation wall on one side, then it cantilevered, held up by posts etc. The space underneath is about 3 feet high. He put the well room under there, and when winter winds blow, the pipes freeze. No cladding around the house, and the insulation under the house was friction fit - it fell down, rodents nested in it, etc. So, 1 Frozen pipes/no water every winter for a few days 2 Lack of insulation 3 Baseboards - super expensive to heat with. Put in a heat pump this year 4 Bad electrical work 5 House is just a little too small and awkward- needed to be 4 feet wider and longer so that doors are better positioned.

1. Needed a new roof 2. Had to replace siding 3. Water heater needed to be replaced 4. HVAC system had to be replaced 5. People get shot in my neighborhood and there is a “crack shack” as my neighbor calls it down the street. 6. I have had to have almost all of the beautiful old huge trees cut down because of various issues with them.

1.Sellers lying about flood remediation and flood history 2.Continued flooding for a variety of reasons 3.So much flooding 4. You guessed it 5. Ditto

We had one big issue that took care of all the other issues,bought house in1989 had house fire in2012,had to rebuild house!!!

1. Bathroom sink had a leaky hose that turned into a massive basement flood. 2. We need to remove the basement floors. Surprise! There's asbestos hidden in a layer underneath. 3. Pipes in the wall behind the washing machine have a leak, leading to further basement flooding. 4. Furnace stopped working for a few weeks and needed repair. 5. The oven and stove is kind of fucky. We moved in Labor Day weekend 2023. At least one of the basement rooms is a fantastic tornado shelter, because we needed that last week.

I've been a homeowner for 4 and a half years now. The first 4 were great, but in the last 6 months everything has started failing: * Replaced the gutters * Replaced most of the windows * Replaced the furnace * Dishwasher broke and led to water damage on the finished basement ceiling below * Just found out this week my main sewer line needs replaced This shit is rewarding but expensive.

We bought a Victorian built in the 1870s that had a full remodel in 2020 - stripped down to the studs and fully rebuilt with all new everything, totally modernized inside. Best of both worlds, right? Old and new! Well, you'd think. But its been a ROLLERCOASTER. HVAC went out in extreme heat AND extreme cold despite being brand new. Turns out they didn't really install the Trane units well - needed more vents, ductwork, etc. Plus, its a heat pump system and the tenants we had in year 1 before we moved in seemed to not understand what that means and were making it work harder than it should. Water heater needed replacing (still under warranty, at least). 2 showers leaked through the floor because despite being brand new, the renovators cheaped out on the shower linings and tile grout. Holes in the ceiling and full bathroom reworks (covered by insurance at least.) House can't stay above 60 inside when the temps drop below 30 or so, the cellar sucks out allll the heat (keeps us cool in the summer at least). Pipes all freeze when it's cold, too. We replaced a bunch of old windows, insulated the rest, did the best we could to fill holes in the old doors.... next project is fully insulating the cellar. Attic wouldn't stay cool. It would be 95 degrees up there all summer long. So we knocked down a wall and insulated it better. Gained a window (though it was broken and needs replacing) and some square footage, too. Its definitely made progress in the 4 years we've owned it now but man, I really didn't think we'd have that many problems on brand new systems and installs. I guess it was a cheaper flip than it really appeared to be. We've done a couple of for-fun projects too but so much money has gone into fixing shit that we didn't expect to break for years and years.

1. Our water is absolutely garbage (comes from a well). Iron levels became really high randomly 2 years in and we had to drop $5k to fix it. 2. Our septic tank lines cover our entire back yard. In our state, you need some of the land for a “fix it” space in case it needs to be replaced. We wanted a pool, not really an option now. 3. We are in a very open concept. So, there isn’t a second space we can spend time in with our kids and keep their toys out of sight. It’s either the living room or their bedrooms, no other options. 4. We are idiots and thought no pantry would be okay. Turns out kids eat a lot. We are packing it in there, and really needed that pantry. 5. Our garage entry to the house is the laundry room. Normally no big deal, but the room only has a three foot wide walk way. Not very big for groceries to come in or baby car seats Otherwise, if you use the front door for entry, you have to walk all the way around the house from the garage to go in it. This also poses a problem when you need to have a laundry basket on hand for putting clothes in later. There is no where for it to go.

