Owning a home is often the dream of most people, so signing those papers and moving in can often feel like the culmination of years of work. Right up until you realize that no landlord also means everything that breaks is up to you to fix, and these things tend to not be cheap.
Someone asked “When buying a house, what’s something you thought was minor but has become the bane of your existence?” and homeowners shared their stories. So get comfortable as you read through, take some notes and be sure to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.

#1

Single bathroom.

I had underestimated the amount of time my husband just SITS on the toilet.

Image credits: NoeTellusom

#2

Finding good people to do small jobs. The reputable companies don’t like to waste time on small jobs, so it’s usually pick someone off of the internet and hope they don’t make it worse or DIY.

Image credits: Guineacabra

#3

Bamboo. Someone before me planted super invasive, 15 foot tall growing bamboo in the backyard. It was spreading so wildly it was uplifting the granite pool and growing under the foundation of the house. You could see the remnants of a “barrier” of sorts of where they initially planted it, obviously not knowing how bamboo grows. I myself did not know, until I purchased the house. Absolute nightmare.

Image credits: abbs_twothou

#4

We live in a 100-year-old house with a huge, open basement. Our washer and dryer are in our basement.

For some stupid reason, known only to them, the previous owners installed the washing machine and and dryer on opposite sides of the basement, instead of side-by-side the way normal people would have done. I bought one of those professional chrome laundry carts that the laundromats use to shuttle loads across the basement between machines.

Eventually, I plan to rewire the place and relocate the dryer next to the washing machine.

Image credits: JasperDyne

#5

Check cell coverage and find out about the ISP.

Image credits: elSpanielo

#6

Window treatments or curtains. The guy before me broke up with his his girlfriend. She moved out and took all the curtains out of spite. I didn’t think it was a big g deal until I priced out new ones.

Image credits: asdfg27

#7

Go to the neighborhood you’re looking for at night and just sit and listen. The noises you pick up over the week will last YEARS. So be prepared for that. Also. Ask about internet. It can be make or break. Cell signal to a point as well. Ask neighbors about flooding.

Image credits: knuckles_n_chuckles

#8

There is an apple tree planted in the middle of my back yard. Free apples every fall!

Every year it sends up branches about 4′ high which look terrible and don’t help anything at all. Every year I have to prune them. I got a chainsaw on a stick, but it is still a lot of work.

And the apples? Well, unless you spray them with about 4 chemicals through the year, they will be small, scabby and wormy. I’ve used them for apple sauce and dried some, but they aren’t great. The deer who come to our yard love them though!

Image credits: mks113

#9

Never buy a house where the kitchen, laundry, or living room wall is shared with the master bedroom if you are a light sleeper.

Image credits: SocialRevenge

#10

Don’t use an inspector your realtor suggested. Get one that has plumbing expertise.

Image credits: curryp4n

#11

I bought a flat.

The neighbours immediately below us smoke. A lot. All the time.

They smoke so much that you can smell it when you open the kitchen cupboards under and next to the sink because the scent creeps up through the holes around the pipework.

Can’t open the windows in the summer because as soon as they cough themselves awake in the morning the stench of cigarettes starts drifting up through them and fills out home. They smoke in every room, and in the bedrooms till after midnight every day.

I’m an ex smoker and I’m still finding it disgusting.

Image credits: butwhatsmyname

#12

Low ceilings.

“I’ll get used to it” I thought.

Nope.

Image credits: lanky_planky

#13

There’s a path behind my kitchen window that separates the garden from the house. The path runs behind all the houses on the street and everybody (residents) has access. I wouldn’t mind this but our neighbours on each side are *best* friends and so they stand on the path directly outside our kitchen window when they chat.

Image credits: Dabbles-In-Irony

#14

When a year the later neighbors from hell buy the house next door.

#15

Finding contractors for Minor repair jobs. I had a chimney leak and called 4 companies, 3 of them didn’t want the job since it was a 300-500 dollar repair, the 4th set up an appointment with me but never showed up. It took me over 4 months to find someone.

#16

If you are looking for a house in a community with an HOA, get a copy of the current rules in advance. It’s good to know what you’re going to deal with when it comes to the rules of the community.

Good neighbors are also key, at least ones that are not loud and leaving garbage around. You can drive through the neighborhood in the evenings or on weekends to see what it’s like when people are home. I ended up living next to what I think is an illegal boarding house so they have a bunch of cars and construction materials in the front of their house every day.

