Rant: My cousin nearly tanked my townhouse sale by oversharing renovation costs
I was in the final stages of selling my place, had a solid offer, and everything was moving smoothly toward closing. My cousin, who was visiting, insisted on tagging along to the final walk-through with the buyers, which I now realize was a colossal mistake. While I was chatting with the agent, she casually mentioned to the potential new owners how I'd 'only spent fifteen grand' redoing the kitchen and that the flooring was 'the cheap vinyl plank stuff.' I saw the buyer's face just freeze. They immediately started questioning the quality and whether the asking price was fair, throwing the whole deal into a tense renegotiation phase. It took weeks of back-and-forth and me ultimately lowering the price by five thousand to salvage it. The lesson was brutal: family, even with good intentions, has no place in your financial transactions unless they are signed onto the paperwork. Keep your business details on a strict need-to-know basis, even with relatives. Has anyone else had a deal almost derailed by a talkative family member?