House hunting has been a fun adventure and, like any adventure, it took some weird twists and turns. So we figured since we highlighted some of our close-but-no-cigar finds (here, here, here, and here) we should take a second to share some of our no-way-no-how finds as well. Because they were actually pretty darn entertaining.
First, we encountered a mammoth split level. From the outside it looked like your usual split-level home. Until we got inside and realized it had SIX floors. Yes, six. That’s six times the number of levels we’re currently used to. Granted the top (attic) and bottom (basement) weren’t entirely finished, but still – wow. You can thank my brilliant artist’s rendering below to roughly show you how it was laid out:
Then there was the dark house. Not “this doesn’t get very much natural light” dark. This was “um, there’s no electricity” dark. When we arrived the realtor discovered that the power wasn’t working – whether from the owner not paying the bills or from a storm earlier that day we’ll never know. But bless her heart, the agent was determined to show the house to us anyways. So we busted out our cell phones as flashlights (it was about 6pm on a cloudy day, so there wasn’t much natural light to speak of) and we walked through carefully. In the end, we think the darkness probably did the house a favor because it didn’t appear to be very clean.
And speaking of clean… there was also the house where the owner’s idea of staging was to leave her shoe collection scattered across the master bedroom floor. Picture piles of high heels everywhere (sort of like the pic below, but not running shoes and not nearly as orderly). We couldn’t even step into the room because of the mess. Maybe they were trying to impress us with how many shoes they could afford?
Now I’m sure we’re not the only ones with crazy house hunting stories, so we can’t wait to hear what you guys have encountered. Isn’t it amazing what some people consider “designed to sell”? What craziness have you seen? And have you checked out this site? Oh the hilarity.
Dark room photo from here, shoe photo from here.
Psst- We announced this week’s lucky Target gift card giveaway winner. Click here to see if it’s you.
Brittany@HairyBabies says
Awe, maan…when I saw your rendering of the 6-level house, I was sure you were going to say you walked up into a polygamist’s place, a la Big Love or something.
J'Anns Boutique says
Hmmm sounds like me. Except I put the heels in order when I expect company…and they are usually only scattered in the closet (sorrry) hehe.
http://jannsboutique.blogspot.com/
Kristan says
There was one house I looked at my realtor and I referred to as the his and hers house. It had originally been a double and then “converted” to a single family. One long narrow living room and bedroom, but two of everything else: staircases, backdoors, basements, kitchens(!). There was even a blue bathroom on one half and a pink on the other. As we were sitting outside discussing another house, the neighbors would wait until people went in to look around and then take a picture of the visitors’ license plate. Not so neighborly.
abriana says
We were definitely looking for Victorian fixer uppers in an up and coming area in Denver. We went through more than 3, for sure, houses that REEEEEEEEEEKED of cat pee. YUCK!
We also saw a house in which the kitchen was absolutely coated in grease. All up the walls. The best part was that on one wall, one of the kids had scratched his name, carved into the grease. And, we bought that house. ;) Definite fixer upper!! haha!
Kasey at Thrifty Little Blog says
I remember touring a home with a somewhat small master bedroom that was PACKED with furniture. Not only was the bed way too big for the space, but they crammed in a desk, two dressers, and two nightstands. The fact that the furniture was all the same color made the space feel even more claustrophobic.
Heather says
These remind me of all of the horrific houses my husband and I went through.
Our realtor took us to one house we were actually pretty excited to look at, except when we walked in there was a huge puddle on the floor from a window that was leaking. Which is not a big deal in the grand skeem of renovating, but when we went to the basement you could see about 8 inches of water damage up the walls.
The other story that comes to mind, is a house we looked at where the only way to the basement was a narrow iron clad spiral staircase. I still have no idea how they got their laundry baskets down there.
tmolly says
I’m sorry this is gross, but if you’re going to leave the lid of your toilet up, PLEASE flush… I was embarrassed that this might have been an honest mistake, but I SWEAR the seller was looking me straight in the eye, almost proud-looking, when I quickly walked out. **creepy**
On a more mundane note, if I see piles of clothes on chairs, doorknobs and portable clothes racks, I will assume there isn’t much closet space. If I see large toys riddled about the basement and yard, I will assume there’s not enough storage (and that’s why the house is for sale). I’m a packrat myself, so I sympathize with the need to keep stuff, but prospective buyers WILL feel anxious when they see such chaos.
