First House Gone Wrong - Advice?

[Kyle Geoghagan]

Hello everyone

I purchased my first home last year. There has been some issues and I previously had just sucked it up and accepted it but wanted to get the community's thoughts. Note that some things may be a little off timeline wise as this is all from my memory, but generally its all accurate.

For some context, I was the buyer's agent for me and my fiancée on this purchase and we bought the house together in both of our names. This was for us to live in and possibly rent other rooms to college students (which we didn't end up doing). We bought the house from the Coming Soon phase of the MLS (for those unaware, only realtors can see the Coming Soon in the MLS so I was able to get it contracted before it hit the market). We bought the property from a flipper, who I now realize is a very low quality, unethical investor and the stereotypical type to throw paint on any issue they see and hope to sell it. I had good faith in the flipper because he was represented by and had a good relationship with an agent who seemed to me to be very ethical and well-meaning and I also had a good relationship with.

So we bought the property in July of 2024 with a few planned upgrades. Everything was looking good on the house. It was advertised as a 2024 roof, 2024 HVAC, brand new floors, brand new appliances, a brand new deck, brand new paint, etc. We were told that despite the backyard looking like a real Florida jungle, they would get the landscaping done before closing (hint, that never happened). The pictures looked pretty good and it was listed at $175,000. At the time, a property in that area would be going for maybe $180k and would need a new roof, or a new HVAC unit, etc. This deal looked great because it didn't need any of those things and we could afford it with an FHA loan. Our time was up at the current place we were staying at so we had to find somewhere ASAP and this was right down the road. It looked like the stars were aligning.

We paid for a general home inspection plus a WDO inspection (typical for our area). The home inspection came back with only a few "major" issues (plus a bunch of tiny ones as all inspections have) - the main ones were a couple of small leaks in the bathroom and kitchen plumbing, what appeared to be mold growth in the crawl space, cloth wiring on the electrical, and the water pressure was too high for the older pipes (1950's house) and some of the HVAC lines had some tears in them underneath the house. The WDO inspection showed that there were signs of Powder Post Beetles as well as signs of German Roaches.

We didn't ask for much on the repairs, we needed the leaks fixed and a new water heater to pass the 4-point, we needed the water pressure reduced, and we needed the beetles and roaches to be treated. I was told the mold in the crawlspace was not impacting anything on the interior of the house and it was less of an immediate "need to fix now issue" so it got dropped during the negotiations. They agreed to the repairs and they sent out a guy to fix the leaks, install a water pressure reducing valve, install a "brand new water heater," and also sent out a local company to treat the beetles and roaches. All is well and we closed.

Immediately upon moving in we spent $2,200 to upgrade the electrical and remove the cloth wiring as well as some new breakers. Only a few weeks later the roaches returned. So we called the same company out and they came back to re-treat it. Well the roaches did not go away, so we called a new, more widely known company (Terminix) to get the job done and start monthly pest prevention and to their credit they actually succeeded. (I will note that this is not the fault of the previous seller obviously, just part of the story).

I also found out a few days into living there when installing my new washer and dryer that the grey water drain for the washer was clogged which was forcing all of the water back out into the area and onto the ground. Luckily its in a utility closet and not inside the house. I had befriended the contractor (this is important for later) who did a lot of the work on the house for the flipper and he had actually agreed to fix it. When I asked why it was not caught on the inspection, the inspector told me that because there was no washer and dryer they didn't test it.

We had only been living in the house about a month when I realized I was getting constant headaches that I had never had before and only when I was home. When I was at the office I was okay, except for when they had really strong fragrances plugged in (like those Febreeze things). I had never been sensitive to scents like that but colognes, perfumes, Febreeze, candles, anything like that started to give me headaches (but I didn't know what exactly it was yet at the time). Our house has an "old house" smell as most 1950's houses do, its not uncommon at all in my area. But the smell, coupled with the idea that there was mold in the crawlspace and my constant headaches, I thought to call someone and see if mold was my headache issue. I eventually had a Mold Assessment Report completed by a licensed hygienist (which cost me $1,100) and he found that there was indeed mold in the house and specifically in 4 different areas (kitchen vanity, bathroom, a closet, and the crawlspace). Luckily it was not some kind of deathly black mold or anything. The kitchen and the bathroom were because of the original leaks before we bought the house.

