Lady warns you should never buy a home in a wooded area

Photo byGorodenkoff/Shutterstock Valentin Valkov/Shutterstock @laureise/Tiktok

‘Rented a cute house in the forest during COVID thinking it was the dream.’ A lady is leveraging her own life story to persuade people to avoid purchasing a house in a forested region.

Laureise (@laureise), a TikTok user, shared a video on August 30 discussing her challenges with purchasing a home surrounded by trees. She describes how she and her partner acquired a residence in a forested region two years back, and since then, “rodents, bugs, and beetles” have been “eating us alive financially.”

Because of that, Laureise is releasing this Public Service Announcement. “If you’ve ever thought about buying a house in a wooded area,” she says to start the video, “just don’t.”

A tale of two pest infestations

To demonstrate her argument, Laureise shares two anecdotes from her personal experience as a property owner. The initial situation was about Norwegian rats. “Laying on the couch one night, we hear something scratching underneath our floorboards,” she says. “And what they are doing is munching on our HVAC piping, which is our heating piping. It’s the pipe that blows all the air through our house, which is wrapped in asbestos. This wouldn’t be an issue because it wasn’t being disturbed.”

Until the rats began consuming the asbestos and utilizing it for their nests all over the house, this necessitated a call for pest control and the repair of their HVAC system. “That whole process cost us about $10,000,” she says. “We had no heat, no air, nothing, for maybe six months.”

Thankfully, the couple managed to solve their rat issue. Sadly, their joy was brief. This was because they soon learned from a termite business that a neighbor had a termite infestation. The business proposed to conduct a free termite examination at their residence. Laureise and her partner agreed to the proposal.

“So they come on over, and the good news is: No termites,” Laureise says. “You have wood-boring beetles. My fiance and I never heard of them. So, we asked, ‘What’s a wood-boring beetle?’ They say, ‘Well, they’re basically just as bad as termites. They bite through the wood and lay little larvae in the wood. And then the eggs hatch. And then, those little eggies that are no longer little eggies anymore, go and bite into the wood until the wood is all [expletive] up in your house.”

The situation got even more complicated because the choices for pest control involved a $4,500 heating solution or a $7,000 fumigation. Both seemed highly inconvenient, yet the couple ultimately chose the heating treatment.

Viewers react to the story

As of now, the video has garnered over 122,000 views. In the discussion area, viewers shared their opinions on methods for dealing with pests and the costs associated with owning a home.

One viewer wrote, “Wood boring beetle sounds like a problem for the next people!! Lol. I will say $7k for remediation sounds like an ok price! It’s $5k for simple a** bat traps where I live in MA.”

A second viewer wrote, “Yep rented a cute house in the forest during covid thinking it was the dream – rats everywhere always.”

A third viewer said, “Same issue with my SF house that’s 100 years old. Termites and beetles first year, second year, fixed roof and sewer lateral, third year, garage floor hole. No more savings. Tired.”

Nonetheless, one user mentioned they were fortunate enough to escape. I think $15k for house maintenance when you first buy your house is a steal. Our house was completely renovated and we still had to spend 30k on some fixings and things,” they wrote.

In essence, residing close to the forest while avoiding the presence of mice, bugs, and various other critters is challenging. This is because, according to the Pest Cemetery blog Notes, your cabin in the woods serves as a provider of sustenance and other necessities for all its inhabitants, including you.