Why I Will Never Buy These Types of Houses Again

TLDR

After more than a decade of buying houses, two problems burned me badly enough that I avoid them now. One is a home on a wet hillside; the other is hidden work from a “pro DIYer.”

Table of Contents

• House 1: The Sponge
• The Right Way to Fix It
• House 2: The Professional DIYer
• What to Look For Before You Buy
• Why I Still Encourage You to Buy
• FAQ

House 1: The Sponge

I bought a house for $30,000 on a hillside. Great deal on paper. If I removed some trees in the backyard, it would have a view of the city. Obviously it needed work, but the numbers made sense.

As soon as we closed, water started pouring into the basement. I did everything you are supposed to do to stop water on a hillside property. Tiered retaining wall system with French drains. New gutters. Regraded the yard. Rerouted all surface water away from the house.

After tens of thousands of dollars, water was still getting into the basement.

Here is the setup we built. Picture the house sitting at the bottom of a hill. Water runs down the hill toward the house. So we dug tiers into the hill, each with a retaining wall and a French drain behind it. Surface water hits the first retaining wall, drops into the French drain, gets rerouted around the house. Some water passes the first tier and hits the second, same thing happens there. Some passes that and hits the third tier. Gutters on the roof catch everything landing on the house itself and carry it out around the sides.

That was the normal surface-water playbook we tried on this house. It still failed. The water kept coming in.

One day we were digging out a trench on the side of the house to tap into the city sewer line. The guy running the dig called me over and pointed at the bottom of the trench. There was water flowing. A stream, three feet below the surface.

That is when I realized the hill was a sponge. It was springtime. It rained every other day. The hill held water like a wet towel, and once it got saturated, an underground river was running three feet below grade. The house was a rock sitting in the middle of that river. And rocks in rivers always lose. The water wears them down eventually.

The house was actually sliding down the hill. There was no way to stop all of that water from reaching the basement.

You cannot stop water on a hillside. You can only redirect it.

The Right Way to Fix It

The source describes the drainage approach used on this property. It is not a universal design for every hillside or wet basement.

You do not try to block the underground water. You let it come in, and you give it a controlled path out.

Step by step:

1. Waterproof the inside of the basement wall where the hill meets the house. Thick waterproofing membrane.
2. Cut a few feet of concrete out of the basement floor along that wall, making a shallow U-shape around the sides.
3. Install a French drain in that trench, connected to a sump pit in the middle of the basement.
4. Install a sump pump in the pit. The pump runs when water collects and discharges it outside.

The intended path is for water to reach the drain and sump rather than damage the interior. Site conditions, discharge rules, pump capacity, backup power, and engineering determine whether a similar system is appropriate.

The Resale Problem

Even with the fix installed and working, the story to a buyer is “we expect water to come in, and the pump keeps it moving.” That is a tough sell. You lose real money on the sale because the buyer knows the house has a chronic condition. That is why I will not buy on a hillside again. The fix works. The resale does not.

House 2: The Professional DIYer

The second house was in one of the best neighborhoods in town. Three stories: basement, main level, second story. The plan was to separate the basement from the upper floors, meter them separately, and run it as a duplex. Light renovation on the main level, a wall and a separate electrical meter in the basement, done.

I bought it. We opened the first wall to start on the electrical, and what I saw was terrifying.

And that was just the first wall. The deeper we went, the worse it got. The whole house had been worked on by somebody who thought they were an electrician, a plumber, a framer, and an HVAC tech. They were none of those things.

One saving grace was supposed to be the new plumbing. Brand new PEX supply lines and PVC drains looked great. But the permitted job required a water test. Every PVC joint leaked when the lines were filled.

We ended up having to prop up the house, tear the framing out, and reframe from scratch. Old decks had been partially enclosed to make interior living space, with their own DIY framing, DIY electrical, and DIY HVAC, all wrong. The whole house was effectively worth nothing. We rebuilt it from the inside out, new-build prices on a renovation budget.

A pro DIYer inside the walls can mean a total tear-down on a house that looked livable from the street.

What to Look For Before You Buy

Hillsides are visible. Pro DIYers hide. The trick is to spot the signs before you close.

Signs From This Pro-DIY Case

These are the clues found once this house was opened. They are not a complete inspection list.

• Short pieces of wood patched together where full studs should run.
• Wrong wire sizes, poor connections, or splices hidden in walls.
• An indoor extension cord run through the wall and floor frame.
• New drain lines that leak during the required water test.
• Old decks enclosed as living space with bad frame, power, and HVAC work.

Pro Tip

If I see signs that a pro DIYer worked deep inside the house, I avoid it. You do not know how far that can of worms goes until the walls come off.

Why I Still Encourage You to Buy

I did not make this article to scare you out of real estate. I made it so you do not walk into these two holes on the way in.

Bad things happen in this business. A few years ago a tornado ripped through my town and tore houses out of the ground. One family I know went into a basement closet during the storm. When they came out, their house was gone. But they rebuilt. That is what real estate people do.

You will run into a storm eventually. Probably not a literal one. Probably a sponge hillside or a pro DIYer or something worse that I have not written about yet. You are going to get through it. And what you will have on the other side is not as much money as you hoped, but a lot more skill than you had before.

Skills are what make you durable. A storm can take your money. It cannot take what you have learned. Every bad deal teaches you something that protects the next ten.

A bad deal can take money from you. The skill you gain is what helps you rebuild and face the next one.

FAQ

How do I know if a hill is steep enough to be a sponge?

Ross was talking about a large hillside, not a small grade. The source does not give a slope test. His rule after this loss was simple: avoid the big hill.

What if I already own a sponge house?

The source shows the system used on this house: water barrier, an inside drain, a sump pit, and a pump. Ross said it cost far more than he expected. A real repair still needs a plan for that site; the video does not give a universal design or price.

Can I catch a pro DIYer with a home inspection?

The source does not say an inspection will find all of it. Much of this home’s bad work was hidden inside walls and became clear only after the first wall came off.

Is there any hillside I would buy?

The video says Ross avoids a true hillside after this loss. It does not ban every home with a small grade or give a rule that separates safe from unsafe slopes.

I am new. Is this stuff likely to happen to me on my first deal?

The source does not predict when this will happen. Its point is that bad cases will come, and the skills built through them help you recover. The two specific risks Ross now avoids are a true wet hillside and signs of deep amateur work.