Unless carpet was brand new, I would always plan to replace it, even more so if I had a small child crawling around on it. Concern - what is under the carpet, urine soaked subflooring? I would ask for plumber to fix the slow drains and credit to replace the carpet & padding based on "obvious the dog is not well housebroken" observed during inspection.

Wait until your kids unload a diaper or sippy cup on the carpet. It will happen.

Plan on replacing all carpet in the future. I'd just hire a service to come clean the carpets. Wait a couple of years and plan on replacing the carpet because your kids are going to be hard on the carpets, too. They are going to destroy the walls, trim and paint. They will hang on to the dishwasher door, break pocket doors and throw enough things around to break light fixtures.

The truth is you will be spending money on this house for many years. The journey has just begun. Set aside some money to make repairs and updates. Every house purchase will require additional money. Many times first time buyers don't understand that no house is ever perfect. You will have to do maintenance and pay for things you don't want to have to maintain.

You can try to get a credit. If they can't pay, you either won't get the house or you will have to accept the current condition. Those are your choices.

My goodness! My children and grandchildren NEVER did that kind of damage to any house in which they lived! I guess it depends on who is watching the children. My dad redecorated her entire house when the bought it. Eighteen years later and two boys ages 17 and almost 15, and the kitchen is the only room that has been repainted (high chair being pushed into one wall). It's still in beautiful condition, including the Sisal carpet on the stairs to the 2nd floor, and the very expensive wallpaper hung in the 2-story entrance hall.

And yes, the boys are "all boy", not wimps or cowed little robots.

Repairs of typical things such as HVAC, exterior painting, new roof etc, but wanton destruction, no.

Our previous sellers had a dog. They steam cleaned the carpet when listed, but some stains still persisted, others re-appeared after we were occupying the house already(within a month, maybe less?)

We changed the carpet on the first floor(where the stains were most visible) right away, put in hardwood..not only because of the stains, but because I also didn't like carpet especially not in the dining room..didn't make much sense to me.

We waited for another 3 years to change the carpet upstairs..it was fine there except the steps on the stairs were quite filthy. We changed it to carpet again..better sound proofing and all. Never got stained..but did change its color fast-I picked a very light color. In short wasn't the best decision.

Of course we steam cleaned it before listing..I think even twice. To get rid of traffic lines that inevitably will appear when you have a very light carpet..unless you have completely "no shoe" policy.

Usually, I see the floors as the first thing to be changed unless I really like them (which doesn't happen often) or they're not exactly my cup of tea but are not offensive either, not too slippery, etc.

It's strange that sinks and toilets became so different from how you saw them in the open house..I'd be upset too. I usually leave my places pristine, to the best of my abilities, for renters/buyers/guests..so you'd think it's be automatic to expect it from others. Maybe something happened? Cause that's a strange change, and bad timing I must say..I bet they don't want problems while escrow s going on.

Communicate through your agent you want a plumber take a look at these drains..that's a very reasonable thing to ask. Actually it should be asked. They can agree or not..or they can agree but still "forget to do it".

You can try and ask for cleaning..I'd be upset if somebody would specifically ask me to clean but that's because I clean:)

I really do think something happened there, with these sinks and toilets.

As for the carpet..it is what it is I'm afraid. You can ask them to steam clean it..not going to help much. If the stains are urine( and some of them most likely are) they'll resurface.

(I always hire cleaners to come before leaving a home...even when I was young and much more able and cleaned all myself-I'd do this additional "take care of everything" thing. I didn't even know "broom swept" existed to tell you the truth. )

If your husband attended the inspection and the sinks were a mess, then it should be in the inspection report and that can be a bargaining chip for them to fix it or give you a credit. Same with the carpets if they weren't a mess when you toured the house.

I've heard of owners who were losing a house totally trash it - pulling fixtures out of walls. Some people function on the level of an ill behaved 3 yr old.

Our current house was a foreclosure. Our realtor told us at inspection the house was not trashed because it was part of the Cash for Keys program so they had to leave it in good condition.

Although they didn't have any money so they didn't keep up with some of the maintenance let alone updating.

I bet your sellers used some drain type stuff for a short term fix and hoped it would last until the house was yours. This happened to my sister, and they had to replace most of the plumbing in the house and out to the street. You are not being a pest you are being a smart buyer. Please protect yourself and your investment.

Call the agent's broker. Let them know you are unhappy at the filth that accumulated between showing and inspection and you expect them to put it back the way you saw it. What you saw at showing should be what you get, and they can decide how to make it happen, at their expense, real fast.

And download copies of the listing pictures NOW ...

Hoepfully, you were smart enough to have a real estate attorney, in a addition to a commissioned, interested party-realtor- look at your contract.

