Purchasing a home is one of the biggest decisions you can make in a lifetime. It’s also, generally, a long term decision. That’s why it’s crucial to ensure that you are completely satisfied with your new home purchase. Make sure that it meets your needs in size, location, features, and even spiritual.

If it doesn’t, you may end up with regrets.

Just last week I received a telephone call from a purchaser’s family member telling me that the purchaser wanted out of the contract that they had just signed. The reason given was that the purchaser had been informed that the seller was the family of an elderly gentleman who had died in the property quite recently.

The purchaser found the property to be quite uninhabitable. It was fine from a physical point of view, quite nice in fact. However, from a spiritual point of view, the purchaser could not wrap their mind around living in a property where someone had died.

The cost to get out of a purchase deal is A LOT. The purchaser loses their deposit and will, most often, be sued for any losses of the vendor when the property has to be re-listed and sold, perhaps at a lower price.

How would this, or any, purchaser have found out the facts about this house prior to purchasing? The short answer is to ask. Ask the realtor. Have the realtor ask the vendor’s realtor in writing. Ask the neighbours. I don’t see anything wrong with ringing the neighbour’s door bell and asking questions about the house and the neighbourhood. The answers you get may save you thousands of dollars.