What we were dealing with is Aspergillus, Penicillium which I was told is in our every day air. Its basically the same stuff on deteriorating plants, grass, leaves, etc. and we breathe it every single day. You especially breathe a lot of it when you or your neighbor mow your lawns. However, on the inside of our house it was far exceeding the normal ranges (normal was something like 700 particles per square meter and we had something like 1777 particles per square meter). To this day I am still unsure if its the mold giving me headaches, or fragrances or anything else. We got quotes on repairing the place by licensed remediation companies, anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 just for the remediation. That does not include re-building anything because they would be tearing out the bathroom, the kitchen vanity, etc.

Fast forward a few months and it starts to get cold here in North Florida. We attempt to turn the heat on but to no avail. That's weird. When I bought the house I had already spoken to the HVAC guy (the one who installed the unit on the rehab) because I wanted a quote on the ripped HVAC lines beneath the house. So I called him back up and asked him what was going on. He asked me to check something on my gas meter - but that's weird because I don't have gas on the house, its all electrical. He was swearing me up and down that the unit he installed used gas for heat and he would know because he installed it. I thought it was impossible because my inspector would have certainly caught that the unit used gas but we didn't have gas on the house. I called my inspector back up to look into it and he did. He called me back and he admitted that the HVAC guy was right, he completely missed it on his inspection. Although, I have no idea how the HVAC guy completed the installation without a gas meter. 

To my inspector's credit, he offered to pay for everything to get it fixed. He paid for a different HVAC tech that he knew to come out a couple of times and look at our system, as well as a plumber he knew to help get the gas lines prepped. We got with the city and got gas installation scheduled, but you know how city government works. We scheduled it probably around mid to late October or early November. The city told us they put a rush order in because it was getting cold and we had no heat and we should have it in a maximum of two weeks. We didn't end up officially having gas until late January or early February 2025 (go figure). 

To the inspector's credit again, in the meantime he offered (unprompted) and paid for a propane tank to be hooked up to our unit so we had gas while we got the utilities set up (but it took a couple of freezing days waiting to get it installed!).

I also found out around this time that they didn't get the HVAC installation permitted. After speaking with the guy who installed it he told me that when he quoted the seller the new unit, the permit was on the quote but the seller specifically requested it be removed. He said its happened before with flippers because they will pay for all of the permits at one time with the city (something like that) so the HVAC tech assumed that's what he was doing. Well it turns out he never bought the HVAC permit. I will take the blame on not catching that one because I should have checked for it as the buyer's agent. I did check for the roof permit (which was there) but not the HVAC one.

Fast forward a few months and the bathroom starts leaking yet again. I had befriended the plumber who did our gas lines for the HVAC issue so I called him back up and he helped us get that fixed. Turns out the original flipper didn't even really repair the initial problem. From what I understand to do it right they had to completely replace the $100 set of knobs/faucet/etc. but instead what they did was take an old part of a different (but same model) system and stuck it in there leading it to leaking again. This was around November or December so it was only 4-5 months after the repair for it to start leaking again. The seller basically put a band-aid on the issue to get the house sold instead of resolving it because they were too cheap to pay $100. That should give you an idea of how these guys operate. Luckily the plumber was cool and he gave us a nice discount.

Just by general happenstance, at the same time the plumber was repairing our leaking bathroom, the water pressure reducing valve in the front yard was leaking. It created a giant puddle in the yard by the water shut off valve. The plumber noticed it and took a look and was horrified at what he saw. The seller had someone (who was definitely unlicensed) put in the most crazy, bootleg, unofficial contraption to reduce the water pressure and fit it all inside the water shut off valve box instead of doing it the proper way and repairing it by digging a hole in the front yard and attaching it to the water line. We had our guy fix that as well obviously. Plus, the water shut off valve box (which was original 50's concrete) was crumbling. So we had the city install a new one. Not too long after this, our dishwasher went to crap and we had to replace it. Weird for what is supposed to be a brand new dishwasher right?