With a lawyer, that sort of stuff is clarified in a huge hurry. Because you wrote a contract on one house, certain condition, and now are seeing another.

Good luck. Let us know how it works out.

I think it's possible that they had the carpets cleaned prior to the open house. When you clean carpets, stains often initially disappear, but they (usually not all, but some) can come back shortly thereafter. Their dog has most likely been urinating on the carpet for a long time.

So far as the general filth, I am sure they also cleaned up the house for it to be shown. Then, after you submitted your offer and they accepted, they went back to their filthy ways in the house. They've probably lived that way all along and I'll bet you find a bunch of other disgusting stuff once you move in. It's a shame that people are like this, but, that's how a good amount of people act and live.

Carpet is filthy. I've never bought a house with carpet where it wasn't filthy. I've twice bought houses where there were no pet stains when we initially toured the house and then, upon acquiring the house, there were great numbers of pet stains. It's because they will have the carpet cleaned right before showing. Is it deceptive? Absolutely. It's shamefully deceptive. The real estate agents and the owners know exactly what they are doing...temporarily hiding the fact that a dog has been living in the house and has been allowed to urinate everywhere. But, it's common.

My philosophy is never to buy a house with carpet and think you'll keep the carpet or think it's pretty clean. It's not. It's filthy. However many pet stains are visible on the surface of the carpet, there are going to be way more than that when you peel up the carpet and look at the back. No amount of cleaning will fix the problem. Seriously, no amount of cleaning of the carpet will get rid of the urine that's on the back of the carpet, in the pad, maybe on the subfloor.

If I were in your place (and I've been there), I'd go ahead and buy the house if you like the house. Then, I would replace the floors. Personally, I would put in some form of hard floors (laminate, hardwood, luxury vinyl tiles, tiles, etc.) and get some area rugs. Area rugs are easily replaceable and you can also keep them more clean than carpet. Carpet is dirty. You can't ever really clean it like you can a hard floor. Plus, new carpet is expensive and it only looks good for a couple of years. Then, you spend many years with it looking like it needs replaced before you finally spend the money to replace it. Then, the cycle repeats itself over and over again. Carpet is no longer made the way it used to be made and it doesn't last very many years.

You might give them a bit of a hard time over the carpet and the filth in the house. Maybe they will give you a credit that you can use towards getting new flooring or cleaning up the house.

Definitely make sure the slow drains aren't indicating a major plumbing problem, though. I would not buy a house that had a major plumbing problem unless the price were significantly reduced and I might not even buy it then. Hopefully, it's just hair clogs or something.

Anyway, yeah, expect to replace flooring in any house you ever buy, plus you usually will want to repaint. Be prepared to find disgusting stuff in the bottoms of the drawers, oven, under where the refrigerator was, etc. Bleh. People can be so disgusting.

Edited to add that I have to agree that children do not need to do bunch of damage to a house. Some people let their children do it, but it's a choice to let them do the damage or to not let that happen.

Thank-you, everyone for all the advice! I can see how first time homebuyers get nit-picky and earn a bad reputation--and as I said, we don't want to be jerks about what could be minor problems. That said, we also don't want to gamble our first big investment on "ifs" and "could bes." (i.e. IF the carpet pad and subfloor aren't damaged, IF the HVAC system isn't damaged, etc.) We just submitted our list of inspection objections and basically are at the point where if the seller doesn't come down in price for the carpets and hire professionals to address HVAC/roof/plumbing/electrical repairs and service, we're prepared to walk away. Their behavior between showing and now doesn't inspire much confidence in how they've cared for the house for several years. If they aren't willing or able to take care of the property and protect our future investment for the few weeks of closing, the market is good enough that we'll shop elsewhere. I promise I WILL try to bear in mind that no house is perfect and that problems and repairs are inevitable--but I'm going to listen to the alarm bells in my head on this one.

..just to add..the subfloor is most probably fine..as for the carpet pad-believe me you don't want to see it rolled and taken away whether they had a puppy or not. You want not to be present lol. Especially as it's been years since they put that carpet.

It's like a brain you know..nice to know it's there but you don't always want to see the inner workings:)

I hope they are responsive and everything goes well.

Please update us on how it goes and you're being very smart about it.

In the contract, it probably states that the property needs to be delivered in the same or better condition as it was during the showing. Use this as leverage.

It's understandable because so much money is involved, but I think you might be overreacting a little. Based on some observed facts, slow drains and stains, which were actually disclosed, you come to a long list of conclusions of potentially fatal flaws with the house and the sellers. I'm not saying there aren't some potential concerns, but that's why you have an inspection. Some issues may be minor, others not. Have you received the report yet?

I hope that it all works out.