Buzz
Buying a house isn’t usually a quick or easy process. There’s significant money involved for all parties, plenty of research and negotiation, and a good amount of time—especially if you take the right precautions to safeguard yourself. Once you find your perfect home, you schedule an inspection, make a reasonable offer, and hire a lawyer to ensure the transaction goes off without a hitch.
Closing on the property should mark the end of the stressful part and the beginning of the exciting part—moving in and making the space truly yours. But if you’re not cautious, move-in day could bring even more tension if the seller has pulled a fast one on you. Even if your home inspection was flawless and you had top-notch legal and real estate professionals backing you up, some home sellers might still try to pull a few stunts to tip the deal in their favor.
Replacing appliances
Picture this: You tour a potential new home and fall in love with the kitchen. It's been beautifully renovated, featuring stunning cabinetry and sleek, brand-new appliances.
Then, after closing on the property, you walk in only to find that the appliances have been swapped out for cheap or worn versions, far removed from what you admired during the open house and subsequent visits. The seller has taken the expensive new appliances and left you with a rundown kitchen. Or worse, you realize that despite being new and high-quality, one or more of the appliances is faulty or not working properly.
The legal situation here is somewhat unclear; some experts say anything permanently fixed to the house, like an oven, automatically becomes part of the property, while others argue that appliances are personal possessions that aren't necessarily included in the sale.
To avoid this issue, check if the appliances are part of the home's appraised value—if so, you have a strong argument to compel the seller to return them or offer compensation. Ensure that the appliances are explicitly listed in the sale contract. Lastly, insist on a final walk-through before closing and take photos of everything for later reference.
Simplifying things unnecessarily
One sneaky tactic that home sellers sometimes use involves 'smart' devices such as thermostats and door locks. These devices connect to the home's network and offer advanced features that can be controlled via smartphone apps.
If these 'smart' features played a role in your decision to purchase the home, be sure to specify in the contract that they remain in place. Sellers often remove valuable smart tech, replacing it with the basic models they initially removed during the upgrade. If you didn’t make it clear that they should stay with the house, you might have no recourse to retrieve them, even if you counted them as part of the home's value when making your offer.
Swapping out light fixtures
A common expectation when buying a home is that the light fixtures—and even the bulbs—will be included. If you love the lighting the current homeowners have installed, be sure to take photos and ask your real estate agent to confirm they are explicitly listed in the contract. Otherwise, you might not realize the fixtures have been replaced until it’s too late.
Be sure to check those light bulbs, especially if the house has specialty bulbs like Philips Hue. These bulbs can cost up to $50 each, so if the home is large and has numerous lighting features, it could become a significant expense if the sellers replace those bulbs with cheaper versions—or simply remove them altogether, leaving you in the dark.
Leaving behind a mess
Moving into a new home is always a hectic experience. If the home you’re purchasing is still occupied, it’s wise to request that the seller specify the condition of the property you’ll be taking over in the contract. Otherwise, you may open the door to find garbage left behind, scratched floors or walls from moving furniture, or even personal belongings the seller assumes you’re willing to hold on to or return to them at some point.
Even if the home is empty when you buy it, you should make sure to document its condition during your final walk-through. This helps ensure that the sellers didn’t leave behind any messes or cause property damage. If you do find a mess, there’s not much you can do unless it was clearly stated in the contract that the house would be in a certain condition when you moved in—other than reaching out to the previous owner to ask them to clean up or cover the cost of cleaning.
Concealing issues
Lastly, keep in mind that even the best home inspector might not catch everything. Inspections are typically brief and designed to identify major, obvious issues. This means a dishonest seller could cover up less obvious problems. For example, a patch-up job on a ceiling with water damage right before the inspection might hide the issue—until the first heavy rain comes. A seller might also use cheap temporary fixes like clamps or rubber patches on damaged pipes, or apply wood hardening agents to dry rot.
While it's illegal to conceal 'material defects' in a home that’s up for sale, these sneaky tactics are often difficult to prove, since you can't always inspect the walls or explore every hidden corner of a house. What you can do is be mindful of common methods homeowners use to hide or cover up issues, and stay alert for red flags such as oddly placed furniture, freshly painted areas (particularly if it’s limited to a small section), or the strong scent of air fresheners, which might indicate mold or other unpleasant odors in the home.
When purchasing a major asset like a home, you have every right to expect it to be in the same condition as when you first saw it. Keep these deceptive tactics in mind as you make an offer on a new property, take plenty of photos—and don’t be afraid to document everything in writing, no matter how trivial it may seem.
