damage. He found that the floor under the bathroom was utterly infested, and the other two bathrooms were spreading to more of the house. The total cost to repair this problem was over $12,000! That’s an unbelievable amount of money to unexpectedly invest in a house you’ve only lived in for less than six months. The key lesson here is to know the house you’re buying. You should always hire an exterminator to investigate it, particularly for termites. If you make such a considerable investment in a new home, the small price of precaution is worth it. The stories continue endlessly. I recently met a woman at a café with an incredible first-time buyer story. I overheard her conversation, so I decided to step in and ask about it. Sue and her fiancé were searching for their first home to buy before their wedding. They had been told about a great real estate agent they wanted to call, so they looked him up to ask for help finding the right home. The problem was that the only praise they heard about him was from clients who had hired him to sell homes, not from home buyers. The agent met with Sue and her fiancé to discuss the different homes on his list, and then it was time to take a trip around town to see them. He talked profusely about one home, so they went in person to take a look. Sue and her fiancé knew what good quality was, so they could immediately see that there were problems. The basement doorway was weak, the upstairs bathroom floor bounced, and the light switches in the hallway seemed to pop and flicker. Although
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