Realtor didn't disclose all five hot water heaters are in my unit
Hi, I posted about this issue on Reddit, and it was recommended that I come here. This is a two-part issue, one that starts with parking and the second with every single hot water unit in the building being in a secret closet of my unit, which was only just revealed to me today, 11 days after closing. Copy and pasted from my Reddit thread
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I'm a first-time home buyer and have run into a lot of frustrations after closing on my condo in Seattle at the end of May. I had posted about the parking situation previously and was met with some vitriol and eye-rolling that I wasn't sharp enough to catch these things myself, but I'm 31 and doing everything for the first time completely alone, and I trusted my realtor. It's all been a lot for me.
The first issue that arose was that despite the listing being advertised as the unit including a "parking garage + storage," there are only four total parking spots for a building comprised of five units, plus one storage shed. Two cars fit inside an actual garage, two spots are uncovered, and the final spot, which apparently used to resemble a small carport with two lockers inside it, had doors added to it just before I bought my unit.
When I first visited with my realtor, I was told the shed belonged to my unit, which implied that one of the parking spaces was mine since the listing said "parking + storage." Fast forward to closer to closing, and it comes to light that my shed is my "parking garage." My realtor was flustered at this but assured me that since apparently everyone else got a parking space, I got my own secure shed, and that was the trade off. Fast forward to the day of closing when my realtor is giving me the keys, and we go inside the shed where (for the first time) we are learning about the two lockers inside. We became frustrated that the keys we had wouldn't open one of the lockers.
Fast forward a few days later when I meet my next door neighbor, who informs me that one of the lockers inside the shed belongs to her. So now it turns out my private shed/parking garage/whatever is actually shared. This seems especially unfair considering every other unit in the building has their own personal parking space, while I have a shed, and one unit now has both a parking spot and also space in my shed.
My realtor was pretty embarrassed and tried contacting the HOA head on my behalf, asking if the doors to the shed could be taken down so I could use the space as a carport (if my car will even fit), but the HOA balked at that because apparently they literally just paid to have the doors installed to make the lockers inside more secure. So I can't take the doors down because 1) it affects the appearance of the building, 2) it affects the safety of another unit's belongings. I've taken to just parking on the street, which is highly irritating but not impossible. What adds to that frustration is the fact that one of the owners here saw the listing for this unit and even went out of her way to contact the realtor who represented the seller to say that it was misleading, that the unit did not come with a parking garage. Obviously the listing was never updated to indicate that it didn't come with both "parking garage + storage."
I thought I had gotten over the situation and decided to make the best of things until another huge surprise popped up today. My upstairs neighbor came to my unit, which apparently has a secret closet behind a bookshelf that houses all five hot water heaters to the building. At no point in time was this ever mentioned by my realtor, who I'm still waiting to hear back from but am 100% certain he wasn't aware of it.
Obviously I'm sure this is somewhere mentioned in the mountain of paperwork I have and am about to start sorting through, but it's honestly been a huge surprise. Everything has felt so misleading.
Of course this has been a huge learning experience for me, and I was really naive about a lot of things; I implicitly trusted that my realtor knew everything about the unit. And of course moving forward in the future I know things to be more vigilant about and the questions to ask. But this is the situation I've found myself in, and I'm just venting and also I guess looking for a bit of help if there's anything to be done.
I just closed on May 31st, am moved in, and I accept my situation for what it is. It just sucks.