Events when you buy an unfurnished home

[Seabody]

Sometimes when you buy a home, there are events, like the place is haunted, a meteor shower has recently occured, or the house is flooded. In the game manual, it states that if you do these, you could get something you want.
My problem is that when these come up, I never know when they actually finish. There is no indication. Is this normal?
How do you get these things that you "might actually want"?
Is there a penalty for accepting the help offered to you?

[Hosfac]

In some of them, I've noticed that there is usually a good bit of loot to be gained by accepting the opportunity.  The haunted house gives you two gems per gravestone (and there's usually at least one very expensive one), and the meteor shower gives you numerous space rocks (some of which can be worth a lot, too).  However, I'm at a loss as to what there is to be gained by the flooded house event.

And when help is offered, I usually accept it.  It doesn't cost anything, and from what I've seen, the loot is yours to keep.  I did refuse the help once for the meteor shower, but the only thing it did for me was leave a bigger mess to clean up lol.

[samoht04]

The Flood leaves a bunch of Fish behind, I have had a Deathfish in one of the Bowls made by the Event.

[Ausette]

I don't think the events "finish" per se, but soon after moving in you often have an expert knock on your door who offers to deal with your problem (repairman for water mains, repoman to bust ghosts etc). There isn't a penalty for taking the hired help, although you lose gravestones and potential handiness points if you let them in. Everything's in place already when you move into the house, so it's up to you how long you want to leave the ghosts on your lawn for. 

[templesmom]

I don't remember which one, but one of them gives you good quality fruit.