Hey Pandas, What Uncomfortable Things Did You Experience While Home Hunting? (Closed)

I live in an area where the housing is incredibly expensive. We were fortunate that we could afford to buy a modest house in one of the less egregiously expensive neighborhoods. One of the houses we looked at had at least eight people living in the two-car garage sleeping in bunk beds. We didn't end up wanting to buy that house for other reasons, but someone else did soon soon after. It was inevitable in that market. It made me so sad that they were living like that, but also wondering if they were going to lose even that meager housing when the owner sold.

My BF decided to move in together and were looking for an apartment. Some were nice, some were not. But one was especially nice... as long as you didn't look too close. There were plenty of people applying for the apartment until my BF pointed out there was mould in some kitchen corners. Hard to see at first sight but after finding out it was there, we realized it was pretty much EVERYWHERE! In every single room, in every corner and by every single window. Subtle but still there. After hearing it, everyone else ran to the estate agent and more or less tore their applications out of his hands. He wasn't too happy about it. If looks could kill, we'd be dead now.

When my husband and I were house hunting, our realtor took us to a house where an elderly couple lived. She told us their children were forcing them to sell their home and move into a nursing home. When we walked into the house the elderly couple were sitting on their couch crying and watching people walk through.

18 years ago I was looking for an apartment to rent. There were a lot of people applying, they all wanted to rent the appartment. But the owner was only interested in me. He even didn't ask if I had a job or the money, he said to the other candidates they could leave because he decided to rent it to me. I needed bad a place to live, but I was so afraid. I refused and said I wasn't interesed anymore. The owner was very disapointed, maybe he had other things in his mind. A young woman on her own has to be careful. Later that week, I found an other apartment and a very friendly landlady.

i have a good one, we were moving to a new state so a lot of the time we looked on zillow. well we saw a house that i loved, it had a cute yellow kitchen, and one of the rooms was purple with a pink window. well in the week that we visited we looked at the house. the kitchen wasn't yellow, the room that i saw, the purple was so light it looked white and the window was painted pink instead of stained glass. speaking of stained, there were brown stains all over the house along with random squares of chalk paint and worst of all there was something like oil dripping from the ceiling.

Another one I thought of. We were first playing with the idea of buying a house after living in apartments.

I found this country house for sale, and it sounded really good... Online.

We show up, just the hubby and me, and this place almost looks abandoned. The yard was so overgrown. We decided to peek in the windows as obviously nobody lived there. On the back door there was a note. What did it say? It said "Don't enter. Chicken giving birth". Still have no idea what that was supposed to mean. We still laugh about it, tho.

Two stories come to mind:
- A real estate agent was showing me a few houses I had picked out. Part way through one as we enter the basement he casually says this had been the scene of a young boy's murder. No thanks and you could have mentioned this earlier, no?
- Apatment hunting with a friend. Walked into one place where the couple moving out had several cats. The smell of cat urine was "breathtaking". I had to leave.

We visited an open house being sold by two university professors. Throughout the house they had naked photographs of themselves and their small children, unposed, just standing staring unsmilingly at the camera.

Looking to buy my first house about 20 years ago and went to view a home that was an investment property for the owner, so renters were living in it. They did not want the owner to sell and kept putting off our agent. Finally went to see it and there were gross porn magazines EVERYWHERE - like on the kitchen table, every bedroom, living room, etc. Also dog crap in every room. Super gross. Did not buy it.

My realtor offered a room at her house while I looking for a house in a new state. We had talked many times over the phone and she had been recommended by a friend, so I took her up on the offer.
When I got there, I was unpacking a few things and she happened to step into the room. She walked over and poked her nose into my bag to see what I had (um... okay?!) and commented "oh, I only ever wear thong panties. That kind just isn't sexy enough." What do you even say to that kind of comment?!
Also, her husband kinda weirded me out with all the descriptions of how easy it would be for someone to break into a home with a number of features. I get the need for safety, but good grief!

My husband and I were touring a home with our realtor. Opened the door and walked into a large voodoo shrine complete with ceramic hands with embedded eyeballs, candles, chicken bones? and feathers and alcohol. Turned around and walked back out.

Viewed a house once that had no flooring (just subfloor) was nasty and dirty and stank (which was kind of common for my then price range) but the worst part was the fish tank with black water and a big dead fish just floating about... and there were people living there and present while we viewed. How can people live like that???

We were house hunting in the early 90's. Realtor opened the door to a nice house in a nice neighborhood. It was an open floor plan, so we could see quite far from the doorway. The carpet and walls were bright pink, and there were so many piles of dog poop, it would have been impossible to walk around. Urine too, I'm sure. Smell was unbelievable. Did someone move away and leave a dog there? Said 'nope' and closed the door. We saw quite a few homes where we just couldn't believe how some people live. It was sad.

Not my story , but the story of a friend.
The landlady wanted to know if the couple in interest was married, because she was living in the groundfloor with her children and did not want to give them a bad example by renting the house to an couple out of marriage!

My realtor and I went to see a supposedly vacant house. Inside we found some dude, all his stuff, which appeared to be dumpster salvage, and his really big pitbull type dog. The air was fragrant with the smell of growing marijuana. We left quickly and reported him.

my friend's experience: the toilet was not flushed and the whole house was stinky

Looking for digs around Munich... went to an arranged viewing of a one room flat, aka "Wohnklo" for 1400 Euros a month and 700 people in front.

There was a huge sump pit c/w large pump in the basement and fluorescence on the foundation walls up to about 30". "Was there a flood here at one time?" we asked. "No no, this is just a precaution" we were told. Uh huh. Sure.

Looking at a house that looked pretty good in pictures on Zillow, and when I went to look at it with my realtor, it was a complete disgusting mess. It was like they pushed the mess to one side took the picture and moved it back. When we looked at the basement, it looked like a spider hole, or hostage room. Ran out of there quickly.

My son went to pet a small dog on the couch & it easier the homeowners' toupee.