13 Moving Day Horror Stories You’d NEVER Want to Happen to You

Welcome to the hoarder house

“When I was five months pregnant we moved from a small condo to a new house a few miles away. Thanks to the cleaning folks we hired to clean our new house, we discovered the previous owners had not yet finished moving out! The husband was a hoarder and the attic was still filled with truck loads of junk as was the adjacent shed,” says Aileen R. Katcher of Nashville. Katcher confronted them and told them they had to remove all their stuff by the next day or she would take legal action. Unfortunately, they didn’t comply. “We ended up rounding up as many friends as we could find that had the flexibility to help us on a weekday, contacted a trash pick up service, and filled the dumpster truck full.” Although they weren’t obligated, Katcher’s realtor and the seller’s realtor reimbursed them for the cost of the trash removal. Veronica Sniscak, realtor and partner at Bob Lucido Team of Keller Williams in Maryland, says it’s essential to have a final walk-through of the property before closing day to make sure the house is in the condition as when the purchase was agreed upon. “If it isn’t, you have far more leverage before you sign the documents,” says Sniscak. “Once you sign on the house—good, bad, or otherwise, it is now your responsibility. If the items were identified prior to closing, the buyer’s agent could have had the sellers pay to remove the items.” Here are 12 more surprising costs every first-time home owner needs to know.

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