They Bought Their Dream Home. The Past Owners Made It a Nightmare (Exclusive)

Paris Earle and her husband never intended to buy a foreclosed house.

They initially planned to purchase land and build a custom house, but quickly realized they would have to go over their budget. Their realtor then showed them a few houses, and they found exactly what they wanted: a big home with hardwood floors and a pool. The only catch was that it had been in foreclosure.

Earle, 31, talks with PEOPLE exclusively about all the ups and downs that came with buying a foreclosed house, such as all the damage the previous owners left behind.

“We walked in and thought, ‘This is foreclosed on. Are you sure?’ It was in fantastic shape,” Earle shares. “The more we walked around, the more we noticed little things, but it felt cosmetic.”

“The floors were ripped up in the kitchen, but we replaced floors in the house before. That’s not a big deal at all,” she continued. “We left that initial viewing, and we loved it. We thought it had a lot of potential.”

The Earles put in a bid, but the bank wanted a buyer to pay in cash and wouldn’t budge. The bank also wouldn’t disclose the full extent of the repairs needed in the house, and there was a lot of interest from other parties. Like all the other bidders, Earle and her family were overlooked.

One month later, the bank reopened the second round for bidders, and Earle and her husband wanted to visit the house again. The couple was well aware that the bank wouldn’t cover the repair costs, but they brought contractors with them to assess the damage.

The damage was more than they initially had anticipated. The power lines had been cut, there was water damage, broken windows, destroyed flooring, issues with the pool heater, and a years-old appliance leak that never got fixed.

Earle believes the past owners “intentionally caused damage” to the home after learning it was going into foreclosure so that “no one else could enjoy” it.

However, she and her husband still wanted the house and agreed to a purchase price. They talked to contractors and got bids, and put together a price list to gauge to cost of repairs and whether or not they could “afford” it.

“Even though we knew the extent of the damage, we didn’t find out until after we had already agreed to a purchase price. The bank was not forthcoming with information. They just stuck to their point, ‘It’s as is. We’re not telling you anything.’ ”

Earle and her husband got insurance for the house and discovered that it was the same company the previous owners had used. With the insurance company’s help, she got a clearer idea of the scope of the damage by looking at the past claims. The realtor also pulled permits to help determine a timeline of events to understand when some of the damage occurred. 

Earle then posted a TikTok about the house, which went viral, amassing over 1.1 million views. She got a lot of messages from people claiming to have lived there or to have known someone who lived there. She ignored most of the messages, believing them to be scams or people looking for attention. However, one stood out to her, and it turned out to be the people who sold the house to the owners before Earle.

“They showed me pictures of them at the house. They’ve been a really big help and gave us an even more narrow timeline than we thought about what took place,” Earle says. “They’ve been really great, and they’ve given us their contact names, like their landscaper. They’ve helped us a lot so far. Thank you, TikTok.”

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One contractor quoted Earle around $200,000 to repair the damages, but they’re not in a rush to fix everything all at once.

“People were asking if we were going to hold the previous owners, like, responsible for any of the damage that was done before we owned it,” Earle says. “But we can’t. We bought it as is, knowing there was damage done. If any charges were pressed, that was between the bank that owned it at the time and the previous owners.” 

Though she is not in contact with the previous owners, she hopes they’ve “moved on with their lives” and “their lives are working out exactly how they wanted.”

“Whatever was done was done,” she shares. “We don’t hold any ill feelings, it’s inconvenient for us, but we knew what we were getting ourselves into, so we don’t hold any ill will towards them. We’re excited to make new memories and to make it ours.”