4.
“I was 25 years old and totally bought into the whole ‘buy a house after college’ BS — this was pre-2010, so things were different. The random realtor I chose was clearly enjoying the housing market bubble and definitely took advantage of my naïveté. I had no idea how the whole home-buying process even worked, so I relied on this stranger to help me and, unfortunately, he really didn’t. I ended up buying a home that was a ‘newly-renovated former rental,’ and that should have been my first warning. Everything was for appearances only.”
“Dry wall screws held pretty much everything together, the pipe from the toilet was went OUTSIDE the house and froze solid all winter long, and the basement pipes were cracked and rusting. The bathroom window literally didn’t close — and yet I ended up paying full market price for it. I was so unprepared for homeownership. When the market crashed, I was over $50K ‘upside down’ on my mortgage and basically throwing my monthly payments into an abyss. I had to refinance twice — goodbye, credit score — and even with lower payments, I struggled to make ends meet on a teacher’s salary. I stayed there for over ten years, and then the pandemic hit. By some miracle, I ended up selling my house during COVID (at a loss) to someone I never even saw. Unlike the original seller, I disclosed everything in the paperwork and sold it as-is.
Overall, I wish I had rented an apartment or house that entire time and never bought the place. Being a homeowner ruined a lot of my trust in people and took a major toll on my mental health. I would ask a million questions about every little thing in a house before even considering buying again, and ONLY with an agent I trusted and vetted. Be careful out there!”
—Anonymous
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/rossyoder/regret-buying-house