I'm thankful to own a house. It's nice to have a roof over my head and a place to call home. With three bedrooms and a backyard, I have plenty of room for myself, husband, two children and four animals. Our neighborhood is safe and quiet. However, having a house has its drawbacks too. When we bought our first house, my husband and I were young and excited to be homeowners. As a result, perhaps we purchased the house without completely thinking it through. Here are some of the reasons I regret buying my house.
A Dirty Mess
We purchased our home when it was a seller's market. Houses were flying off the market at a fast rate. Although we were cautious, we knew we weren't going to find a perfect house in our price range. Thus, when we found a bigger house, we ignored the fact that the owner was a slob. We paid for this. He left dozens of paint cans behind. He allowed the lawn to die. The house was a filthy mess. We received money for a new lawn. However, it took weeks to clean up the house. We even had to hire someone to haul all the leftover junk away. This set us back $300.
Unforeseen Problems
We knew that we were going to have to get new flooring and paint the house. However, what we didn't realize was that there were unforeseen problems. For instance, the french doors had not been sealed properly. In addition, the property didn't have proper drainage and there weren't any gutters. When it rained, the water pooled around the patio and some leaked into our house. We ended up replacing one of the french doors with a window. In addition, we had to replace some of the flooring and purchase gutters. This entire process cost us close to $8,000.
Underwater
Prior to buying our house, we owned a townhome. We were able to sell this for $100,000 more than we purchased it for. The equity allowed us to get our mortgage down to $436,000. Unfortunately, now the current market value of our home is less than $400,000. I imagine in the next 10 years, our house will increase in value. However, I think it will be a long time before it is worth over $500,000 again.
Luckily, through the years, we modified our loan. With a lower payment, we have less financial stress. Due the improvements we made to our house, we only have minor repairs to pay for. Of course, the memories we have made in our house are priceless. Still, I wish we would have waited to buy until house prices were lower. However, hindsight is always 20/20.
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