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The 7 Red Flags We Ignored (And Why We’d Do It Again)

“We don’t lock the house,” the realtor said, “but if you get there before me, wait until I let you in.”

That should have been our first sign to keep driving past that blue eyesore. Even after we toured the house and were taking a second look outside, a truck slowed down on the road. The driver rolled down his window, looked at us, and shouted, “I’m actually embarrassed to tell you I own this place. Do you want to go in and look around?”

Most people would have taken the hint. We took the deed.

Looking back, we ignored a list of red flags because we really thought we could make a livable cottage out of it.

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The plot twist: It was actually worse than it looked.

If you think that checklist is bad, keep in mind: those were just the things we could see when the “foundation” was covered with snow.

Once we actually owned the place and the snow melted, the reality set in. The foundation wasn’t just “leaning”—we found asphalt shingles and scrap wood shoved into gaps to level the floor.

We had bought a disaster. We needed a professional.

Enter Frank.

Frank wasn’t just a contractor; he was the expert we desperately needed. He looked under the house, looked at the rotting addition that was literally pulling the original cabin over. The bathroom sink wasn’t connected to a pipe-it was draining straight into the dirt under the house. Frank called me with some good news and some bad news.

“Look,” he said. “We really need to demolish this addition and rebuild it correctly so it doesn’t pull the house down. We can level out the original part of the cabin out if you want.”

He paused, then gave us the equation that changed everything.

“But for just $20,000 more than the cost of that repair, I could knock it all down and build you a new house. You get a new foundation, new plumbing that actually connects to the septic, and a house that stands up straight.”

That was the moment we stopped being renovators and started “Switching Geers”. These teachers have so much to learn!