Stephanie says
When we were house hunting a few years ago, our agent took us to two story house. When we made it up to the second floor master, we heard the shower running and realized someone was in there. We left as quickly as possible!
Rebecca @ the lil house that could says
Isn’t it amazing that some people apparently don’t watch HGTV? When we were selling our condo, I swapped out personal pictures (okay they were of my cats and I didn’t want to be the crazy cat lady…) yet walked into another house with a not at all stylish wall of photos and an exploding closet.
Come one people, you have TVs don’t you? Though Genevieve just said the other night that they shouldn’t be the focal point in your room… :)
Caitlin @ that house on the corner says
Omg, Marci! That is hilarious.
We saw some crazy ones too–considering we BOUGHT the one that was a marijuana farm (indoors mind you) with holes…
One of the weird houses had this big cage out back. We thought it was a bird cage, but birds could clear get in or out, apparently it was a cat kennel with a kitty door that opened from the inside!
We looked at a lot of foreclosures, but one we looked at we vetoed the second we got out of the car. The roof had a HUGE sag in the center that made the whole house look droopy. We still went inside where there nasty NASTY carpets and leaks everywhere….
In the home we bought (you can see on our blog) it was filled with big holes –big enough to crawl through– to ventilate the marijuana and there were staples EVERYWHERE! There were also two doorknobs on the door. you turned both at the same time to get in… We love our home now though!
Xoxo
Caitlin@ that house on the corner
Reese says
I think having no electricity on in a house that is for sale or for rent is normal. At least around here it is, though the city does have one of the highest utility rates in Florida.
I think the most interesting place we looked at was a foreclosure in which a raccoon or possum had taken up residence. We loved the house itself but there was urine everywhere! When we found out that the back deck had been built on top of the septic tank/bed (a big no-no) we knew we could not afford to move it and repair all of the damage.
We had a contract to buy another place, a classic 100+ year old home, but upon inspection found out that a lot of supports under the house were actually stumps and pieces of logs and that the wiring would have to be completely redone.
margie says
The craziest thing we saw while house hunting was a clear toliet seat with coins (pennys, dimes, nickles) inside the plastic (or glass not sure)seat. It was very weird and they had one in all four of the bathrooms. When we asked our realtor about them he told us that something that they are taking with them. I guess the like to sit on money?
Ashlee says
How many houses did you look at total?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Ashlee,
We probably drove around to look at over 100 homes in a bunch of different neighborhoods but we only toured about 15 of them on the inside. It seemed that a lot of our contenders were eliminated by having backyard drop offs (not kid or Burger safe) or being in a less than desirable location (near a highway, next to a few bedraggled houses, etc) or way out of our price range. It was actually really hard to find those 15 houses that we wanted to peek inside! So glad we found the one we did after all that trecking around!
xo,
s
Katie says
One house we looked at had topless photos in the creepy basement bedroom. Yikes.
Sara says
We saw a lot of scary houses when we were house hunting. One house was full of cats and apparently they didn’t believe in litter boxes. It was so disgusting! Their real estate agent called our agent to ask for some feedback since no one was making any offers. Um, no kidding.
We also saw another house where you could control the lights in every room of the house from any room you were in. The wires in the basement were a nightmare.This house also boasted an old 1950’s bomb shelter that they claimed was an in-law. It looked like something out of a horror movie.
Kerry says
When we were hunting in the spring of 2009, we viewed one place that we called “the murder house”. It was pretty creepy. Dark brown shag rug, mirrored ceilings in the bathroom, a basement that looked like a torture chamber / dungeon. We were looking for a fixer upper, but this place was a complete tear down / start again project. We recently discovered that’s exactly what someone ended up doing, when we drove past to see what had became of it. Was definitely the best choice. I got the creeps from the minute we walked in the front door.
