Illustration: Clay Laucella/Bankrate
Kayla Palmer, 31, of Nashville, bought a 100-year-old house with her husband in 2018, but it turned out to be a gold mine. She felt rushed by her real estate agent, misrepresented the home’s structural issues, and experienced a series of costly problems after the purchase.
Setting the stage for home buying
For first-time homebuyers, buying a home is full of complex and very confusing steps. Because so much energy goes into pre-purchase steps like getting pre-approved for a mortgage, finding a real estate agent and making an offer, the costs and challenges that arise post-purchase can come as unexpected surprises.
Unfortunately, it’s a common experience for new homeowners to be surprised by everyday expenses like home maintenance, utilities, and property taxes. According to Bankrate’s 2025 Hidden Cost of Homeownership Study, the average annual cost of maintaining a home was $21,400. Of course, this is on top of regular mortgage payments, which for many families is the largest monthly expense in their budget.
Behind the scenes of her home buying experience
“(The first) house was like our dream home,” Palmer says. “It was wonderful.”
But as the home-buying process progressed, Palmer noticed that her real estate agent was asking her to sign unexplained documents, failing to answer inspection questions, and no-showing on closing days. It’s common for buyers to ask agents for advice and lender recommendations, but she and her husband were in the dark.
It took several months for problems to surface and regret to sink in. After that, “it felt like the biggest slap in the face of buyer’s remorse,” she admits.
While living in their newly purchased home, the couple discovered that the second floor was not completely insulated, resulting in temperatures of 100 degrees in the summer and 30 degrees in the winter. The pipe came loose and the floor was flooded with water. The neighborhood didn’t feel like a great fit.
A year later, the couple put their home back on the market and received an offer the same day. They found a new agent, borrowed from a lender recommended by the agent, and bought a home in a more desirable part of town with a school they liked. Then, in March, they decided to put the house on the market and buy a third, larger home to accommodate their growing family. Palmer and her husband used local mortgage loans for their first two homes, but are working with a builder to finance their next home, a new construction.
her dream of home ownership
All of Palmer’s home buying experiences have been a learning curve. She learned to look beyond the numbers to the details, such as the school district, proximity to highways, and the structural integrity of the home. She wasn’t persuaded just by the glamor list, either.
“If you’re looking to buy a home, you should tour your city and county to figure out exactly what you want and what you don’t want,” she says. “Don’t forget about cute wallpaper and cute furniture.”
Their new family home is twice the size of their previous home, allowing them to grow their family and accommodate visits from relatives.
“We’re doing tests. There’s no red flags. It was very easy, a little too easy,” she laughed. We hope this house and its upkeep are a good fit for the Palmer family.