In driving fairly long distances with buyers between house showings in my area we chuckle amidst all the Realtor stories that are out there. I need to solicit from you some fresh stories of fun things you have seen in the Real Estate world along the way. They don't have to be about you but maybe something you heard.
Like Realtors using credit cards to get in side locked doors. Encountering naked couples in Master Bedrooms. Having a corner of a brick wall collapse prior to closing due to buying an as is house with foundation problems. Lately I found a very happy bullfrog on top of a black water pool that was described in the MLS as pristine (the water not the frog).
So help me out there with some new fresh stories of a day in the life of a Real Estate professional whichever area you work in. Not to make us look unprofessional, but you all know we have those days where something dumb happens, which is funny, and you wonder to yourself
IF I ONLY HAD A BRAIN !!! : ) What stories do you have for me? Make My Day !!!
Yup, I kinda wish i had a brain at times too...
Okay, Gary! Just this week, I was showing a 'foreclosed' property that was supposedly vacant. The door was ajar and did not need the key to open--when we opened the door, we were completely overtaken by the smell of, well, poop! We looked in and there were COW-sized piles ALL over the place and beer cans/bottles & clothing galore! This was a MILLION dollar property!! I phoned the listing agent immediatly as we RAN from the property and all she said was, "Oh, well! I guess the owners came back and had a party, maybe?!"
Gary - In my earlier days in real estate I listed a house with beautiful wood flooring in the living room anda lovely oriental rug in the enter. It never enter my head to check under the rug I was too trusting. At the closing the buyer leaned over and ask me if I knew there was no flooring under the rug. You should have seen my face. This was a rather nice buyer who did not make a fuss. This would go well under Marchel's lessons learned post. From then on I make sure to check everything.
Gary, you have described my real estate practice. It includes walking in on naked people in the shower, walking in on gay guys doing who knwos what, walking in of Fang, the Realtor eating dog, having an old boyfriends soon to be ex wife throwing a can of cat food at the hunky termite inspector - oh just read my book! It has all kinds of stuff!
I work on a team and one of my teammates, Sandy was showing a buyer a home. They were in the bathroom and in the bath/shower was a window. The buyer commented on the window in the shower and in Sandy's attempt to show him it opened, she slipped in the tub, broke the towel rack and ended up doing the turtle dance in the tub on her back with legs flailing and to top it off the broken towel rack flipped up in the air knocking off an open container of Noxema and she was covered in Noxema too!
Gee, I never have anything this interesting happen during my showings.
Cows got in a house I had listed when an agent left open a patio door. Cowpies are tricky to clean up!
I have often times wondered what it would be like if I Only Had A Brain! But, I am enjoying life wondering about that so maybe I am okay anyway! You're a hoot. Later in the rain~Deb
Tracy: An iguana guarding the door would be a memorable moment : )
Kim: WANTED Realtor who is also mountain climber. That's you! ; )
Bubba: Some days are like that.
Debe: Oh ny. That one is hard to explain, in a million dollar house? How embarrassing and sad as well.
Thom and Ray: Someone sleeping is a good one, but I guess they didn't know you were there.
Jennifer: No flooring under the rug, like just the foundation? Wow.
Patricia: I need your book to read at the beach. That would be total fun and relaxation.
Leslie: That is too funny and a scene to remember or maybe forget with the Noxema.
Shirley: Good for you. Maybe you live in the normal areas. I just hear so many wild stories along the way in this "people" business.
Trey: Cows in a house, now that is funny!
Deb: You're one of the smartest ones here, whatcha talking about.
This wasn't me but another agent.... He was showing a home, but was told he needed to enter the back door instead of the front. When he and his clients went to the back door, he was surprised to see that the door was somewhat ajar. He and his clients went inside and didn't see anyone, so he thought the owners must have accidentally left it open. As he and the clients finished looking around downstairs it was time to go upstairs. Halfway up the stairs, a lady came out of one of the rooms in her robe and a towel wrapped around her head. She screamed and asked what they were doing in her home. When he explained that they had and appointment to show the home, she told them that her house was not for sale and it never was. It turns out he went in the wrong house. He showed the lady the picture of the house on the MLS sheet and she forgave him since she could see that the houses were almost identical. Apparently he just saw the house and thought it was the one on the picture and didn't even bother to look at the address.
Michelle: Going into the wrong home has to be completely embarassing. I went to the "right" home once, and the new homeowner had lived there three weeks but it was still in the MLS. The other agent never took it out. I wondered why there was no for sale sign on the lawn. You sure scared that lady.
Goodness! I could write a book, but I'll leave that to you.
I always chuckle when I recall the luxury condo that I sold in Maryland to a lovely retired couple. We went to the condo for the pre-settlement walk-through and the dining room chandilier was gone. There was a metal plate over the dining room table where the chandelier once hung.
I took my buyers to the listing agent's office and showed here the photo of the dining room with the chandelier when we were first looking. She called the seller who claimed that there was never a chandelier in the dining area. Funny thing, she was there when I took the photos.
I demanded payment for the missing fixture or no settlement. The seller was at the listing agent's office in an hour with 15 crisp $100 bills. She asked only one thing and that was that we not tell her husband at settlement.
We didn't.
Lenn: That's a funny story about the missing chandelier. At least the buyer was compensated for it. It's funny how she didn't want her husband to know. Where was the removed chandelier going? The next house and it was her mistake?
I don't have a story of my own but I sure enjoyed reading all of these!
