Funny experiences while looking around houses?

hazyjo

Turned up at a flat (ended up buying it) with the EA and my mum. EA knocked, opened door, shouted up the stairs, and concluded nobody was home. A few mins later a panicked girl came out in her dressing gown while her girlfriend hid under the duvet while we viewed 'around her'.

Saw another where the woman was in her PJs at around 7pm and barely spoke or moved from the sofa.

Another recent one, was in a Hyacinth Bucket situation like above. Obviously VERY house proud. At one stage, she actually told my BF off for leaning against a wall while we all talked on the landing. He managed to lean on another and got told off for that too (he's 46 and clean!).

Viewed another house once where the owner pointed out everything that was wrong/missing. The carpet looked fine, but he said it was worn where people sat on the sofa and kicked the floor. He pointed out lots of other faults with it I'd have been unaware of lol!

Must be others... will have a think

Jx

gayleanne

Another house we went to see was an ex-council house, which is fine, however we had to go through the side gate as the vendor's husband had left with the only key. After battling through some tall plants and fighting off an over-excited dog, we made it to the house. The vendor walked around saying "well that windows broken so I can't show you how they all open" and "can't go through the patio door that's broken" and "I don't think we had planning permission for the loft conversion" all while walking around holding a cigarette and wearing her pjs. There was an estate agent present and he looked embarrassed too. Couldn't wait to get out of the house!

Did you get the feeling that she really didn't want to sell, if her husband had left her, she was doing anything to keep the house.

lowlitmemory

We went to view one that stank. The smell hit you as soon as you came in the front door. Just a old cooking smell that had permeated the walls. It had a decent size living room, but the most enormous telly I have ever seen, making the place feel small. The owner, a lady in her fifties I would guess, got out of bed (this was a scheduled, afternoon viewing) and stood there in her nightie. She had the biggest room to herself and then had a little girl in the boxroom and four teenage boys sharing the (small) 2nd bedroom. All of them were in there staring at us while we viewed. It was horrible. When we came out into the fresh air the EA basically apologised for taking us round (I'd insisted on seeing it as it was so cheap) and said "it isn't the kind of place for you" hahaha!

Over a year on, it is still for sale, with different agents and a steadily-dropping price but the same photos...

ladymagpie

gayleanne wrote: »

Another house we went to see was an ex-council house, which is fine, however we had to go through the side gate as the vendor's husband had left with the only key. After battling through some tall plants and fighting off an over-excited dog, we made it to the house. The vendor walked around saying "well that windows broken so I can't show you how they all open" and "can't go through the patio door that's broken" and "I don't think we had planning permission for the loft conversion" all while walking around holding a cigarette and wearing her pjs. There was an estate agent present and he looked embarrassed too. Couldn't wait to get out of the house!

Did you get the feeling that she really didn't want to sell, if her husband had left her, she was doing anything to keep the house.

I didn't get that impression, when we looked at the garden she lounged on the chair and she did seem interested in talking to us and being friendly, I think it was more a problem with bad manners and thinking that she'd done enough. The house was actually pretty clean inside, apart from the yellow ceiling stains from smoking.

Just remembered another bad visit. The house looked nice from the outside and the pictures, and it was on a nice street. However inside, oh my goodness. The woman was obviously into something like Wicca, as there were pentacle symbols hung up over doorways, etc. But then some walls had painted murals showing pagan-esque scenes taking up the whole wall, I thought that's ok too as I could just paint over them. But then even some of the windowpanes were painted over with symbols, the glass windows you sometimes get above doorways also had that glass paint on, the whole house was cluttered and had dark heavy curtains (that were drawn at 2pm!) so you couldn't tell what was hiding under all the mess. There was washing up in the sink and the floors were dirty. Most unusual house we saw.

kloana

My parents bought their latest house when I was in my early 20s. Though I no longer lived at home, I accompanied them on some viewings.

One house was being sold by a young same-sex (female) couple, one half of which I knew in passing, as a (brief) former colleague. So I was keen to go to that viewing, as I'm desperately nosy, especially where the lives of my peers and acquaintances are involved.

They hadn't cleaned the house very well. It was a bit of a tip, actually. My parents didn't buy it. My mum was put off by the tatty-ness of the place.

But...I don't think my mum noticed the fact that they'd left numerous 'bedroom aids' very much on display (on top of a low-height wardrobe, but not concealed at all), including a couple of bloody huuugggeeee phallic objects.

I've seen the couple out and about over the years, but can't bring myself to look them in the eye

seven-day-weekend

We went to look at a 'rustic' house when we were house-hunting in rural Spain and had to virtually bend double to go through the passageway from the living room to the kitchen. This same house had a roof terrace, but we were told that it belonged to the house next door, and that the owner had right of way through the house we were looking at to get to it, 'but he never exercises that right'. . We did not buy that house.

