Crazy Discoveries People Make After Moving In

Closing day is an exciting day that brings hope for a new beginning. Unless you are as unfortunate as these guys, what they discovered on moving-in day made them regret buying the house.

"Rotten subfloor, water seeping under the carpet in one bedroom, rodent infestation, asbestos, one neighbor with 10 pieces of heavy machinery he would idle all day, another neighbor that was suicidal and tried to jump to his death off our roof 3 days after we moved in. All the same house. We fixed the first 4 things, then moved out 2 years to the day after we moved in. You can’t change your neighbors."

Checking the neighborhood is a must!!! Drive around the community during your due diligence, and talk to people. They will tell things you never even thought of asking. You will gather tons of information, and there is no way to get it. Remember, in the State of Georgia, it's on the Buyer to conduct due diligence, ask questions, and check the house and the neighborhood. Sellers are only obligated to inform you about known (to them) defects in the house and to answer your questions (so make sure to ask...).

"We found horrid electrical problems buried in the walls. For instance, open boxes with bare wires and a rag jammed in there. It cost a fortune to correct, and I have beaten myself up.but I load-tested every outlet, and nothing was out of the ordinary. This was a well-hidden nightmare."

Hiring a professional and licensed inspector is a must. While they might miss something, most of them nowadays use advanced technologies to find water/humidity behind the walls and other potential issues that are still hidden but are brewing underneath the surface.

"They had installed a 'luxury vinyl' floor, which on its own I'm fine with. But after a while it became apparent that they'd used the wrong kind of underlayment, like they used a squishy foam-style meant for laminate. The small amount of compressibility means the vinyl planks could separate if you did something like set a chair on a seam and sit on it. Over time the planks started to have gaps and irregularities and it was infuriating.

Ended up taking the whole thing out, across the entire house, and re-installing it, with maybe 50% loss of material in the process."

When buying a house, ask for receipts and warranties for every relatively new item. It will help you understand who installed it and allow you to reach out to them should something like this happen, so you can ask for reinstallation or compensation.

"the property taxes went up substantially. they claim they were locked at a previous value and the new sale triggered a new valuation. sucks when you budget for a certain payment and then a month or two later get hit with something much higher."

Yes, this is a common problem. Counties nationwide tend to be three or even five years behind current home values in their area. The home value will be updated right after the closing after the closing attorney has recorded the deed at the courthouse. Your property tax will be updated accordingly shortly after. Ask the owners how long they have been paying that amount ( for property tax), if any appraisals were done recently, and if the city/county surveyor visited recently.

"The entire disclosure was fraudulent, the fha assessor was paid off by seller as well as sellers agent and that theyve been pulling this scam for many years. The house is still condemned, broken foundation and daisy chained electrical done by seller (all fixed after we finally found a loan last year) all plumbing is cracked, subpar and not up to code, hvac is 20 years older than stated and all ductwork is rotted out completely. Every single bit of it covered up by purple board and multiple layers of paint."

I have no way of confirming whether all this is true. It sounds pretty wild to me, but let's assume anything is possible. Keep your eyes open, check every square inch of the house, and ask questions. And don't buy sight unseen!!!!

"Shady sellers/builders. Found out sellers blew clean insulation over top soiled insulation from a rat infestation that was still active. Inspector missed it. 3-4k for a proper rodent exclusion on the home and another 6-7k for remediation of the attic, basement, insulation disposal, and newly blown insulation. Then find a debris pit in the yard that was cracking the patio and threatening the pool. If you don’t live in the SE U.S. look up debris pits, we had no idea this was a thing since we moved from out of state. $50k to fix, no option for home owners insurance since the home’s structure wasn’t threatened.

Sellers had expanded the deck. Found out the supports were just sitting on dirt, no cement underneath. Deck was leaning & slowly sinking, wood supports were getting rot. $20k estimate to fix the deck.

Everything the prior owner had done to the home was done by lowest bidder and/or really incompetent people. We opted to cut our losses and sell before any more “surprises” popped up on us. It was a beautiful house but don’t miss it one bit."

Wow! I don't wish anyone to be in their shoes. That said, it's just too much to be missed by a professional inspector.

"Road noise from interstate…. We only viewed place during rush hour. Was told it was the loudest time of day….

Learned rush how’s means stop And go traffic with little noise.

Morning sounds like a freight train in tunnel"

Be careful when buying a house on the main street or near a major highway. Traffic couls be a pain. Good insulation can definitely keep the noise out, but once you are out, it's season's time.....

"We hated the neighborhood. We’d visited a few times during business hours without realizing that on evenings and weekends the place was absolutely loaded down with vehicles everywhere. At least 3-4 per home. Sidewalks weren’t passable and sometimes it took an act of Congress to maneuver through the hood at 5:30pm."

The buyer's due diligence can be one day up to a week or even longer (depending on what you and the sellers agreed on). Visit the community!!! twice or even more. It's better to find out about issues when you can still walk away from the deal than after you move in.

"Three decks weren't installed correctly. They tilt toward the house. Estimate to fix is $8-12K each. Two are not a problem yet but one is causing a leak, so. If I ever buy a house with decks again I will bring a giant level to the inspection."

"I bought in VA and my lot has an AOSS (alternative onsite septic system) and I have had nothing but trouble with it. Drip tubing in my drain field has numerous breaks leading to puddles of standing water EVERYWHERE. On top of that my risers were all leaking so rainwater would get in and cause false "high water" alarms each time it rained (this also led to excess water in the drip tubing which cause a lot of standing water as well).

I've been back and forth with the company that installed it for going on a year now. They've come in and done patch work and some repairs to the risers, but it's been an absolute headache and has cost me over $1,000 in inspections and repairs on a new construction home.

The final issue (this is the first house I've ever bought so I am a little to blame) was there was ZERO information about the system in my closing docs, just a doc from the VDH saying "she good, send it"... I had to learn all this on the fly when I first started seeing the water collecting...

I will never have an AOSS system in any house I buy. Traditional or City from now on."

It might sound like a no-brainer, but it's always good to confirm if the house is on a septic tank or public sewer. If septic, make sure to have it professionally inspected.