So I bought a house...

...and it has been the WORST experience I have EVER had!

You know that nightmare that you keep trying to get somewhere, but you never get there. The one where you are trying so hard to be somewhere on time, or go through a certain door, but you never get there? It have been my life since the end of July and it has finally ended, knock on wood.

We tried to be informed buyers that went by the book but it ended up being a mess.

We went to our bank and prequalified for a mortgage. We were then referred to a mortgage guy who referred us to a real estate agent. I will stop right here and say NEVER let someone you barely know refer you. I will gladly admit this is the one mistep that sent this whole home buying process haywire.

The original mortgage guy was horrible. I live in Florida and wanted to take advantage of the many homebuyer programs available to me. He discouraged this every time a mentioned it. I finally told him that I will be taking advantage of one of these programs and that was it. That is when he admitted that he wasn't certified to do mortgage dealings with this and was very dramatic saying he would need to pass me off to someone certified. I told him to go ahead and do this and that's when he told me he would be getting certified  After a home inspection showed a 30-year-old A/C unit needed replaced, I decided to go with a 203k Rehab mortgage and had to be passed to a different mortgage guy. This was the BEST thing that could have happened in this transaction. My new mortgage guy was amazing. He kept me informed and explained everything throughout the whole transaction. When I hit panic mode and called him, he would call me back quickly, even on weekends. He even showed up at my closing to answer questions I had as I signed a forest of paperwork.

I bought a bank-owned townhouse. The only thing wrong was the A/C. Per our contract, the bank chose the title company. Everything was going very smoothly until September. My home was appraised and in the appraisal pictures, a leak complete with broken ceiling were shown. I immediately called the real estate agent, actually emailed her and then texted her because she NEVER answered the phone. I told her I wanted that fixed by the bank and I wasn't doing it. The bank initially said no and I said deal breaker. The bank took an additional 13 days to decided whether or not they would pay for this repair (I was supposed to close on Sept. 21). The week before rolls around and the bank decided to fix it. So, we are supposed to close when we hear from the title company that they haven't even down a title lien search. They really dropped the ball here.  My closing was extended again and 2 days before, the title company said that they hadn't done a survey. Extended again. I finally closed on October 10. The day after I closed, they called me and said I had to sign an additional paper and they hadn't received their money, that I sent BEFORE signing any papers, per their SHADY request!

Bank
I went to the bank reluctantly to wire funds before signing papers and did the wire. The money was out of my account and the next day it was back in my account, after I checked my account when getting a text from my real estate agent that nothing was funded. I had a receipt and everything and had to leave work to clear things up. At the bank they had no record of the wire, nothing cam eup.  AMAZING! it just disappeared into thin air. I redid the wire, HOPEFULLY IT TOOK THIS TIME and they won't take double the money out of my account when they magically find the old wire.

The real estate agent
She didn't like to talk on the phone and took forever to answer emails. She texted me  a lot, very professional i know. This all wasn't a big deal until the ball was beginning to really be dropped. She didn't advocate for me like real estate agents are supposed to . I should have know when she gave me the listings of the houses we would go and see. I looked over five houses, two of which were out of my price range, and another with HOA fees I was unwilling to pay. I had to tell her to revise her list. When I needed to get A/C estimates, she decided to just run to the house and unlock the door and leave. She said she had an insurance broker who would get me a great rate and would be contacting me. This never happened.
In Florida, you need to have a wind mitigation inspection for a discount in insurance. This one takes all. I asked her when she was available so she could be there as I had to work. She said whatever was good for me. I made the appointment for 8 am and told her. She said this was fine. I told my fiance to go to just be sure she would show up. 8:30 rolls around and she is still not there. He goes up to the door just to check it out and finds a broken lock box. Keys just out and open for anyone who wants in. He called her several times without any answer. Later she texted me asking if I want to buy home warranty insurance. This is how the remainder of the transaction went. The day before closing, I had my final walk through. She said that I would need to transfer water and electric right away. I asked her who the water company was, since I pay my water bill through my apartment. She said she would find out. At closing, she had no idea and hadn't even looked.

At this moment, if someone asked my opinion on home-buying, I would say "NO, DON'T DO IT". It has been two weeks since I closed on the house and I am only beginning to be able to go to my house without feeling livid and wanting to leave right away. It is a good thing my lease isn't up until November 30 because I am not into my house right now. I feel like I have been financially raped ( I know its a strong, offensive word, but it is the best I can come up with at the moment.) with all the extra monies I have had to pay and the kind of information I have had to hand over via email to numerous complete strangers from the bank. They even required a copy of my degree, and I still have no clue why.

Enough about the home-buying process... I am about to embark on a long DIY journey on my stupid house.  

Also, I know I am not the only one who has gone through this (I can't be). Please comment with your home-buying horror stories. I would love to hear them!