Homeowners Share the Most Expensive Purchases They Made in 2024 and Deeply Regret

Owning a home involves many decisions, and sometimes those decisions end in regret. Over the past year, homeowners in the BuzzFeed Community have come forward and told us about the most expensive home purchases they made and ended up feeling like they weren’t worth it. penalty. So, whether you’re a homeowner or not, here are some of the unfortunate splurges we’ve seen in 2024 that might have you reconsidering your next big purchase in the new year:

1.“Renovating our kitchen. My wife and I now only cook on the grill. We spent over $12,000 that could have financed a great vacation.”

2.“I built a flagstone patio – nothing too big, about 15 feet by 20 feet. It was the worst weekend of my life. Digging 6 inches into the clay sucked. Returning the ground flat, everything was heavy (the bags of stones, the bags of sand, stones), and leveling everything was painful.

—Artephius_

3.“Marble floors. They are beautiful but difficult to maintain. They stain and scratch very easily, and you can only use special cleaners and mops to clean them.”

4.“Buy a cheap patio umbrella. They fall apart within a season and they are expensive! You need to buy it to the next level or just skip it altogether.”

-Anonymous

5.“Buying a house with a pool. It was a great selling point at the time, and we used it a lot at first, but I used it maybe three or four times a year. That’s a ton upkeep, maintenance and repairs One day I dove into freezing water because I had a leak somewhere and lost 250 gallons of water I suspected the pipe connecting the drain. main at the bottom of the deep end was cracked, so I plugged it with swimming pool;

6.“Stainless steel wire railings. Although they are beautiful and very functional, even the “marine grade” ones we purchased for our coastal property need to be regularly cleaned and recoated to prevent rust and wear Meanwhile, our redwood fences and posts are in completely good condition with occasional touch up of spots, they were also easy to install, looked great and cost much less.

—Nathan, 40, California

7.“Clear glass showers. They are difficult to clean and offer no privacy if someone else is in the room at the same time.”

8.“High-end windows. We were convinced to pay a ton of money for windows described as those” used in the Empire State Building. We didn’t really need triple-thickness or energy-blocking windows. Good quality, energy efficient windows would have sufficed for about half the cost.

—Judi, Virginia

9.“Hardwood floors – ugh. If they’re vintage or very high-end, then great, they’ll last forever. But the newer, not-so-expensive kind I have? Tough pass. I have two dogs, and even though I trim their nails frequently, it’s a disaster Some floors can be polished, but when Thing 2 decides it’s Zoom time, my floor becomes scratch city.

10.“Electric radiant floors. In my bathroom, it’s really nice in the winter. But in my office? Three out of five sections died after a year, and now I can’t keep this room warm enough without a They’re very expensive and impossible to repair without tearing up the floors to renovate them, so I wouldn’t recommend it.

—North_Ad_4450

11.“My biggest regret is rushing to buy furniture. I wish I had taken my time and bought pieces when I could afford something nice. Now I have crappy sofas that I despise it.”

12.“Saunas. Don’t get me wrong, they’re really cool, brag-worthy and exciting…for the first few months. After that, you don’t really use it much because it’s either ‘too much’ is too complicated” or “heating is too expensive”.

—c9belayer

13.“A koi pond. Worst decision of my life.”

14.“I bought a lemon house. It turned out it needed new wiring, new plumbing, and new structural support. The inspector (which I later found out (he was a friend of the realtor) had no concerns about the house. I ended up short selling it for $15,000.

—freezing process

15.“I miss my granite countertops. They look great but require annual sealing, which doesn’t work well. Shortly after installation, I had back surgery and was down for a few days. I had asked my family to wash a roasting pan sitting by the sink, and when I finally got to the kitchen, water from the sink had seeped under the pan and left a rusty mark. on the counter granite. Also the granite in the bathroom started to crumble around the hidden edge of the sink can’t wait to tear them out!

16.“An outdoor furniture set. We rarely used it; it wore out from sun damage and rusted from the elements. It was a huge waste of money.”

—Gio, 71, New York

17.“I used black grout to renovate my bathroom. At first it looked absolutely stunning and super modern, then after several months of cleaning the black no longer looked black and the imperfections were easily visible. “

18.“I bought all new windows in my house and regret paying $40,000 for installation. Even if my windows needed to be replaced, I could have found a significantly cheaper brand. The Lifetime Warranty is somewhat of a joke I called several times to report a problem — no response!”

—Marc, 68, Nebraska

19.“I know it’s one of the simplest DIYs you can do, but I don’t think it was worth painting my own cabinets. They look great, but it took me about two weeks after the hours of work in a dismantled kitchen It would have taken about an hour to a professional with a paint gun.

20.“The hot tub came with the house, but I should have sold it. We’ve paid $3,000 for repairs since we bought the house, and the hot tub is almost never used. We even moved it and paid to unplug it.”

—Kwinston

21.“Wall-to-wall carpet. The amount of sand and dirt that gets trapped, plus bugs and other allergens? Imagine having to clean it. The odors that get trapped in there from pets, sweat, cooking and cigarette smells easily make it one of the grossest things in a house.

22.“Fake grass. It’s more expensive and requires a lot of maintenance, and it stinks, especially if you have dogs. Natural grass is better and some types don’t need much watering either.”

-Anonymous

23.Finally: “When we bought our house, the previous owners asked us if we wanted the pool table. I said, “Hell yeah, that’s great!” “They just didn’t want to move it, but now for us it’s just a place to fold laundry, I’m going to leave it to the next person who buys this house.

IDK, I still want a koi pond in my future home. If you’re a homeowner, what more expensive home project, purchase or renovation have you ended up regretting this year? Let us know in the comments, or you can submit your story anonymously using this form!

Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.