Image credits: LBinMIA16

#17

A bit of advice I haven’t seen posted yet: If you drive and have a long commute, try to live east of your workplace. That way, you’re driving west in the morning and east in the evening, and you won’t have the sun in your eyes both ways. Safer and less stressful over a long period of time.

Image credits: andante528

#18

Rule of thumb, every nice thing, interesting extra or big thing means more maintenance.

Large pool, you have to clean it

Large driveway, you’ll need to shovel it and resurface it at some point

Large yard, you gotta mow it

Large deck, you have to paint it

3 bathrooms? Thrice the cleaning

Lots of windows, lots of cleaning

Lots of mature trees, lots of raking

Lots of mature fruit trees, bees and wasps, bees and wasps everywhere

Large high roof with cool architecture effects, super expensive to reshingle

A large skylight in the living room, it WILL leak, it’s not a question of IF but a question of WHEN.

etc…

Image credits: kowell2

#19

Which direction your bedroom is facing. Lived somewhere where the bedroom faced southeast and it was always boiling in there no matter what the thermostat said or how heavy the curtains were.

Same could be said for how much natural light you want or if you garden. Need to keep the cardinal directions in mind.

Image credits: kamikaze_pedestrian

#20

I haven’t bought a house but from working in an industry directly involved with it, some things I hear the most often have been: Be EXTRA cautious about the neighborhood and the next door neighbors. You can easily fall in love with a house and picture yourself living there, but don’t make such a massive purchase until you are sure you will be comfortable living in that spot. Swing by the area outside of a home tour. Check it out at night, too. Is it still quiet and peaceful? Is there anybody who can tell you about the neighbors? Once you get stuck buying next to bad neighbors, well….you are stuck. 

 Have the home professionally inspected by someone YOU find. Flipped hones often cut corners and I guarantee you will find things that need to be repaired or replaced within the first year if it was done poorly. Inspecting plumbing lines and air ducts is also important. Find out when the water heater was replaced, that sort of thing. 

Swimming pools can be a maintenance nightmare and as such, I never want to buy a house that has one. 

 Avoid cantilever decks if you can. It’s the #1 spot for structural failure. If it is in a condo in an HOA (or apartment), you then have to rely on the complex to maintain it properly. Sometimes they are neglectful. I wouldn’t trust it and would avoid living with a cantilever deck.

TREES. Look where trees are planted. Are they close to the building or close to concrete? Many common tree species cause immense damage, ranging from roots lifting sidewalks to roots creeping into plumbing lines, to damaging your foundation if it is too close to the building. A pine tree within 5 ft of a house would be a deal breaker for me. So would a few other trees, but these are particularly problematic especially with the pine needles falling on the roof and clogging the gutter.

Image credits: BoobySlap_0506

#21

We gave our flower beds a year to see what they did before messing around with them. Turns out our front beds are full of yarrow, which is sort of gross and hard to remove.

Started trying to remove and discovered the grounds is full—absolutely chock full of decorative landscaping rocks. why?

The rocks were there first. There were weeds growing through the rocks (yarrow), so the owners cut them short and then covered them with dirt to show and sell the house. Awesome…

#22

Sump pump. If that s**t ain’t working, get ready for a week of de-flooding your basement and saying bye bye to most of what was stored in there.

Pay careful attention to any issues with this prior to buying a house.

#23

My number one disqualification when house hunting was no toilet on the same floor as the master bedroom.

You do not want to climb stairs when you have to pee in the middle of the night. If you’re reading this and saying, “I don’t get up to pee most nights,” I am in my late 30s and here to warn you that *you will*.

#24

White carpet, tile, and paint looks awesome when someone is selling a house, and are awful to maintain.

#25

22 effing palm trees. Not one less than 20′ tall. Costs me 1100$ a year to get them trimmed. Would never have purchased this house had I known. Then one died, and I was heartbroken.

#26

The millennial gray floors.

#27

This mother fudging sink the ex wife picked out. It’s a textured white tub with an unfinished brass faucet. You have to clean the f out of the sink or it stains!!!! Also you can’t fit anything underneath the damned faucet to fill it up. My god I hate this thing. I hate how high everything is. I am not sort but the 14 foot ceilings makes all my decoration look like a hobbit hole. I hate this place. The location is nice for a family but for a single guy I feel like an axe m*rderer and my dates have to leave before kids flood to the schools next door. .

#28

Split level. Never again. Trying to vacuum a split level is a pain in the butt. Also you have so much less floor space and square footage.

