First time homebuyers nightmare first year

[bjl584]

Has anyone experienced any nightmare scenarios as a first time home buyer?
I've thankful been lucky



Moved in last May, currently experiencing some plumbing issue, demoed first floor bathroom ceiling to identify the leak, now we know where it’s from, and we need to do more demo to get it repaired. A lot of demo and rebuild to get this fixed. Now we noticed the window leak, had contractor inspected our attic, turns out one side in the attic has serious frost buildup, the contractor was surprised that the home inspector didn’t check the attic as this is not something that can be formed in the last year.

Previous owner did not disclose any water damage. But they did the bathrooms renovation by themselves so they gotta see the leak damage when they did the work. ♀️

Has anyone else experienced lots of repair already in the first year?

[kork13]

I'd say that it doesn't matter whether you're a first-time homeowner or if you're 10-20 houses into building your real estate empire ... Almost every home purchase will come with unexpected maintenance & repairs. It's just a question of how many zeros it involves.

My first house, the builder or inspector at some point had tested the pipes, and somehow didn't recognize that they had "lost" their sensor in my pipes. Within a month of moving in, the thing had dislodged, got trapped downstream, & backed up our entire system. That was a disgusting mess when it started emptying itself into my shower, and the plumber was flummoxed when he fished the thing out of my pipes. Same house's yard was primarily clay-based dirt (Oklahoma City .... IFKYK). During some of the thunderstorms (almost daily out there), it would pour so much that my entire backyard flooded inches deep, and a couple times almost rose above our foundation & into the house. The gutters, trenching, and underground drains necessary to manage it was nearly a 5-digit problem. SAME house (yeah, it was a bit of a lemon) didn't have the flashing installed properly on the roof gabling by the front door, so I'm the winter, ice would melt & drip into the walls of the front bedroom.

Next house had the water heater corrode & burst open, disgorging itself into our garage.

Next house came with a poorly-installed sprinkler system and was apparently shooting water into the crawl space, plus a shredded vapor barrier ... Result = unrecognized buildup of pooling water & mold everywhere. Same system also had sprinkler heads set too high, and the lawn mower took out 2 of them (more flooding).

Those were the worst/most dramatic that I've had, but each house I've been in has posed its own unique issues. It happens, and it's why you always want to have a solid EF in place when you're buying a house, because you WILL need it ... Not a question of if, but when.

Also, in writing out this rundown, I realize that I just have terrible luck with water-related house issues...

[LivingAlmostLarge]

All kinds of stuff but one stands out. Our townhouse we bought in Massachusetts we never thought to check for insulation. Canadian = who doesn't put in insulation? Hawaii = what's insulation? Perfect storm of a couple having no clue. Then after a winer DH is like we can't heat the house Pulls back the siding and was flummoxed there was no insulation. He's like how do you build a house without insulation? 1880s vicotorian condo conversion apparently they converted and didn't bother to put insulation in either. Um. Okay. So that explains why our pipes in all the units burst more than once. Anyhow lessons learned. Don't make asses out of you and me.

[anhtuvp]

Buying your first home definitely comes with a steep learning curve, especially when all the unexpected maintenance and utility costs start piling up during that first year. We went through the exact same stress when we bought our place, it felt like every weekend brought a new surprise fix or project we hadn't originally budgeted for.

As we slowly started making energy efficiency and privacy upgrades around the house, one of the best options we looked into was . It lets you switch windows between clear and frosted on demand, which helped with light control and energy savings without needing to spend a fortune on heavy custom blinds.