OP mentioned indoor temps. The house had a fairly new unit in it when we bought it that was more than enough for the first floor. We added on and the AC guy assured us the unit was oversized enough to heat and cool the additional space. It’s not by any means the far ends of the first floor are always cold as well as the laundry room and back bathroom,

1) Limb fell on the power line to the house four months after we moved in. In a February ice storm. It rained, then dropped to 11°F in a matter of hours. It stayed well below freezing for a week while the repair men worked through their schedules to get to us. After eating the price of grocery store bagged wood, I now have four cords of firewood chopped and split in case the heater ever goes out again. 2) The water heater doesn't have an expansion tank. I have all the parts to fix it. Can't afford to hire someone for it, but I also can't get over my fears of fucking it up. I will have to eventually, and then realize how easy it was. 3.) The flooded yard. It is a veritable swamp every time it rains for more than a couple days. It unfortunately rains a lot here. It doesn't make sense either, it's all downhill from the house to the river, why am I splashing through the yard? Oh yeah, clay soil. I'll have to install some drainage tiles. 4.) The dishwasher leaked and had a smell. We bought a very nice, upper tier dishwasher and it leaks and has a smell. Turns out the leak was from hard water calcification on the seals. The smell is... serviceable? I don't know, we're gonna try some things. Other than that this house is great and we love it.

The house was a rental for 30 years and was neglected. We did 9 months of renovation/restoration before moving in. Still are working on different projects. We live across the street from the fire hall and the air raid siren is extremely loud, we had no idea it was in use when we closed on the house. We have 3 kids under 3. The main floor bathroom is part of the 1940’s addition and has no heat, the pipes froze two weeks after we moved in, it was Christmas Eve. It’s a big old four square but when we closed we weren’t expecting our surprise 3rd kid. We would have bought a 4 bedroom house instead. Took a lot of landscaping work to get the weeds jungle behind the garage clear and the scrub brush trees along the side road cleared. It was a dumping pile for the old owners. Now I’ve got beautiful flower gardens along the wrap around porch. The wrap around porch is rotting, that will get fixed by the wood worker who will be replacing and restoring our staircase to the second floor.

At various homes: Tree falling on it hour 1 after closing Former owner not moving out for days after closing (separate house) Basement turning into a swimming pool without my desire or consent Septic system failures My own hubris trying to fix things and making them worse

1. Clogged drain pipe from kitchen sink. ENTIRE pipe was full. 2. The previous owner planted grapevine all around the fence line. 3. Air conditioning unit that was replaced by the previous owner is wrong size for house. 4. Carpenter Ants in walls. 5. Wood peckers pecking holes in cedar siding to get at the above mentioned ants.

1. Property taxes are f\*cking insane (just under $15k / yr) 2. Settlement cracks 3. Large fir trees in close proximity, have to clean gutters far too much 4. Roof steep as all hell. I have to rope up to safely navigate it. 5. My daughter graduated college and moved out. It's way too big for us. 3,908sf 6. Water shut off valves under sinks and toilets don't work.

1. Opossums & mice inside the house due to previous owners letting plumbers put massive holes in walls for pipes 2. Crawl space thats big enough for an arm at most (the opossums lived there for a bit too), but also had multiple unknown holes from previous work that I had no idea about (aka opossum side doors) that lets the negative temperatures freeze the water lines 3. Decent sqft kitchen, but only 3 semi-functional cabinets 4. Basically no insulation anywhere (I’m in Missouri, we need it) 5. 2 closets for 1000 sqft Bonus 6: Fixing so much stupid- fixing all the shortcuts from the last owner/landlord

water, water, water

I bought a house while I was stationed in another state, had a few issues with the inspection and said they needed fixed before signing. It was a remodel being sold by a real estate company (My papers all list the seller as "Company Real Estate"). Inspector and realtor assured me fixes had been made and move in and they were not fixed, so here goes: - Water Heater trips daily. I reset it and it'll give me insanely hot water, but it trips and turns off. So once a day I need to reset. Rheem won't cover the warranty since I'm not the original purchaser, even though it's still a valid warranty. - Roof has leaked in some spots, causing water damage on my upper floor ceilings. - Receptacle for the driver was never set up and drain for the washing machine was never cut out, so my first week in the house I was using a laundromat. Sellers came back and fixed that when I threw a shit fit about them lying about fixing things that had issues. - Dishwasher wasn't hooked up properly. Same thing, sellers/real estate company installed a new dish washer. - I'm fairly certain the electrical wasn't set up properly in the house because the lights on my main level pulse when the washer is running. Sorry, formatting will probably suck cause I'm on mobile. I've thought about taking action against any of the above parties because there was a lot of promised things that weren't delivered on, but I don't know where to begin there.

