The money pit - YouLookFab Forum

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The money pit

Christina F.

Veteran

My beautiful home is a money pit. I'm at my wit's end.

Built in 2015, remodeled a bit before it was flipped to condos in 2019-2021. We have had the following problems:

Catastrophic flood - no one new this was a flood zone due to sewage overflow. The city doesn't classify it that way. No one who sold us the place really at fault here, as the flooding we got was absolutely unprecedented here. We lost a lot of stuff, and spent a lot of money to fix and then flood-proof the lower floor as well as we could.
New furnace installed after flood was TOO EFFICIENT for the pipes on the roof, and causes a leak when the pipes sweat. The company that did the install has gone defunct, and since I was grieving my mom and half our house was destroyed at that time, I never got their insurance info. We need to put in a WORSE furnace soon before heating season.
Roof had other leak problems that took forever to solve due to the seller being a jerk, our first manager being an incompetent crook, etc etc.
Just found out - our tub leaks into the lower floor ceiling because it was not installed correctly. Ceiling has mold. Not sure if the tub was installed by the builders or the flippers who sold it to us. I am now concerned the two apartments upstairs may have the same problems - they have a tub AND a shower each.

And these are just the larger issues. There were a host of smaller ones (sprinklers, fines for not keeping the nearby street clean enough) that weren't resolved until we finally found a good building manager. Other smaller things, like poor wiring for the dryer (so it takes forever), we have decided to live with.

I know homes have problems - is this normal or have we just been extremely unlucky? Clearly people who sold the place are crooks, but we were advised in the past that pursing legal action would get us little return on the time and money spent to do it.

Sorry, I needed to vent somewhere and lot of my friends don't own, or own in large co-ops, and some are frankly being a little smug about their life choices right now. I love my home and am committed to it, but this last item has me beside myself.

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26 replies

Latest reply was from Minaminu

rachylou

Veteran

…I feel this is kinda normal for new construction, multi-unit in particular, but nothing escapes. The housing crisis is far reaching and multi-tentacled. It’s all greed driven. My energy efficient doors and windows… are pathetic and unfixable. The handle has broken off on one window (turn to open) and the patio door handle keeps breaking. Two companies. The second company changed out the roller feet which made it slide open super fast… and the door stop punched a hole through the door! I’m totally defeated.

Cardiff girl

Veteran

Iam so sorry Christina .this must be really upsetting and frustrating for you.You have my sympathy.All houses have their issues but that does seem a lot to be coping with.l hope that you manage to get it sorted soon.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Oh Christina, that’s awful. Homeowner problems are so stressful. They’re expensive, require time and energy and oversight. It’s exhausting. You have my sympathy. We just (mostly) finished a huge home renovation (still some finishing touches to go), and we still need to redo one bathroom in our house. And I co-own a rental property with my sister but have sole responsibility for managing it because she is five states away. I really hope things get better for you soon!

Sal

Veteran

That sounds like a lot and really hard big stuff too. It feels like ( here too) codes are high and building and property is so expensive yet the workmanship (there is probably a better word) is poor.

It’s really challenging when your home should be a sanctuary.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Yikes. That sounds horrendous.

I am so sorry you are dealing with this.

Houses really are money pits -- all of them -- and older or maybe brand new ones in particular. Our Kingston house (parts built in 1840 and parts in 1910 and a small part in the 1980s ) was one major expense after another -- quite apart from the kitchen gut and reno, bathroom gut and reno, study renos we did when we moved in. Floods, dangerous trees, broken steps, bad pipes, new water heater, new roof -- on it went.

But yours really does sound especially bad. I wish I had a solution. I do know this thing with the tub install being improper is a very common problem. It happened to my step-son this year and I have also had numerous friends dealing with this issue of late. Our plumber explained the short cuts some people take and shook his head. I guess it is a known issue in the business.

Christina F.

Veteran

The tub’s drain pipe corroded completely through at its joint! The plumber has never seen anything like it. My cat can’t be deterred from peeing in the tub (not a health issue) - I asked if that could contribute and he thought maybe but it might not be the whole cause. Maybe whomever installed it bought an inferior part to start with.

Thanks for the commiseration everyone. I expected further problems down the road but was hoping for a break for a bit. We have completely stopped adding to retirement savings beyond our 401ks.

