When you are buying a new home, you have to be aware that it is a new home for you, not for the cat who is already on the property and has been living there for years. For that cat, you are the stranger, the intruder, the creature who is moving things around and changing things without asking for purrmission. Cats are territorial. They have a hard time leaving certain places. And it is on you to accept that if you buy a place already belonging to a cat. That was the case with phatselinakyle on Reddit.
When they bought their new home, they got an instruction manual, and in that manual was a cute picture of a stray cat. To that picture, a note was attached asking the new owners to be kind and let the cat inside if she ever shows up. Because she was there first. It is her home. Unfortunately, something about the new owners must have discouraged her from coming back, because it took her two years to finally pluck up the courage to walk back into her home. She didn't know how easy it would be, that she would be welcomed with open paws.