I know it sounds a bit petty, but I almost didn’t buy my home because of the ugly air vent covers.
I took one look at the air vent covers and I almost gagged. They may have been nice when they were new, but you could see where the paint had peeled and rust was shining through. I asked if they could replace the air vent covers before I moved in, but the present owner was not hearing any of this. I knew he was right about my installing my own air vent covers, but they were expensive. By the time I replaced every air vent cover in the house, I was looking at over $1000 and I didn’t have that kind of money. I then asked if he would be willing to take $1000 off the purchase price and he laughed. I almost asked why he was getting rid of the house but I didn’t need to. My realtor stepped up and asked the question for me. He was selling the house for almost $300,000 and he couldn’t afford to take $1000 off the selling price. She thought that either the seller, or his realtor were just being stubborn. We were told the house was worth twice the much and they thought I was being petty. When I found out that there was a problem with termites and stress cracks in the foundation, I was glad I had tried to argue over the air vent covers. My realtor told me we may have made a big mistake in that purchase.