Irina

Veteran

So sorry to hear about the problems with your house, Christina F.

Suz is right, all the houses are money pits
I wanted to renovate my bathroom but quotes from contractors were eye watering. And that, considering that the bathroom doesn’t have any issues is so shocking.

kellygirl

Veteran

Vent away. That's awful. I can't imagine this being normal. You'd expect newer construction to have fewer issues than older homes but I guess that's not always the case. The drain pipe could have been installed improperly so it trapped water which ultimately caused the corrosion. The furnace issue is aggravating - you would think the pipes would be insulated to prevent the sweating! I know it's hard to find contractors around here - so much demand. The good ones are expensive and busy and the other ones--it's kind of a crap shoot. I hope that you are able to resolve the issues quickly so you can enjoy your home. So sorry that you are having to deal with this!

Suz

(website)

Veteran

I think the cat pee might corrode the fixtures (the external stuff) but unlikely it could damage the pipes.

Also, on a side note, this is yet another issue we share. Our poor old boy has stage 3 kidney disease and has taken to peeing in the laundry room sink and the bathtub. Yuck!! But we love him. So we deal with it. And try to shut doors to dissuade him.

slim cat

Veteran

It sounds horrible - way beyond normal problems. The remodeling/flipping became sorta dangerous thing - so many people wanted to do it but not everyone was the professional and honest person able to handle it ( I kinda want to blame shows about flipping houses that were all the rage just a few years ago ).
So sorry - vent away. Hope some advice will be useful - good luck.

Christina F.

Veteran

Thanks, all. The pipe that failed seems to have been a defective part, possibly also installed badly for sure. On further thought, the cat urine seems unlikely to be the cause. The damage from this seems like something our insurance may cover, but my husband was working on a pitch yesterday and couldn’t contact our insurance to ask. I was busy with work and the plumber, plus we are having a barbecue today on top of it all.

Slim cat - the person who flipped this condo was a real estate investor who hired contractors to do the work. It isn’t like the fad of normal folks flipping houses. The contractors just clearly cut a lot of corners. And the building was only a few years old!

Olive Green

Veteran

That is a lot. Shared walls and roofs really seem to exacerbate the problems, as responsibility can be diffuse.
Which slack condition contractors rely upon.
A few owned, freestanding houses in, I simply put aside a yearly amount to deal with maintenance and replacement, and we insure everything to the max. It’s fire and hail and tornadoes here, too high for flooding, but at this point, no one escapes some kind of disaster.
We just finished painting the house (black!) and deck and even with a pretty good contractor, bits and pieces were not done perfectly, and a modern house relies on precise lines. The house is three years old and we need to replace several high end French doors already. And the solar power gate was cheap and needed replacing.
And so on.
Our neighbours just finished building a month ago, and they are currently replacing and augmenting their AC system, their septic needed pumping and rejiggering, and so on. She is a high end designer, so it looks 10, but the work is about a 2.
It’s not just you.

rachylou

Veteran

Building high density housing is being pushed hard here in California, and it’s all garbage sold as luxury homes. Someone died because of a balcony collapse. Mold, flooding from pipes breaking, elevators stuck, etc etc are regular news. SF has its infamous Millennium Tower skyscraper for the uber rich which is LEANING like Pisa. The bus/train terminal couldn’t open without re-engineering. The new Bay Bridge is already corroded. Housing twitter is eye opening.

Christina F.

Veteran

Thanks, everyone. It’s helpful to have some perspective. I do want to start putting aside money for repairs, but all our extra money has gone to already-needed repairs and setting up our condo’s finances properly, finally.

Runcarla

Veteran

We’ve owned 3 houses, and even with an inspection before purchase in each case, there were expensive ‘surprises’ within a very short time. It leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Once priority issues got sorted, we did as our financial advisor suggested and set 10% of our annual income aside to invest in our home - either repairs or upgrades.

In almost 40 years of home ownership, we’ve had some bad experiences with contractors, but we’ve also had some amazingly good trades folk do work for us.

Our homes increased in value during our tenure, and we got to live in them - so there is that!

