I don't know that I would have done that, my thinking would be that it was the sellers trying to drive up the house. I've heard of sellers doing damage to a house when they didnt get what they wanted, but I don't know anyone that bought a house with a renter living in it.
Did you not go through a pre-qualification/pre-approval for your mortgage? When we bought our second house (1 1/2 years ago), our realtor was surprised that we had gone through the pre-approval process and we told her that we didn't see the point in making offers unless we knew we could afford that amount.
The sellers had moved out of state and had not been in town for quite awhile, from what we had been told. However, the renters were right here. They weren't here the first time we looked at the house but they insisted on being home whenever we came out after that. She would ask me questions about what I was going to do about some of the repairs, which I thought was odd.
We brought people out to get estimates of repairs a couple of times and she followed us around to listen to what the repair people had to say about the cost of the damage.
(They had let pipes freeze and they broke, then water poured out into the walls when everything thawed. There were holes in the ceilings of several rooms downstairs to do minimal pipe repair. They had brought a motorcycle inside that was leaking oil sitting on a vinyl floor, which was absorbing the oil. They did that after we bought the house but before they moved out and we took possession. They had 4 dogs and 3 cats and they had either had repeated "accidents" or had been sick in every room of the house. They were using lots of air freshner and the windows were always open when we came out to the house. We didn't realize all the floors would have to be replaced until after we closed.)
The renters were professionals - he, a chiropractor, and she, his office assistant. We took them to small claims court to try to get back some of the money we had to spend for clean up/repair and we lost. The judge said we bought the house "as is" and the previous owners would have the right to make a claim against the renters to keep their deposit but I am not sure the owners were really aware of all the damage the renters were doing. They had a rental agency taking care of things for them and both the renters and the agency rep sat and laughed as us when we lost the case.
I suspected the agency was just collecting rent and taking their fee...not really looking after the place.
DH said he didn't mind a fixer-upper, we just didn't realize how much of a fixer up it would end up being as some of the damage was done after the closing. We did get pre-approved, thinking it would make the process go smoother. We were pre-approved for much more than the asking price of the house. I'll just say there's a reason I hang around on the Budget Board.
The owners seemed willing to come down as they knew there had been broken pipes and the repairs were not completed.
It was an interesting learning experience. Once you show an interest in a property, everything seems to go sooooo fast! DH is, now, pretty determined that the next house we will build ourselves. I can see why he wouldn't want to go thru that again but I would dread building.
