A new control panel for our sprinkler system. I swear, the first person who thought "you know what'd be cool? To own the building you live in and all the upkeep that comes with it" was completely out of their mind. It went from an $85 service fee to nearly $1,000 to replace the panel and repair a few damaged sprinkler heads. And that's after I talked him down from replacing MORE heads for nearly $2,000 because he felt the ones we've had forever were too short (they cover the lawn just fine, and I wasn't about to add another $800 because HE thought we should; I hate upselling.)
Equity schmequity, I'd be perfectly happy renting until my dying day if every odd noise, leaky pipe, or malfunctioning doodad didn't turn into a fucking hundreds of dollars bill and my scheduling time to have strangers walk though and around my house inevitably to tell me my small problem is a big one.