Marie says
Oh too funny! We’re about to leave on our second house-hunting adventure in an hour, but so far nothing too terrifying. Just people with a messy house who didn’t feel like leaving during our showing because it “wasn’t convenient.” Someone didn’t want to sell their house…
Lauren @ chezerbey says
Oh, let’s see:
1. Flat roof house (from the ’20s) that had a literal hole in the bathroom ceiling/roof (like, 2’x2′ wide). Pass.
2. House that we made an offer on and in the 11th hour, owners disclosed that the neighbor was mentally unstable and there had been some property line disputes. Um, no thanks.
3. House that had no heating system, hideous teal trim everywhere and only 5 outlets in the whole house. Oh wait, we bought that one.
Jennifer C says
We looked at 58 houses before finding our home. Among the ghastly things we encountered:
– Checking out a bedroom, discovered grandma was bedridden, coughing and near death (“Aah, you can go in, Grandma’s just not feeling well”)
– A naked man just finishing his shower (nobody was supposed to be home according to our realtor)
– Aah, the lovely smell of pot and ramen noodles
– A backyard shed that was bigger than the house and looked like a barn
– Spray painted wall and ceiling fans, no electricity and holes all over (bitter over losing their home to foreclosure)
– A flooded basement. Like, to the third stair flooded.
– Nice house with beautiful big jacuzzi-tub-in-the-windowed-corner bathroom. But no closets in the house. At all.
And many more fun discoveries. Good luck. Seriously, you should get in the home staging business. Apparently, there’s lots of need for it!
Meghan says
My fiancee and I are dog-people. While we probably could have seen past most cats, we went to one adorable house that had two hairless cats who were VERY aggressive. They circled our ankles, and if we stood next to a surface like a counter or mantle, they would LEAP up next to you and stare at you in the creepiest way. We couldn’t get away from there fast enough! That house will forever be known as the House with the Evil Cats!
bindc says
We saw a house where the current owners (who CLEARLY did not want to leave) were still there, watching TV and cooking a smelly dinner. The realtor did warn us that the current owners were “difficult.” The house was filthy and had boxes and boxes of crap everywhere. So much so, we had to squeeze into one of the bedrooms because there were boxes behind the door preventing the door from opening all the way.
The worst was the dog poop all over the garage. We walked away from that house very very sad. Sad for them mostly because clearly they were struggling.
almk says
In the 50 houses I toured before we bought this one a month ago, there was only one house where we stopped midway through and didn’t finish viewing. It was massive for the price, and boasted 5 bathrooms and a sauna downstairs. So, out of curiosity, we requested to view it on one of our outings. It resided in a normal neighborhood where we had seen, and liked, several houses previously.
The yard was fairly overgrown and there was no grass to speak of. The front yard had a tree with a huge vine spiraling up it’s trunk, and the backyard appeared to be a (rickety) deck ending in a precipitous drop down a gully filled with more trees, vines, and God knows what kinds of bugs and critters. The best feature of the yard were the two seemingly pointless staircases, one from the deck which just stopped halfway down the gully, and the other in the front yard, slime covered and made of stones, which ended in a large flat field of moss.
Inside the house, the rooms were large, had EXTREMELY low ceilings (our realtor was easily 6’6″, and almost had to duck) and very dark. Not surprising considering the jungle surrounding the place. The house gave the off the vibe of having been built circa 1670, instead of 300 years later, which was the case. The central air did not appear to be on or working, because the house was stifling in North Carolina in July, and the HVAC just seemed to emit some kind of high-pitched whine. We walked through the living room, dining room, and kitchen before happening on the back “sun room” (in quotes because, again, this house seemed to receive no light, natural, artificial or otherwise). My husband walked out into the room, which was suspended over the backyard gully, first, and cautioned that the floor seemed to slope a little. I took about three steps into the room and had to retreat because the pitch gave me the feeling I was about to tumble over the edge and into the vegetation pit below. We turned around, advised our realtor not to even attempt the room (we were afraid his size would cause it to collapse) and announced that we were ready to go.
My only regret is not going to see the sauna, which we decided may very well just have been an extremely humid basement that the sellers were trying to play up on the listing. As we pulled out of the driveway, our realtor held his hands up to his forehead and prophesied, “I predict this listing will be on the market….. for a very long time!”