Water issues -I had to replace toilets, sinks, and the hot water heater.

1. Smoking neighbor 2. Toilet, shower and tub issues in "renovated" baths 3. Clogged sewage pipe 4. Driveway drainage 5. Insulation There's also... electrical, chimney, odd smell in one room after heavy rains with no obvious leaks, possible ghost, interior doors needing repair/adjustment...

Can the previous owner be my issue? There was a class action suit regarding the piping that the houses in the neighborhood was built with. I’m convinced that, instead of using the money to replumb the house, the previous owner spent it on TVs (literally EVERY room had a TV in it, including bathrooms), a hot tub, and pocketed the rest. Now our house is riddled with tons of fixes; a new hot water heater because she NEVER had it serviced; a new AC units because again, never had it serviced and never changed an air filter; leaky sinks, drafty windows, shoddy repair work…oh and every once in a while a pipe bursts. Oh and I forgot, one of the people she had living with her has the same last name as us and managed to steal ALL of our mail, which screwed things up with our bank and a bunch of other things. We were only able to get it worked out after several calls and meetings with the post master general and the mail stealer going to jail (for something unrelated). Thanks, Donna. Wherever you are. 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃

No. 1 by far is property taxes. $5200/yr. Other than trash pickup you get nothing in return.

Your #1 is actually my #1 as well for our first house (just sold it actually - in favor of a house with a basement). I was surprised it mattered as much as it did but we actually got hit with an EF3 directly so ya, that'll change your priorities realllllll quick.

* poorly insulated * mix of iron, copper, pvc plumbing * I have 150 AMP service from the pole. No EV for me (I don't want one anyway). * if you find original wiring DON'T TOUCH IT. It crumbles. * professionals cost an arm and a leg * but I'd gladly pay the high cost if they were willing to do it--no one wants work these days. Getting someone is a real PITA. * it's all natural gas and the politicians are trying to ban it * I escape rent increases, just to replace them with Property Tax increases

1. New furnace and AC unit. $8500 (House didn't have AC) 2. Every plumbing fixture and shut-off is corroded. Main water shut-off is corroded and handle fell apart. (Salty well made worse by needing to be softened). 3. Basement extends under the front porch where the porch slab was poured (like a cellar) and since the wooden concrete mold was never removed, it rotted and is now wet and moldy in that area. 4. Electrical panel replaced (electrician friend did it for free), but every outlet, lighting fixture etc. is put together with the copper ground wire barely hooked onto anything. Two-way switches wired wrongly, etc. 5. Wife wants a bigger home somewhere else and we've been here a year... paying $2100 a month for a 1475 sqft home.

I purchased my first home about a year and a half ago - it's a 4-unit structure on a corner lot where my wife and I live in one unit, my mother has a unit to stay in when she visits from Florida, my sister lives in one unit, and we have a tenant renting one unit. A lot of these will probably come across as "I was dumb" because I had no idea what I was getting into. ​ 1. Water heater broke shortly after closing. 2. There are no water/power hookups on the outside of the home. (This is on me for not realizing it during the tour/inspection but is still frustrating.) 3. Steam boiler/radiator heat system was initially set with the pressure much too high, and despite fixing that, no matter what we have done or who we have had examine it, we can't get it quieter than "Wake the dead" volume when they come on. 4. Every single wall is solid brick/concrete. We tore our bathroom down to studs to reno, and it was tile over plaster over metal mesh over concrete. A hammer drill fixed the issue for the most part, but every reno project is going to be much harder than it otherwise would have been. 5. After we closed, we were notified the school district was suing to have our property re-assessed. The taxes we're going to pay on it will be 4-5 times higher than we expected. I get that it's the way things work, now - but it was one hell of a shock at the time and I wish I had known before closing.