Also, carpet. NOPE. Too hard to keep clean. So gross.

I’ve got a single story home now with a full basement.  We ripped out all the carpet and refinished the original hardwood floors (although vinyl is also pretty nice).  So much more floor space and easier to keep clean.

#29

Having a second story. Hate trudging up and down stairs constantly.

#30

If the interior doors latch.
I had no reason to close the bedroom or bathroom doors when looking at the place. Then moved in and realized none of them actually stayed shut. It’s infuriating. ?‍♀️.

#31

Thought the lack of a pantry was no big deal, but grocery storage has become a jigsaw puzzle.

#32

Swimming pool.
So much work & money to maintain. Maybe gets used a dozen times a year.

#33

Gravel driveway instead of paved. The gravel gets stuck in shoes, ends up in the house or cars, is dusty, gravel goes flying when mowing/edging lawn.

#34

Before buying, be sure to survey the local topography, for lack of a better word.
You want to be on a high spot within your neighborhood, not in a low spot that collects water from other yards when it rains.

#35

Non-impact windows. Every time a hurricane comes thru I have to bolt on all the damn heavy a*s shutters, then when it passes, I have to lug them back to the garage. I could do impact windows, but it would be like $30k and there’s like a 10 month backlog with all the manufacturers because my house is so old I need custom sizes made.

#36

Being the only house on a “non-maintained” county road. Developer didn’t complete the road up to the county specs, so they won’t plow it, fix it, or do anything to it. Why would I pay my own money to fix a road I don’t own?

Image credits: JoshinIN

#37

Just buying a “fixer upper” in general. Renovations cost a LOT more than you can imagine. HGTV LIES.

#38

The one bathroom is on the upper level.

No back gate in the fence but the trash gets picked up from the alley.

The kitchen has a door or window on every side. It’s 8×10 feet square.

Otherwise it was a great price and I’ve been here for nearly 15 years so obviously I’ve managed. Except for one brief stint, I’ve been lucky with my immediate neighbors. But my next house will hopefully have better features!

#39

We were younger when we bought our house, and never thought about the laundry being in the basement and no main floor bedroom being a problem. Now we are seniors and it will make us move.

#40

Figure out the driving distance to the nearest Lowes/Home Depot/Ace/Menards, now imagine doing that trip twice for every project (because you always forget one thing.) I wish I was 5 minutes closer to our local Lowes.

Image credits: BigLan2

#41

A new roof is $20,000.

#42

Water. Every house has water leaking somewhere. Whether it’s poor grading causing water in the basement, exposed nails on the roof, shower hardware not tightened down, pieces of siding missing, egress windows rotting…. I’m at the point where I’d be more comfortable buying a house on a slab. This is in Michigan.

#43

Mice.

#44

I have laundry room envy. We have a laundry closet which is also where we keep the cat litter boxes. When I visit friends, I enjoy peeking in their laundry rooms, longing for their space.

#45

“Unique” homes = unique expenses. We bought a custom home from the couple who built it. Largest kitchen you’ve ever seen. The couple had put cork in the kitchen. They also installed an instant hot water heater for the sink. Well, one day a small hose came loose from that instant hot water heater. A pressurized hose. Two inches of water in an hour on a giant sponge of a floor.

We have good insurance, and it cost them _six figures_ to fix that kitchen. The cabinets were solid mahogany, and the bottoms had been installed on top of the cork. Then when those were replaced, it was obvious the stain of the uppers no longer matched. The crew cracked a slab of quartz when removing it. This was not Home Depot quartz. We had to pay extra to buy tile for this monster of a kitchen because no, we were not putting cork back in.

When we moved in, every bathroom was still 1989. Because this was a custom home, we couldn’t update them with standard grade materials. And on and on.

We did sell the home in 2018 for a good profit with all our updates. And bought a tract home with vinyl floors (I LOVE LVP) and builder grade materials and I’ll never go custom again. I want a home where I can get my new vanities off Wayfair or from Lowe’s if I need to upgrade.

#46

Weeds. WEEDS! For the love of god the weeds!

#47

In SLC, we had a north facing driveway and a 2 story house. Our driveway never melted. Across the street, dry, my driveway still has ice and snow.

#48

There’s like, zero sound insulation. Did we check for that? No. Did we think to? No. But will we on our next house? We’ll honestly probably forget.

#49

Drainage issues. There are three locations on my 3 acres that do not drain correctly. It sucks.

#50

Garden with trees. Underestimated the amount of work needed.