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Location: Sometimes Maryland, sometimes NoVA. Depends on the day of the week
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We have been house hunting for a bit, and we have seen some crazy stuff. I'm interested in the weird things others have seen. Here are some of ours:
* plumbing in an unfinished basement "repaired" with duct tape
* a 3'x4' square of carpet missing in the middle of a hallway
* a wallpapered vanity in a bathroom
* no flooring, at all, in a kitchen. Just subflooring. It went well with the bright orange countertops.
* a completely rusted exterior on a water pressure tank
* a 2 inch diameter hole in the venting on a oil furnace
* A garage with a cracking running the whole length and sinking (about 4 inches lower in the middle of the garage than the side
* 10 inch long cracks coming from the corners of doorways
* plus the usual things such as peeling wallpaper, bad paint jobs, no paint jobs, etc.
* a hot pink with bubblegum pink trimed living room - in the most expensive house in the subdivision!
Let me add, these houses are not priced below market value, they are right in line with comps of well maintained houses. I know some of these is a person preference thing (like the wallpapered vanity and the hot pink paint), but I'm suprised a realtor didn't advise them to fix that and make it more neutral)
So whats the worst thing you have seen? The type of thing that makes you wonder "what were they thinking putting their house on the market like this?!"
Worst I've seen when looking for a home in 2005 here in Missouri was a home with the owners home. The floors were completely strewn with dirty clothes...in the living room too... and the wife had her breast out nursing a baby on the couch, plates of rotting food were everywhere. Dog crap was here and there on the floors, the kitchen was a CDC hazard area, and the male owner was sitting on a chair in the kitchen playing a violin...
Needless to say, I worried about catching something even walking into that house. The master bedroom was ...indescribable.
Other homes I saw here were just dirty and messy. A lot of people don't clean and don't pick up after themselves. They're just pigs. And putting their homes on the market didn't seem to make a reality impression on them that dirty houses mean no buyers....
I was shocked here actually.
In California, people keep homes immaculately to impress would-be buyers. Here you have to wear a Hazmat suit.
Location: Danbury CT covering all of Fairfield County
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You can not believe the stuff I see as as agent. A couple of weeks ago, I went to go preview a home that would be perfect for a client and I found the homeowner asleep around 2PM. Another time, I was out with another client and found a condo that needed complete work from the top to bottom (new kitchen, new floors, paint, ceilings) that was priced for a unit in move in condition for the complex..
Location: Sometimes Maryland, sometimes NoVA. Depends on the day of the week
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jdhall1
I went to go preview a home that would be perfect for a client and I found the homeowner asleep around 2PM.
Oh, there was one where our agent had made the appointment the day before, confirmed it the morning of, and we were right on time. We were told we couldn't go upstairs because the babies were napping. And this was the first weekend on the market, too. The older kid (maybe 8) followed us around and stared at us with wide eyes the entire visit (all of 5 minutes after feeling so welcomed)
The floors were completely strewn with dirty clothes...in the living room too... and the wife had her breast out nursing a baby on the couch, plates of rotting food were everywhere. Dog crap was here and there on the floors, the kitchen was a CDC hazard area, and the male owner was sitting on a chair in the kitchen playing a violin...
OMG! ...welcome to Deliverance?!...that's just plain scary.
When I was looking for a house my biggest pet peeve was the houses that were not very curb appealing. I usually judge a house by what it looks like outside. That's a pretty good indicator of what's going on inside. Same goes for what a persons car looks like on the interior!...it's a total indicator of a persons habits.
The houses with toys strewn all over the yard or the smell of cat/dog urine or cigarettes were a huge turn off for me. Thick film of yellow on the windows from the heavy duty smokers...yikes! There is really no excuse for any of that. And my realtor was a winner..."oh, just ignore that kinda stuff" ....yeah, sure.
Ditto on the dirty dishes in the sink or clothes hanging all over the place. I don't understand how people can live like that let alone try to sell a home in those conditions.
Another house had a piece of plywood sitting on the floor with a scatter rug thrown on top of it...I was like, "hmm, this is interesting"...I removed the rug and lifted up the board to see a gigantic hole in the floor clear through to the basement!... sheesh.
When I had my house on the market it was imaculate. Not just for the showing. It's how my house looks all the time and I'm proud of that.
I miss my house...
Currently I'm renting and it's so bad some of these houses that landlords try to rent out. Complete dumps! Some renters move out and leave the house in filthy condition. That's when I walk out and say "next"!
I can't wait to read some more horror stories with this thread.
My favorite: My niece and I decided to go to some open houses in my neighborhood one Sunday after church. The first house had a big "Open House" sign on the lawn with an arrow and a flag. We opened the front door and across the room on a couch was a young man and a woman making out on the couch - she was wearing a bra and a blanket....a little more "open house" than we were looking for!
One was dirty and messy with cat urine smell all through the house. I tried to just walk out without seeing the rest of the house, the owners were sitting at kitchen table, my realtor would not let me!
Another was neat house, BUT there were 3 aquariums with snakes in the living room and bedroom! I didn't want to even walk past them! Phobia, bad phobia. I could not tell you what the house looked like when I walked out.
Then the usual, dirty, stinky, and messy homes. I know anyone can take one of these homes and make a real dream house out of it. To me, that is just too much work I would rather buy from someone who knows how to take care of a home.
Oh, my husband and I have seen some houses.
One house that we looked at was a forclosure. Apparently the owner wasn't too thrilled with it, because there was broken plates, glasses, bowls all over the kitchen. The hot water heater was taken out of the house (which you could follow the huge trail of water across the basement), there wasn't just dirty clothes all over.. it was dirty underwear. That was the only articles of clothing left. Ick.. It was so cute from the outside.
Another house was on the market because the seller decided not to finish the rehab that they had started. This house had crayon all over the walls. Every single wall (including all the closets) was covered in scribbles and swear words. It was a real peice
We also had the house which was really nice and clean inside (needed updating, but it wasn't disgusting.) We were done looking around upstairs so we went into the basement. I litterally screamed when I saw the "furnace"
They had upgraded their furnace to a normal gas one.. but they had never removed the old coal burning furnace. That thing was HUGE. Looked like something from Willy Wonka. Scared the living daylights out of me.
The filthiest house I have ever seen was actually the one we bought.
The living room carpet was so dirty, I would have sworn they were re-building motorcycles on it. Found out it was merely nail polish, candle wax and plain old dirt.
The boys bedrooms had peanut butter & jelly everywhere, on the walls, mini-blinds and ceilings. When my friend saw it, she asked if it was a new faux finish!
Our first house was two minutes from a foreclosure. Again, when we went to see it first, the baby was sleeping and we couldnt go into the bedroom ; found out later that the baby was 10.
Then when we went for the walk thru, we couldnt go upstairs as there was so much junk on the stairs.
After we bought it, we brightened it up etc. Then we started on the basement ; we had to wear masks while we pulled up the carpet thread by thread. Seemingly about 4 years before, they had a flood, but never cleaned the carpet.
Oh well, it is now worth three times what we paid for it 10 years ago. The sellers that we bought it from walked away with $4,000 after 12 years.
dorothy
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And this was the first weekend on the market, too.
The older kid (maybe 8) followed us around and stared at us with wide eyes the entire visit (all of 5 minutes after feeling so welcomed)
....yeah, sure.
