Observations from buying a home

We recently bought our first home. It’s a major fixer-upper.

Couple observations:

Before we bought, I had my friend who was a General Contractor for 30+ years look at it. In his words, “You can’t even call this craftmanship.” Another friend who does a lot of remodeling said, “One of the worst fixer-uppers I have ever seen.” I also spoke with some neighbors and they all said the same thing. The previous owners had worked really hard to fix it up but it still looked awful.

How come no one had the courage to say stop? Where was the friend with the guts to say, “Don’t keep doing this.”?

Indeed, having a friend like this is rare.

The second thing I’ve noticed is this. By all accounts, the owners had put a lot of sweat equity to “fix up the place” before selling. They were upset when they weren’t getting the price they wanted from potential buyers.

Our expectations don’t match reality. Our realities don’t match other people’s expectations.