Well, when I was working on an entirely different transaction (as a realtor) I had an issue that needed to be resolved by a licensed contractor. I called up the same guy who did the work on my house before it was sold and asked him for a quote. During this, I found out a lot about what went down with my house. It turns out none of the appliances are actually new. He would know because he bought them from the local used appliance store and installed them for the seller (and obviously didn't know they were being advertised as new). They also didn't install a brand new water heater. Their team was working on an other project where an older lady had bought and installed a water heater (but it was too large or something) so she needed another new one. However she couldn't return it to the store because it already had water through it. So they used that older lady's water heater on my house (it may have been "new" but it was not "brand new" out of the box as implied). Also the flooring is not "new" at all, its the crappy type of flooring you glue down, which they glued down over original hardwood floors because they were too lazy to just refinish them. As a side note, they had painted the bathroom all white (as it was previously some ugly 70's pink and green) and as we lived in the house the paint started to peel off of the shower and tiles as they clearly did not use the right type of paint. Also, in the kitchen the backsplash was completely peeling off after a little while of living there. So we ended up having to replace that.

If you think that's the end of this story, think again! In North Florida it is only cold for a short time (2-4 months). By May, its already hot again (70's+). Well when we woke up and the cold air was no longer blowing we thought it was weird. We reset the unit a few times by turning it off and back on but to no avail. We ended up getting multiple HVAC guys out to check it out. Turns out our compressor went to crap! Luckily, I had transferred the warranty into my name upon the closing of the house. The new part was covered under the warranty and I just had to pay for the labor and the new refrigerant which was about $1,000 in total. This is not likely the fault of the seller (I don't see how it could be) but its clear the seller cheaped out on everything possible and cut every single corner he could.

Lastly, just a few weeks ago our fridge stopped getting cold. Our freezer was working fine (same unit) but the fridge was not cold enough. I ended up fixing it with a days work and a couple of YouTube videos, but definitely not a "brand new appliance" by any means.

I can personally understand wanting to save money on a rehab, but the way they went about it was not ethical at all in my opinion and possibly borderline illegal if they knew about some of these issues.

I want to call myself out and say that I know it is buyer beware on buying property. I know there are certain things I should have or could have caught like the HVAC permit. (By the way, I had also asked for a seller's property disclosure statement but was told "We will just put 'I don't know for everything'"). I was younger and more naive than I am now and definitely less experienced in the realm of real estate. It was also my very first home purchase. Plus, we were pressured to find a home or apartment before we were kicked out of where we were currently living which was coming up very soon at that point so we had little leverage. Additionally, they were saying they'd take it to the market off of the Coming Soon phase to see what attention they got there. With my experience in real estate now, I would have told them to let it go to the market then!

So the seller sold us the house knowing there was no gas, when they installed a gas HVAC unit, used unlicensed people to fix the water pressure reducing valve (we didn't explicitly state in the addendum they had to be licensed unfortunately), didn't properly repair the leaks they agreed to repair (also probably someone unlicensed), lied or at the very least misconstrued the age/condition of the appliances and flooring (and who knows what else). I have a sneaking suspicion they may have known about everything, including the mold but its unlikely I could ever prove it. I had considered possible litigation against the seller but its now been over a year, and I probably couldn't afford it anyway. Plus, I don't know if I have grounds to stand on. So I had just conceded to myself that I would have to deal with it and this type of thing happens and I'll take my losses and just get better at making smart decisions next time. But I wonder what other, more experienced investors would do in my situation?

With all of that being said, we have fixed every major issue that has popped up (with the exception of the mold remediation) and will continue to do so. Our initial plan was to move out after living here for a year and rent the place. However, obviously we cannot do that with there being mold in the house. We are currently saving up in order to do the mold remediation and re-construction afterwards, and when that is complete we will move out and rent the house.

If anyone has any advice on what you would do, I would love to hear it! Thank you.