Trina Sandhu, along with her husband, growing family and French bulldog, had long been house-hunting in Toronto when she stumbled on a listing for a near-perfect space: a large, bright, century-old home with three spacious bedrooms, four bathrooms and a cozy basement with walkout to a large yard. “In the pictures, it looked like a beautiful fully renovated house,” she says. They immediately booked a showing.

In real life, the hardwood floors were so worn they needed to be ripped up and replaced, rough ceilings were faded and stained, and a seemingly open kitchen was actually a galley (in unusable condition no less). “We came to the conclusion that the whole place was a teardown,” says Sandhu, who left disappointed and didn’t make a bid.