Liz May - THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO BUYING A HOME

owners to abandon the property.

The buyers filed for bankruptcy, and the house was repossessed. They left the home the day after their daughter was born, just a few months after moving in. The house briefly went back on the market. Now owned by the bank, it was listed at $114,900 a year later. The property was eventually taken off the market while the bank decided what to do with it. The moral of the story is to have good inspections... home, pest, roof, septic, whatever makes sense for that home. All of these buyers had a couple of things in common. 1) They were attracted by price. 2) They didn’t get a proper inspection of the home before purchasing. It seems the real issue was an agent who cared more about selling the home than what happened to the buyers.

HOME-BUYER PLAGUES

Although a home inspector passed Justin’s and Kate’s home, he missed some problems. For instance, the previous homeowner supposedly installed and tested the sump pump in the basement, but it failed shortly after moving in, flooding the basement. Then, the sunroom was filled with termites, costing the couple $2,000 in repairs. After the termites were eradicated, they discovered the sunroom was entirely covered in mold, and there was no caulking around the windows to keep the moisture out. A better home inspector would have seen the signs of termites and mold. The inspector should have also checked the sump pump, which could have failed after the inspection. Sump pumps can burn out, lose power, become clogged or misaligned, or malfunction in various other ways. It’s valuable to

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