18 Pics That Prove You Should Do the Home Inspection Before Buying a House, Not After

Buying a home is quite a tiring and not very simple thing and you can come across unpleasant surprises during the process. If you buy a new home from a developer, you can’t be sure if it will age well in the future, while second-hand apartments can be full of surprises left by former owners. The good thing is that those surprises are not always that unpleasant.

We at Now I’ve Seen Everything studied the experience of people who bought a home and then discovered something not mentioned in closing paperwork.

1. “The house that I just bought has a real tree inside at the front door.”

2. “Bought a house that had a hidden room, I found it when I parked a bus on it.”

3. “Just bought my first house, didn’t test the taps when I was viewing it of course (all the taps in the house do this)”

4. “My mom is a realtor. She went to show an empty house and found that the previous owners had left something behind. She brought her home.”

5. “New house. Previous owners left this behind the basement bathroom curtain!”

6. “The previous owners of our home had a hole cut in the basement door for cats — Bernard makes use of it daily. His tail is always a good sign if someone is coming up the stairs.”

7. “We recently bought a house and the previous owners left us a ton of books. I want to keep some, but have no idea where to start.”

8. “The house I’m staying in kept its original well as a feature...”

9. “My parents moved into a new house, this was left on the lid of this toilet by the previous owners.”

10. “Previous owner of my house covered a gap in the floorboards by nailing down flattened food tins.”

11. “Just bought a house. The previous owner left a safe in the house and told us she doesn’t care. Any tips on how to help me open it?”

12. “My apartment is an old police station and still has the original cell doors, but painted.”

13. “So I just moved into a new apartment, and made a big discovery. We have a dungeon. There is a proper 19th-century layout of corridors and hatches beneath.”

14. “Why just screw or nail wood to a wall when you can use construction glue? Gifts from the previous owner”

15. “A friend of mine bought a house, in her backyard stands this ‘chapel’ which was bought by the previous owner in Malta.”

16. “Found treasure in my bathroom — a bunch of old coins and 2 rings.”

17. “Bought a house last year and wondered why this light never worked. Finally took it off to have a look at the wiring...”

18. “This frog statue I found tied up on the roof of the house we just bought.”

These photos were taken by ordinary people who wanted to share the surprises they discovered in their new homes. We at Now I’ve Seen Everything believe that there should be more of these stories on the internet, that’s why we would be happy if you’d share your experience in the comments. Together we can make sure as many as possible people get to know that they need to check every corner before buying a new home.