I Canceled a Contract on a House. Here's Why It Was the Right Move

It really was for the best.

All in all, I would characterize my first and only (so far) experience of homeownership as a disaster. I wasn't emotionally or financially prepared to own a home at that time, as I was very young and had neither enough income/savings nor a settled enough career for it to be a good idea.

That said, I learned a lot through the process, and got some good experience of the various pitfalls an aspiring homeowner can encounter -- such as canceling a contract on a home you intend to buy. Here's how it went down and why I'm glad it happened.

In search of: one acceptable house to buy

If you've ever been house hunting before, you know what an arduous process it can be. I was fortunate enough to have a great real estate agent and at the time I was looking for homes (more than a decade ago), the city where I lived was smack in the middle of a buyer's market. There were tons of houses for sale, but up until the point when I made my first accepted offer, nothing was quite right. In some cases, the MLS pages for certain homes made them look larger, nicer, or in better shape than they actually were, and when I actually went to view them in person, they weren't right for me.

After a few weeks of checking out houses (and after getting a pre-approval for a mortgage from my bank), I thought I had found a winner. The house was about the right size, and in a neighborhood convenient to work and other vital aspects of my life. I was also getting tired of running around and looking at homes by then, to be honest (note: it's never a good idea to settle on a big purchase like a house just because you're tired of the process).

The home inspection revealed a big problem

After the offer was accepted, I scheduled a home inspection. My contract had an inspection contingency (meaning I was free to terminate or renegotiate it if the inspection turned up bad news with the house), and I learned the value of it. The inspector discovered that the back deck, which was attached to the second floor of the house, was structurally unsound and would need to be rebuilt if it was to be safe. Estimated cost? $15,000.

The home sellers were unwilling to offer any more than $1,500 toward the deck, and since I didn't have cash savings to address it myself if I had truly wanted to, I elected to cancel the contract on the house instead. While I was a little depressed at the time, I soon realized this was for the best.

This wasn't a tragedy

When I thought I was going to be buying that house, I was already trying to calculate how much it was going to cost me (remember, I had no money to actually make changes to the home) to have the textured walls (yuck) scraped, or replace the carpet in the bathroom (!) with tile. If you haven't even closed on a home and you're thinking about all the things wrong with it that you can't imagine yourself living with for any length of time, it's not the right house. Keep looking.

As it turned out, just a few days after ending the contract on the house, a new one hit the market that I actually did like. It was still a mistake for me to have bought it, and it didn't end well, but I ended up living in that house for a little over two years. Best of all, I didn't feel the need to change anything about it (a very good thing indeed -- since I had no money to do so).

Since I'm hoping to buy again in the next few years, it's been helpful to reflect on my last experience with mortgage loans, house hunting, and home inspections. When I'm ready to do it all again, I'll go into it feeling much better prepared -- and with a firmer grasp of what homeownership requires.