Anonymous

Yikes-sounds awful! One of my friends is a builder and he says that most new construction is horribly made :/

The really good thing about owning though, despite the repairs, is that your mortgage will stay about the same. I thank God daily that DH and I bought our house when we did, cause rents everywhere are double our mortgage.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Oh, Christina, that is A LOT. I'm so sorry

We've been wrestling with our loft remodel for two years. It is very complicated and lots still unresolved. The prices of estimates have been SHOCKING. I've picked myself off the floor many times. Apparently, these prices have doubled since 2019 for a myriad of reasons. High demand and low supply keeps the prices exhorbitant. Remodeling is about the most expensive thing you can do at the moment - that, or build a home. Spending money on a holiday is a drop in the ocean by comparison!!!

Best of luck forward. I fully empathize, and hope you find your way out so that you can live in the home you love with a happy heart!

cat2

Veteran

It does sound like the flood was unprecedented but the rest of the issues are in line with what we have experienced with the variety of different properties we have lived in over the years. There is always something that needs attention, and until you have been doing this long enough to have a good roster of trades people to call, and from them a good referral network, each new trades hire is nerve wracking. Hang in there, you are building equity that you will appreciate later.

Bijou

Veteran

I haven't experienced anything as awful as a flood, but the other problems you have experienced are similar to what we have been through. Much like your furnace issue, when we built our house, we were forced to use a certain air-conditioning company and system. It was super expensive and useless but we needed some of the ducting to be done during the build so there was no way to not use them. We had to have the entire system (including most of the ducting) replaced. We now have a better system that is energy efficient to run. Overtime we have built up a list of reliable trades people to call upon - we have a good roofing guy, electrician, plumber - but there are plenty of jobs that need doing!

That said, I do love my money pit - would not want to live anywhere else!

RobinF

Veteran

Oh, that has to be so discouraging. So hard to have to spend on that kind of stuff when you probably want to be doing the fun new-house projects like painting and making it pretty. You just never know what you are going to get with a new house. Hopefully when these issues get resolved you'll have a long time before anything else crops up!

Minaminu

Veteran

oh Christina, I am so sorry! Home repairs are incredibly painful, not only in terms of costs but also efforts.

An emergency fund is always a good thing to have but I find it incredibly stressful when I need to dip in for urgent repairs. My flat is in an old house, so we constantly have something to repair (which keeps on postponing the full reno) and the passive aggressive neighbour does not help. Feel your pain!

Christina F.

Veteran

Thanks four your sympathetic thoughts, all!

I did show my house off this weekend to some friends who hadn’t been yet, and they acknowledged they could see why I love it despite the costs. We are just frustrated at this seemingly freak issue with the pipe. It was an easy fix but now the cost to remediate mold (black mold!) and fix the ceiling… ugh. We also need to do that furnace replacement before fall so the timing is not great. I’d love to start a home fund but we have been pouring most of our extra money into repairs or remediating the condo’s outstanding issues. I’d like the chance to start saving again, both for that and retirement!

kkards

Veteran

Grrr..so sorry for all your going thru. If it makes you feel better, my upstairs neighbors dishwasher was leaking but they didn’t know it because the leak was behind the dishwasher and I did it know it because they generally ran the dishwasher when I wasn’t home and it was leaking into a top/tall cabinets that stored really used pieces. Buy the time I realized I had a problem it was a big problem! Fortunately because I was WFH when their shower leaked thru I was home.

Barbara Diane

Veteran

That’s a lot. So sorry.

April

Veteran

Right there with you, CF. Mr. A and I have owned several houses together and every one had major and expensive issues.

Beach house had mechanicals in the basement, thus below sea level. When rain coincided with high tide, all the streets would be underwater so we had to move the cars ahead of time to a dry location about a half mile away. Constantly monitoring tides + weather forecast = not fun.

Pond house had all manner of rodents lurking within every wall and a second-floor porch that was completely rotted and had to be rebuilt.

This house turned out to be a total flooding nightmare - indoors and out - every time a heavy rain fell. We've now been here 6 years and Mr. A has solved each water problem but it's always something. Always.

Sorry to hear your friends are feeling smug. To them, I say inside my head, "Just wait, folks..."

Minaminu

Veteran

As they say, when it rains, it pours....

This week I had 4 emergency visits from the plumber, 1 from the drain specialist and one from a very upset neighbour. All immediate issues have been resolved but we need to replace the bath tub and new tiles are required which means that the kitchen reno is moved to next year.