Camellia Etherington and her husband, Scott, bought their first home in 2006. A three-bedroom house in Charleston, South Carolina, it seemed like the perfect starter home for their young family. But immediately after closing on the house, which they purchased directly from the sellers, they encountered an unexpected problem. “The previous owners never finished moving out, but they came to the closing and never said a word about it,” Camellia says. “We showed up at the house and it was a mess.