Anna says
We looked at a house that was being used as a frat house. When we got there there were college students PASSED OUT in the floor. We had to step over them to see everything.
almk says
Oh, and don’t even get me started on the house with the bunny room. Apparently indoor rabbits need their own room, and prefer that it be decorated with as many figurines, pictures, and various other bunny-related accouterments as possible.
charlotte says
Here’s another site for your amusement :o)
http://uglyhousephotos.com/wordpress/
Erin says
Our weirdest (and grossest) house hunting adventure was pet-related. We went into a fairly cute house, greeted by an unfriendly, hissing cat. (I don’t blame it; I might hiss at strangers traipsing through my house, too.) However, kitty also left an unbelievably large, smelly present in the middle of the living room floor. Then, in the basement, we found another cat closed up in a room. This cat had vomited all over the floor. We couldn’t get into the room because of the copious amounts of vomit.
We wouldn’t have chosen this house anyway because of the teeny rooms, but I honestly felt bad for the owners knowing that they’d probably return to the house and wonder if the kitties were the reason we didn’t place an offer. :(
shannon says
Marci-your story totally freaked me out!
We saw one house where the homeowners intsalled a working toilet in the coat closet in the living room/entry, right next to the couch. No light, no sink, and the coat rack was still hanging. One would have to move quite awkardly to sit down on that bad boy without hitting her/his head on the bar.
Another house was saw had a creepy room in the basement with just a bed, about 3 feet off of the ground decked out in all sorts of satiny bed coverings. Oh, and the mirrors on 2 walls. Gives me the willies just thinking about it.
LaurieZ says
Headless dolls everywhere.
That’s what my mom saw when house hunting with her parents when she was young. It was a great deal for an old well-kept house, but my grandmother couldn’t get over the fact that the house was filled with headless dolls on display. Not a head in sight. Very creepy. They didn’t buy the house.
michele says
we also looked at a house and found the couple still at home. in their lazy boy recliners. drinking beer, eating chips. watching nascar. they told us to come in, make ourselves at home, just holler if we had any questions. that felt like a loaded suggestion.
Abby says
When we were house hunting a few years ago we saw a listing for a house that looked like it had “good bones” with some really poor decorating choices. When we showed up to see it the owners were home but allowed us to walk through with our realtor anyway. The main level was just jammed with stuff and really messy. There was no one in the kitchen but the gas burners were all on. When we went upstairs we found all the rooms had ancient drop ceilings painted teal! And to top it off, in the last bedroom we went into there was an old man smoking a cigarette in bed! Eee!
corinne purnell says
OH the house hunting stories, it just amazes me that some people show there house at all and really expect to sale it!!! We were taken to a house that was so full of cats and cat poo everywere you couldnt even step in the door with out stepping on either one! The ladie would just rip open a huge bag of cat food and leave it in the middle of the room for all her cats. The smell was so overwhelming that I didnt even go in the house I just returned to the car and waited for my dear husband who didnt want to hurt the “cat ladies” feelings by not looking at her house, while she sat in the front yard enjoying true fresh air!
Debbie says
My parents have a 5 level split level. I quite like it, but I guess to each their own!
Amy says
When Jim and I were hunting for our house, we were sifting through the worst of the worst of first time homes. Everyone was trying to get the most for their house and no one wanted to pay it. A lot of what we saw was in foreclosure or short-sale, so we knew it wasn’t going to be pretty.
The worst day was when we got to a home where the man was outside just throwing his cigarette butts on the lawn (classy) and semi-refused to leave. Our agents talked him into it. Upon entering the house Jim took the lead due to the “Hoarder-esque” quality – I wasn’t sure I could handle the stench.
Just when we were about to turn around and call it quits he opened the master bedroom. We were greeted with not only a stripper pole in the middle of the room, surrounded with lights – but a woman PASSED OUT face down on the bed.
I don’t why I should have been surprised. It was 4pm on a Sunday… obviously that is what all the cool kids are doing.
We ran. This time, myself and realtor in the lead.
