I made the mistake of buying a house with my boyfriend. He came across the listing and was super excited by the especially low price. We toured the house, and he had all sorts of ideas for improvements. He suggested that we buy the house together, complete renovations over the next five years and then sell for a profit. It sounded like a great plan to me. Unfortunately, the location of the house wasn’t ideal. The nearby neighborhood is a high-crime area. We would often hear sirens or people shouting in the streets. We experienced vandalism, such as theft of our outdoor furniture, rocks through our windows and spray painted graffiti on our fence. We tried to sell the house through traditional methods. We found a real estate agent and arranged for multiple open-houses. When we got no offers, we lowered the asking price. The house still didn’t sell. Around that time, my boyfriend and I started having some problems. It became clear that the relationship was not going to last. Getting out of the house became the priority. Our best and only option was reaching out to a cash home buyer. We were able to get an offer within twenty-four hours. While we took a loss on the home, it was a relief to walk away. There were no worries over the location or making repairs. We accepted the offer and had cash in hand in under two weeks. I will be much more careful about making such a sizable investment in the future.
