The People Who Sold Me My House Made This Huge Mistake

This is an error you don't want to make.

A few months ago, I purchased a new home. The house had been built in 2021 and it was just eight months old. The home had a lot of nice custom touches that looked nice but didn't add a ton of value to the price of the property.

Because the sellers had upgraded features to make the home their own and then sold it shortly after buying it, they ended up losing money on the property even though the real estate market was a seller's market. This is especially true after factoring in the fees they paid to the realtor as well as the closing costs and transfer taxes.

Now, you may be wondering why people sold a house so soon after building it and spending extra money to customize it, which meant taking out a larger mortgage.

The reason this ended up happening to them is because they made a big mistake when they built their property. And it's a mistake every home buyer needs to be absolutely sure to avoid if they don't want to end up unhappy in their property or forced to sell it quickly under circumstances that aren't ideal.

Make sure you avoid the big mistake these home sellers made

The big mistake that the people who sold us our home made was they weren't fully aware of the homeowners association rules that applied to the property when they decided to build a home in the neighborhood.

See, the property we bought is in a planned golf community with tons of amenities -- and many detailed rules governing homeowner behavior. Since we only spend part of the year there and the property is a vacation home for us, these rules and restrictions were fine with my husband and I. We were willing to accept them to gain access to the community benefits such as a lazy river and small toddler water park.

But the prior homeowners obviously weren't familiar with the restrictions. And it ended up causing them a lot of problems based on what the homeowner's association representatives and neighbors told us.

The couple who had purchased the property had both a boat and an RV that they parked on the road, which was strictly forbidden. They ended up incurring tons of fines and fees because of it. They also failed to follow other rules, such as keeping the garage door closed and bringing in the garbage cans by a specific time. They also put out lawn ornaments without permission. All of this led to more fines and to constant arguments with the association.

Always read the HOA rules ahead of time

After a few months of this, they obviously got tired of the restrictions they couldn't live with -- and ended up selling the home to us at a loss so they could get out quickly. While this benefited us, it was an unfortunate situation for the previous owners that could easily have been avoided had they read the rules carefully before buying.

This failure to understand the HOA rules is one that no home buyer should fall victim to since it's easy to learn the restrictions before buying -- and a lot more difficult to undo an error after purchasing a property that doesn't work for your lifestyle.