It’s easy to be taken in by a beautiful home, especially when the asking price is lower than expected. That’s exactly what happened to us when we recently put in an offer on a house that had sold just two to three years ago. The price had surged by 38 to 40%, but the home had only seen some surface updates like an updated wet bar and a fancy foyer chandelier. Since the house was 40 years old, we asked upfront about the condition of the roof, windows, AC, and water heater. We were assured that all was in good condition with the roof having been recently inspected and found in good shape. The windows were supposedly replaced as needed and the AC and water heater were supposedly in good condition.
Unfortunately, our inspection report told a different story. The roof was showing signs of advanced aging, moss growth, and heavy deterioration. One HVAC system was beyond its life expectancy and it seemed like no maintenance had been done in ages. The other HVAC was at the 20 year mark. We also found mouse droppings in the basement and some windows were literally rotting from the inside.
This experience serves as a gentle reminder that it’s essential to never skip the home inspection no matter how charming or seemingly perfect a house might be. If we hadn’t had an inspection, we would have been unaware of the issues within the home. In the end, we decided to back out of the offer instead of trying to negotiate as we felt the house was already overpriced.