They Bought Their Dream Home. 3 Days Later, It Was Infested with Termites (Exclusive)
Just three days after closing, Hailey Aguirre discovered termites in her 'dream' home
A burst pipe followed the termite incident, flooding parts of the house and intensifying the couple's stress and regret
Now wary of the home-buying process, Hailey urges future buyers to demand multiple inspections and find a strong real estate advocateA dream home turned into a nightmare for Hailey Aguirre and her husband, just three days after they closed on their new house.
The couple, who had recently relocated to Arizona from Buffalo, N.Y., thought they had found the perfect place — until a hidden infestation revealed itself. Hailey shared her frustrations in a now-viral TikTok video.
'We were so excited, and everything was going well. The buying process was very smooth,' Hailey tells PEOPLE, recalling the anticipation and hope that came with their move and the search for a new home.
The house checked every box: ideal location, beautiful fixtures and a remodel that made it feel like a fresh start. After a month-long process that included multiple walkthroughs and three different inspections — including a termite inspection, she says — the couple felt confident as they prepared to settle in.
But just before closing, a call from their realtor changed everything. 'The day before closing, honestly, on our drive to closing on the house, I got a call from our realtor saying they just found out that they found termites while they were moving the staging furniture out. They demanded it was treated like that day. And so it was,' Hailey explains.
According to Hailey, the sellers assured them the issue had been handled, and with all inspections coming back clean, the couple moved forward, trusting the professionals and the process.
The relief was short-lived. 'By Thursday night is when I discovered them again, and then realized there were other groups right above where they were,' Hailey says.
Hailey describes a confusing and stressful ordeal with the pest control company. 'The termite company that came and treated it was picked by the seller," she says. "So in order for it to be covered by them, to figure it out, we didn't really have control over the termite company to come and eliminate them."
According to her, the company missed two appointments before finally addressing the problem, compounding the couple's stress.
As if termites weren't enough, another disaster struck just hours after the pest control team finally arrived.
'Literally an hour after the termite people showed up … I was just taking out the trash, and I noticed there was water spilling out of the floor into like the carport area, and then the floor was getting squishy and water was spewing out of the floor,' Hailey recalls.
A burst pipe forced them to shut off the water and contact the sellers again, according to Hailey.
The series of problems has tested the couple's optimism. 'Honestly, I've been struggling a lot with just feeling like we made the right decision, or feeling like this is the right home for us, so I'm trying to be positive about it and make it my own,' she shares.
'But it has been a little hard to feel like I can actually live in the house, because it seems to be everything I touch is like breaking,' Hailey adds.
Her husband, whose demanding job keeps him away frequently, is still 'in disbelief that the house that we thought was great and perfect and passed all the inspections is having all these issues, suddenly," she says.
The experience has left a mark on Hailey's trust in the home buying process. 'I jokingly was like, I never want to buy a house ever again because of this,' she says.
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Having owned a new build before, she now realizes the importance of thorough inspections and being proactive. In the future, 'maybe we'll go with multiple different inspectors and maybe ask for different things to be done,' she shares.
For others navigating the home buying process, Hailey offers hard-won advice: 'Have a really good real estate agent, because our agent has been an advocate for us … if we didn't have someone that we trusted and knew what they were doing, I think we would have to be paying for this out of pocket.'
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