Article created by: Vėja Elkimavičiūtė
Buying a place to live can be stressful, especially if it's your first time. Whether it's finding proper insurance, getting much-needed maintenance done, or planning for future upgrades, there are so many unknowns and things to worry about.
To figure out the biggest and most common complaints about the whole process, Reddit user Californiabred made a post on the platform, asking: "Homeowners who bought recently, what's your biggest regret?" Immediately, people from all over the world started sending in their answers.
Don't bother childproofing your home. They still get in.
Not recent, but I still regret not refinishing the floors before I moved in. I'll never do it now.
I bought a house from a contractor that flips homes. Never again.
Hiring the wrong home inspector they missed so much,I really have to wonder if all those reviews were bought and paid for.
Not knowing enough about the area/town.
I hate where we live ☹️ hoping we can move by the time my oldest starts kindergarten
Not planting the fruit trees sooner. It’s a long wait :)
I’m in awe of anybody that was recently able to buy a house.
Not being born in the 50s
Not doing a walk through before closing and not having the sellers fix the electric before I signed the contract. My two biggest regrets.
Buying and then four months later getting divorced.
I bought a few years ago. So many things have gone sideways. One thing I regret is not being educated about permits. Contractors/handymen/ anyone who works on your house really, never mentions a permit may be needed.
Learned that it’s up to me and me alone to do the research and phone calls. Currently have a job on hold because they needed a permit. The company blamed me and now I’m not sure they’re even going to do the work.
Watch the movie The Money Pit. It’s not that far off. Some days I wish I’d just be a renter.
The inspector told us the main drain in the basement was clogged. We thought it was clogged with something normal. It was, in fact, "clogged" with cement from when our basement floor was redone. So now our basement regularly gets standing water on one side.
The situation when you bought a house where it was possible and a month later they sell a house in the area where you wanted
I should have bought a smaller house with money left to renovate instead of a larger one with nothing left over. There are so many weird quirks with this place that I would love to change but I’ll probably have to wait 10 years. I’m doing all the changes that I can do myself but there’s just so many to do and some are way outside my knowledge base.
Not buying 4 years ago.
Not learning more about home maintenance before buying and moving in. Nothing major has happened thankfully but after a few years I've realized how little I actually know about taking care of a house and how it's affecting my utilities and comfort. Not to a degree where I regret buying the house, but if I could go back and do it all again I'd take care of some things sooner/differently and would probably have better results.
Buying a house we weren’t super psyched about but we needed a house due to moving for a job.
Not particularly recent, but we did not pull out cars in the driveway or attempt to park them. So we didn't realize that my car could only enter the driveway from one direction, so I had to turn around half a block up every time I needed to park. And we just BARELY got two cars in the driveway.
So my regret is that I took for granted that the driveway met our needs.
Interest rates
Not looking in the attic, they built a new roof over the old one.
Gonna make remodeling hard.
Buying in an area where my house is the most expensive one.
Everyone else's prices are driving mine down. It's making it harder to sell for what it's worth.
Bought literally last week. Wish i had more bathrooms but its fine. I plan on building one in basement.
