Lost $3,150 on furniture for a house I never bought
No deals yet after six months of looking, and I managed to lose money anyway, so I'll write it down.
I was under contract on a 2 bed townhouse near a business park, $189,000, planning to run it furnished for corporate stays. Inspection was clean, appraisal came in, lender was moving. I got confident.
The furniture supplier had a package I wanted at $9,400 and told me their lead time was six weeks with delivery scheduled at order. My closing was four weeks out. If I waited until after closing, the unit would sit empty and unfurnished for a month and a half while I paid the mortgage. So I put down a 30 percent deposit, $2,820, and picked a delivery date for the week after closing.
The deal died eleven days before closing. Title turned up an unreleased lien from a prior owner and the seller could not or would not clear it in time. My contract let me walk and get my earnest money back, which I did.
The furniture deposit was a different contract with a different company and nobody there cared about my title problem. Their terms said deposits are nonrefundable once the order enters production, which it had. I got them down to keeping $2,820 and waiving a $330 restocking charge they said applied on top. So $3,150 became $2,820 out and no furniture, no house.
What I'd do differently: I'd not sign anything that costs money contingent on a closing that hasn't happened. If the empty month bothered me that much, the answer was to negotiate a shorter lead time or accept the empty month as a cost of not being sure. I bought speed with money before I owned the thing the speed was for.