The Pains of Home Buying (And Moving)
It’s about that time again — moving season. Sarah and I have bought a townhouse, where we’ll be moving in with our current roommate, Taylor, as well as another couple that we’ve lived with back in our time at Pitt, Maggie and Nolan. We have plenty of space for everyone, and are really excited to get the old “Coltart Gang” (the street we lived on as a group at Pitt) back together again.
It’s kind of a surreal experience moving everything you own into what (hopefully) will be your last move for a while. Especially when it’s a place that you own — that part hasn’t fully sunken in yet, as we still (!!!) have yet to close on this damn house.
As an aside, we’ve been under contract on a couple of houses since March of 2024. However, in classic post-pandemic fashion, sellers think they can do whatever they like without any ramifications. For example, the first house we were under contract on (call it House A) was owned by a gentleman who had leased out the home to his nephew for several years. This particular owner was currently living in Alabama and was using an agent to list his home.
Well, there were quite a few issues with the house — first off, tons of work was done to the house without any permits being pulled by the contractors. This is a HUGE issue in the town we live in, as even if you waive a Home Inspection (which we did) the borough still mandates that a borough-employed inspector does a thorough inspection of the home to ensure it’s up to the standards of local building codes. A nice little protection for buyers, but a huge hassle for sellers.
This particular inspector was clearly out to get this seller, as he escalated these issues to the highest level he could within his power. Electricians needed to re-inspect all the wiring throughout the home, he invalidated (which I still don’t think is possible?) the structural engineers assessment of a removed wall in the building, and the roof and HVAC systems were replaced without any permits.
Add to all of this the fact that the seller wasn’t even done renovating the kitchen and asked that we as the buyers purchase countertops and a sink and install it ourselves. Nice. We did end up buying the cheapest counters we could from IKEA, and did a half-ass job of installing it — it’s nice to get some practice on a home that isn’t yours!
A long story short, the borough themselves halted the sale of this home, and we got all of our earnest money back (thankfully) as it was entirely the seller’s fault for dragging their feet and not getting the proper permits and inspections done when they should have. Fast forward to today (October 2024) and the seller STILL hasn’t listed this home on the market — I’m wondering if he’s renting out the place to some more of his family…?
Back to our current house, House B, it’s actually a new-construction townhome with a small builder in the area. Yet there have been delays out the wazoo, with an original close date of July 30th being extended to October 15th, and we’re still not even certain that the home will close on time.
We’ve been lucky enough to extend our apartment lease in the town next to where we’re moving to a month-to-month contract, but we’ve had so many delays at this point that we are no longer allowed to extend and are being forced our hand to move our possessions out of our apartment and into this new home, which AGAIN, we still haven’t closed on.
To fill in the housing gap, we’ve had some close friends get married and are currently on their honeymoon, so we offered to house / dog-sit for them while they’re away, which covers 5 of the 10 days that we need to fill in housing in the meantime. The other 5 days, we were lucky enough to get my parents to host us in my childhood home — myself, my wife, and our current roommate.
In all, it’s been a frustrating experience buying a home, with even our new builder downgrading things in our house without our knowledge or consent (even after specifically pointing out “look, smart thermostats! They’re really nice, aren’t they?” and then they magically disappear because they “weren’t working right”, yet we’re the only house on the block whose thermostats weren’t operating as expected…). At this point, Sarah and I just want the damn keys and to move our stuff in, saying that any outstanding projects we’ll take care of ourselves out of a lack of confidence that this builder will deliver on time.
For those looking to purchase a home, just be cautious — sometimes, deals are truly too good to be true. Always use a Real Estate agent (shoutout to ours, Bob Oswald, with COMPASS Real Estate!) as they’ve got your back when sellers try to be scummy.
So this weekend, while you’re out enjoying drinks with friends in the Southeastern PA area and enjoying the fall-like weather, have an extra beer for me. I’ll be hauling boxes of stuff I own into a house that I don’t yet own’s basement so we can pass inspection (rather than the main bedroom, because, shockingly, they’re behind on putting the carpet in the home and need us to keep the bedroom clear — a complete 180 from what they told us a week prior), and then will move said boxes BACK upstairs into our main living space and bedroom.
Moving sucks.