Lindsey d. says
A friend and I were house hunting at the same time and kept encountering what we termed “murder rooms.” Creepy, hard to access spaces that seemed suitable for doing only one thing…
The house I bought had one too — Imagine a traditional attic that has a little room built right in the center… and then painted institutional green. My dad is CONVINCED someone lived up there.
Oh, and I totally had one of those “renters won’t leave during showings” moments. It was filthy and just plain weird that they were there.
Mariel says
my favorite story to tell is from the house we refer to as “the smoke house.” you could practically smell the smoke from outside and walking in was horrible! the kitchen had white cabinets, well supposed to be white, and you could see the yellow stains all over them from the smoke! i was ready to leave the second we walked in, but then i noticed signs that said “a spoiled rotten bulldog lives here.” i LOVE bulldogs, but i figured the owners had taken them with them. before we left my husband opened the door to the garage and surprise! there’s the bulldog, and the cutest bulldog puppy in a cage! it took us a minute to get the big one back in the garage after he came flying out at us! i felt so bad for them and wanted to take them with me because of how bad the smoke smell was!
MelissaG. says
When we were house hunting we HAD to take the kiddos with us that particular time. We walked into the living room and there was a cat on the back of the couch. My 3 year old went up to it very slowly to get a closer look and JUST as I’m saying “Not too close honey….” the cat hisses and scratched my son in the face! poor guy, bleeding instantly! :o(
Krystal says
Haven’t had the opportunity to go house hunting, but have seen quite a few surprises while apartment hunting (in a college town, so imagine!) I think the best one was the studio apartment with at least 3 weeks worth of dirty dishes and moldy take-out sitting in the sink, all the floors covered in empty alcohol bottles and stained with what appeared to be cherry slushie, and the bathroom containing two bongs of pot.
Irina – my grandparent’s house has the open toilet next to the washer/dryer in the basment, but I never found that quite as odd as my grandpa’s installation of an old school crank pencil sharpener right above the toilet paper holder so he could always have sharpened pencils while doing his crosswords during, er, “long sits”.
Jess! says
When I was apartment hunting in order to move for my new job, I looked at a place that was a split-level BASEMENT aparemtent that was dark, dank, and full of old, algae-filled fishtanks of various sizes. Also, there was a significnat amount of garlic hanging outside all the doors and windows – the Eastern European couple showing me the apartment were genuinely afraid of vampires, and this was WELL before twilight.
Sarah @ The Ugly Duckling House says
Oh, the hilarity of fumbling around in a pitch black house. As a single homeowner, my price range meant I was in the market for a foreclosure – many of which didn’t have power. The problem was, foreclosures go fast, and I was shopping in the winter. So, I would usually have to look at a house after work to see if it was still available, and that often meant after dark. I must have seen 4 or 5 houses with a flashlight!
Lessons in Life and Light says
My husband and I can across some DISGUSTING homes on our search for the perfect house. One house had dark lavendar walls in the living room and the owner acted like she didn’t know we were coming over with our realtor to look (she did know). She sat and ate a huge plate of mashed potatoes while we walked through their gross, dingy, dirty, hoarder house. Seriously, there was crap EVERYWHERE. And what’s scarier? I think we counted about EIGHT child’s beds scattered throughout the home.
*shudder*
There was another house we saw that just had BAD VIBES. Like Amityville vibes. We got out of that house as fast as we stepped in and never went back. Creepy!!!
Katie says
That split level is weird.
flo says
oh, we saw our fair share of strange places when we were looking for a house, that’s for sure!
there was one house we saw that had a toilet in the master bedroom. as in, IN the master bedroom. across from the bed. NOT enclosed. and no, there was no sink anywhere. ummm…..
Mike @HA says
We viewed a house we refer to as the Dr. Seuss House. The main level had major floor sagging so the fridge was leaning forward at a 15 degree angle andyou could feel the floors rolling. No room on the main level was bigger than 8×8 yet it had 2 living rooms and 2 bedrooms listed (none had closets). The second level had a kitchenette listed but we didn’t find anything, they must have packed up the George Forman before we got there. The 3rd level was 4 feet high but had really nice carpet and painted walls/celing. A 10 year old would have loved that level. We passed.
