A Couple Gets The Chance To Buy Their Rental Home, But Several Red Flags Make Them Rethink The Deal
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Imagine renting a house for awhile, and then the landlord decides to sell the house. Would you move, hope the new landlord is great, or consider buying the house yourself?
In this story, one couple is in this situation, and they consider buying the house they’re renting and the landlord’s house which is on the same property. It seemed like a good deal at first, but when they started seeing red flags, they decided to get revenge.
Keep reading for all the details.
Landlord Wants a New Roof
Let’s go back two years, my wife and I were looking for a rental and got referred to a house that was for sale but the owner was open to renting the house out.
He gives us a quick tour and tells us two prices, a lower price and a higher price which includes a stove and refrigerator.
He eventually failed to provide us the appliances but still kept the higher price.
He also mentioned that he lived in a house behind us? Apparently, both houses share a water line and to save us trouble he would pay for the water bill.(Keep this in mind)
They didn’t have any problems for awhile.
The first year of renting went smoothly.
After our contract ended we decided to stay another year.
This is where things started to go downhill, we started to see how manipulative he really was.
He wouldn’t get us a yearly contract but would do a month-to-month agreement promising he wouldn’t kick us out. He kept our deposit and continued to charge us the higher price.
He did other annoying things too.
Never fixed our leaky hot water pipe but asked us to close it.
He would threaten to sell the house, telling us to not be alarmed if we seen a for sale sign outside.
He did this for another year, so we would always be worried whether or not this would be our last month or not.
So, my wife and I hatched a wonderful idea.
This is a good idea.
He’s wanting to sell, why not buy it? We’re already living in one of the houses.
We ask him what he wants for both homes.
He wants $150K. What a steal!! BUT there’s a catch.
He’s afraid his home won’t appraise for the sale price because he needs a new roof and wants us to pay for it.(Red Flag #1)
There are too many red flags here.
We tell him get it in writing and lower your asking price.
He gets a lawyer to write him a contract and conveniently leaves out that he would reimburse us if our deal falls through PLUS he can back out whenever he wants.(Red Flag #2)
Finally, one day while talking he slips up and tells us he owes two years worth of house taxes so if he did sell to us we would have ended up paying for those.(Red Flag #3)
They knew better than to buy the houses from the landlord.
Revenge. After months of going back and forth and the deal falling apart we find a house and close within a month.
We stopped up keeping the rental, turned on the leaky hot water pipe(LOL) and are leaving with a one day notice and will be turning in our keys instead of handing him money.
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He tried to screw us and now he’s got to fix his walls, his pipes and will not be making money since the house will stay empty.
I bet the landlord will be upset when he finds out, but I’m really glad they didn’t overlook the red flags.
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
This person has a suggestion to keep the revenge going.
A mortgage broker weighs in.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a person who changed their minds about donated items, only to return to the shop to find them all sold.
This person has a best case scenario.
Another person has a question.
They may not even want the house anymore. I’m sure there are better houses out there. I’m glad the red flags were clearly visible before they actually bought the place. Good riddance!
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