The Mistakes I Made When Buying My Home

When buying a home, there are several important issues to consider before you make your home purchase. Some of these issues will never be mentioned by your real estate agent or home inspector, and certainly not by the home's seller. Having personally gone through the experience of buying a home, the following are some of the mistakes that I made while buying a home:

Not exploring the neighborhood. I asked my buyer's agent to locate several different real estate properties priced in a given price range, but I never asked him why certain homes were better bargains when compared to others. As it turns out, my current home is located in a good neighborhood- but only several blocks away lies some of the most seedy and crime-infested area in the entire city of Madison.

Not investigating suspicious cracks, faults, etc. My house inspector went through my current house with what seemed to be a fine-tooth comb. He never commented on the tiny fissures in the basement's foundation walls, however. After I bought the house, the fissures started leaking water during the spring melt and heavy summer rainfalls. Had I known that this would happen, I'd have hired a second home inspector and used my knowledge about the fissures to lower the home purchase price.

Not insisting on certain repairs. The home inspector discovered that the house I was buying needed a new toilet, soffit lights, fire-proof door, as well as a circuit panel rewiring. The homeowner would not budge on any of these proposed repairs and replacements. I let most of the proposals go but refused to buy a house when its circuit panel wiring posed a fire risk. Eventually, my buyer's agent ended up paying an electrician out of his own pocket to fix that problem. However, had I balked at making the home purchase, the homeowner would've had to comply with my wishes; as I later found out, I was his only serious buyer.

Not looking at more houses. My buyer's agent showed me a total of 16 houses, which initially seemed like a high enough number. Unfortunately, all the houses were located within one mile of each other, or even less. Most of the houses had the same layout, square footage, lawns, etc. While I understand that my agent was simply finding homes according to my wishes, it would've been useful to see other real estate, such as that located out of town, in the countryside, etc.

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