DJ says
That would be the house where our real estate agent called the other agent to see if we could come by and got an “all clear, no problem.”
When we arrived and came inside, the owner was lounging in his boxers watching TV in the family room. He heard us come and everything, but never said a word.
Somehow, it didn’t really let us see ourselves living there.
The other horrible experience was the home guarded by two pit bulls. The owner was home then too, and said that she’d rescued the snarling darlings just the day before from the pound and was “sure” that they wouldn’t bite us. When we wouldn’t take her word for it, she locked them in the garage. Then she proceeded to tell us that we could go through the house, but weren’t allowed to look in any of the bedrooms! The doors were all locked. It really seemed to surprise her that potential home buyers would actually want to see the ENTIRE home.
Norell says
We have moved many, many times and have seen many scary houses. The one I’ll never forget was in the ‘burbs of Chicago. We entered the living room and were greeted by a rolled up dirty diaper. We managed to make into the kitchen and decided to run as fast as we could. When we got back in the car, I felt a little “itchy” – looked down and had fleas on my legs after less than 5 minutes in the house!!!
Valerie says
When we were househunting we showed up at a house where the current owners had priced the house 30K over asking in our desired neighborhood. We assumed it would be great. Turned out, the owners had done nothing – including any cleaning/tidying, painting, AND refused to leave the house while prospective buyers toured it…
So while the gross owner watched TV in his sweats and his kids played on the floor – the realtors showed us the place…
There were empty, large (like novelty size) bottles of vodka lying around and, best of all, he had left his dirty underpants slung over the headboard. Classy.
Patti says
We have a house in the country. When we were looking for it, we were shown a well-worn 3 bedroom ranch on 5 acres. The owners were there when we toured the house and it was obvious the wife wanted desperately to get out! After we toured the house and were about to leave, she frantically started talking about every door knob, drawer pull and closet, anything that she thought would woo me, all said with her eyes bugging out wide like she was saying “pleeeease help meeee”. Awkward! We later found out that living in the country was driving her to drink. Oh well, we never bought the house, but I hope she got out.
Mary says
The best part of house hunting- outside of the whole finding your dream home bit- is the crazy voyeuristic bit. I think the funniest houses are the ones that have obviously been staged, but done so by someone who has very far from neutral or universal taste. The house we actually ended up buying was soooo poorly staged, but it was spectacularly deliberate. If it wasn’t for the good bones and awesome price tag we would have kept walking.
The dining room table was a bright white stuccoed column with a glass top ( so you could see all the stucco glory)with golden plastic place settings surrounded by high backed salmon and mint green chairs .In the master, the bed was setup in the corner or the master with very odd tall lamps hanging over it- they looked a lot like the movable lights dentists use. Weird. Finally, both the bathrooms had very large baskets of plastic fruit and other plastic foods set up ‘buffet style’ All together the effect was, CRAZY FOLKS LIVE HERE! But we bought it anyway.
Alina says
Years ago, my friend and I were looking for a rental. We went to one where the owner didn’t have a key and had to crawl in through a window! Then when we got inside one entire bedroom had floor-to-ceiling cages of SNAKES! I’m not usually afraid of snakes, but the thought of a room-full was too much.
Lindsay says
While house hunting in April our realtor took us to many foreclosed homes, so none of them were “staged.” However, one house we went to we weren’t even sure why they would list it. Our realtor warned us that the young woman who owned the home had just been checked into a mental institution (or whatever the P.C. term is). The house was beautiful with nice finishes, which we noticed when we walked in. BUT! When we closed the front door and looked behind us, the entire front door and stairway walls were covered in sharpie. The girl had used the door, frame, and walls to write warnings to the people who will live there, various drug references, references to her childhood, and racist statements. When we got up to the dark upstairs hallway, she had changed her utensil of choice to red watercolor to scrawl all the way down the hall and in the master bedroom.
Needless to say, that house was a hands-down NO and has yet to sell. We will never know why they listed the house when there hadn’t been any clean-up done… Crazy (literally)!