Also in Spain, some friends of ours went to look at a house and there was a dead dog in the kitchen.:eek:

Again in Spain, another couple we know were interested in looking at a house, but the Spanish vendor would not tell them how much it was until they agreed to buy it .

Davesnave

We visited a plant nursery + house which had been marketed so long we knew there'd be something wrong, but we decided to have a look anyway.

On arrival it was immediately obvious that very little if any of the stock outdoors was alive, but as I didn't want to inherit someone else's stuff, that could have been a bonus. However, the owner did his level best to make out that the place was still trading. "Got to do a bit of weeding through here! Just so busy..." he grinned.

We wandered into a glasshouse where, again, there was nothing obviously alive, but the benches were covered in fleece. "Oh," said the owner, "I'll have to take that off soon, but I don't want the plants to be scorched." It was about noon on a not especially hot day.

"Won't the customers want to see them?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, it'll get really busy in a minute" he answered.

We went into the house. I'd already noted that the pointing on the stonework was none too good, but I didn't fully appreciate until we got inside that this was a genuine self-build house. I don't count myself a plasterer, and he wasn't one either.

"You built this all yourself?"

"Just about, yup, but it comes with a 10 year NHBC guarantee!"

I was still pondering that one when his next sentence sorted the issue of veracity.

"'Course there's still room up there for another storey," he added as we toured the upstairs. It was a dormer bungalow.

We discovered quite a lot about the house hadn't been finished, not that we would have wanted it done by him anyway, but by the time we left to tour the outbuildings we'd already written the place off. It was near the top of our budget, so we couldn't put all the wrong things right.

The office turned out to be a portable building, which had some kind of ceiling problem. I dare say it was in a shambolic state anyway, but this wasn't helped by the holes above, through which much fibre insulation had fallen. Even answering the phone would have been an itchy business.

The phone didn't ring, nor was the crunch of car tyres on gravel heard, but the owner kept running to the windows to check if anyone had arrived. "We shall have a rush on soon! I might have to leave you. I get run off my feet!"

Then he made us an offer we could easily refuse. "This is a portable building. Instead of taking it away, I'll leave it here for the next owner, but there's no way they can have my caravan!"

Looking at the old van, which was being used to house chickens, that seemed not much of a problem.

The rest of the place was as dire as the first parts we'd seen, but the site was wonderful and had potential....for someone with at least £100k to sort it, and perhaps double that to knock it all into shape.

We wrote to the agent and suggested they do accompanied viewings in future, as their client was either mad or prone to mendacity. We also listed all the inaccuracies in their brochure, which gave the impression the place was trading and didn't mention small details like the house not being finished.

The agents, B******w E***s in T*****n (Mid Devon), rang after a day or two to tell us they'd read our letter and we were now 'blacklisted.'

Such a blow! :rotfl:

Edit: It sold eventually to people already known to us, who thoroughly deserved it! They moved on. Now it's owned by a family who have worked hard to make the place look and function really well.

Callie22

I went to look round a rental bungalow recently where it was obvious from the huge pile of rubbish outside (think mattresses, a sofa, white goods) that it wasn't going to be pretty inside. The agent opened the door and I'm not lying, I nearly passed out from the smell of urine - turned out that although the previous tenants had 'moved out', they'd left their bunnies in the house to 'pick up later'. Said bunnies had clearly had to the run of the house because there were little poos everywhere. The irony is that we were told that it was strictly no pets.

The house was absolutely covered in mould and damp, to the point where the ceilings were coming down in the bedrooms - there was clearly a damp problem there which probably wasn't helped by very full fish tank that had been left in the living room. At least I think it was a fish tank. Judging by the look and smell anything that had been living in there had long since liquified.

Louise.H

We have had a few -

Viewing a house that we had surmised belonged to an elderly person being confirmed when their relative doing the viewing pointed to a chair saying 'poor dear died there'. Perhaps they wanted the house for themselves or were just clueless as to what to say/not say on viewings! Didnt buy.

Having a cat sit on my feet and then attempt to scatch my legs when I tried to move, the estate agents response was that he was terrified of the cat! After managing to get it off it followed for us the whole viewing. Didnt buy, not because of the cat but the road being chav central.

One of the sellers almost crying about having to leave and go into a flat as they had remorgaged and no longer could afford to stay. I felt sorry for her but it was very awkward. We did buy this one. All their post, including numerous final demands and overdue bills still arrive a year and a half later!

propertyman

Years ago I showed people around
1 I called the husband to check they had both left for work,only to find his wife had snuck back with her BF, who were showering together:)

2 Knocked and entered a house, showed people round, and opened the bedroom door only to see a young lady fast asleep and topless. To this day she has no idea !

3 Showing a Captain Smith and wife around only to meet and find that they were from Africa and the house owner stated she would not sell to anyone not white. Husband and daughter hurried her down to the bottom of the ( very large) garden so I could show them around.