Kelly: There's some funny ones here and I'm sure others will add some more. I hope you are doing great!!
I guess I haven't been it the biz long enough to have great stories like these. They have been very entertaining!
Pam: You could probably give us all stories from those six munchkins in your house. You wouldn't even have to leave the house for showings. All the action is going on within your walls : ) Did you see Trey's comment above about cows in a house? Only in Texas! LOL.
I had a listing that had an aerobic septic tank, also commonly know as an onsite sewage treatment facility. An agent called asking about it. I could kind of tell that she nor her client knew very much about them so I tried my best to explain. Finally, she asked, "Are the sellers going to take it with them when they leave?" I can't remember how I responded, but I do know that my seller the septic tank behind.
One time I showed what appeared to be a beautiful log home in the MLS photos, with a lovely stream behind it on the nicely wooded property.
When we arrived, however, after driving about an hour to see it, the beautiful log home had been gnawed on by porcupines!
They had ruined just about every log face on the home, and just about chewed right through the posts supporting the porch roof!
Sondra: That's a real funny one about a request to the Seller to take the septic tank with them. Maybe the buyer thought it wasn't all that necessary or leaving it might result in a bad smell. Can we say CLUELESS here? I think some peope couldn't explain how a toaster works to save their life. I hope you were gentle with them (I'm sure you were) but you were probably laughing pretty hard when you got away from them by yourself in your car and rolled your eyes, VERY FUNNY...
Lynn: And I thought termites were a problem in our area. I guess it was just another day at the office for the porcupines out in the woods and they were enjoying their lunch. Makes you wonder about the owner and listing agent when the last time they were out at the cabin. Apparently not very often if it took an hours drive to get there. Very good story. Thanks for that one. My buyers are going to enjoy these.
Gary. She had sold it to a neighbor on the floor who had admired it.
I've had several sellers try to pull "fast ones". They must think that we don't go to walk-throughs. I always go.
Had one couple replace a top of the line W/D with the cheapest thing Sears sold. We got a gift certificate for $1200 for my buyers to buy their own.
I also had one seller replace a defective self cleaning oven/range with a cheap one that wasn't self cleaning. I told the listing agent that the seller wasn't going to sentance my home buyers to 5-10 years of oven cleaning. They replaced it with a good self cleaning oven range.
Geez. How stupid do they think we are. I'm a real Tigress with cubs when folks try to pull stuff like that on my buyers.
Lenn: I think that wife must have pocketed the money herself maybe more than $1500 and didn't want her husband to know about it. The walk throughs are critical from all the fast ones you described with switching out the low end appliances. They must think we are all dummies. I like your Tigress with cubs image. Maybe that can be your new brand. Don't mess with Lenn (or else) : )
Gary this is a refreshing, great post...with all the pending waiting til the 29th, it is refreshing to get back to real, real estate and share these hilarious stories. I remember a long, long time ago
I was showing a house to this couple, as I was fumbling to get the keys into the door, I mumbled something like " why can't I get this door open". my client said ''Aummm .......I don't think you need to bother, we can just go through the window" I didn't noticed from the road but, the house had 4 large front windows in the front......well someone nicely went in and removed two of the windows..they were stolen.. The house was hidden a little, that's how the thieves got away with it. There I am trying to get in with the key and the windows were gone.
I am sure they thought ...".this agent is attentive , how do you not notice 2 large widows gone".
Needless to say we notified the police and the listing agent.....kids just playing around...
June: That was another GREAT story. It sounds just like me too. Fumbling with the key for the door, meanwhile look over there.... NO WINDOWS. Hello June?? Do you not notice these things? Wow. Very brazen taking out windows. It is amazing what people do, like stealing all the copper tubing lately off construction sites residential and industrial. A good one you provided me... Thx.
Hi Gary! I was at a staging consultation-nice home, nice family but they the dining room was empty. I asked if they would consider renting a table and 4 chairs. They said it was not in their budget so I asked if they had any relatives we could borrow from for a few weeks. They said yes and walked me right across the street. I thought to myself "great". They knocked on the door only to introduce themselves to the neighbors. I was shocked they did not know these people they were asking to use their furniture. The man looked at me and said "who are you?"" I said "I am the stager" He yelled to his wife "honey we're on TV, come on in!!!!" Out went the dining room table and chairs!
Cathy: They must have thought you were like a TV personality. That is too funny,
Years ago, before I was a Realtor, I was looking at property in northern CA with a Realtor friend. She was scheduled to show me this property, and, since it was still occupied, shouted when she opened the door, announcing herself. We went through several rooms of this Victorian home until we we in one of them with a half-bath, which she opened and there was the owner, sitting down... He didn't seem too phased, just saying he'd be out in a minute. Well, we were out the door faster than that--- in about 6 seconds flat!
I don't have any great stories like some that I have read. But I really like the post and the Wizard Of Oz clip with the scarecrow.
It's the Bomb!
I grew up with the Wiz and my grandparents would come over every Halloween and Thanksgiving and we would watch the Wiz.
Great Post!
Hi Gary, One time my wife and son staged a home and lit some candles for ambiance and warmth. They were a little too close to a big screen TV which had a plastic facing. Guess what? The candles melted some of the plastic! My son ordered a new cover (very minimal cost) and all was well!
Gary, This just happened a few days ago, the property is a fourth floor condo front door access from an elevator, but back Deck is 40 feet off the ground with no access (only a firetruck ladder could get there). So the owner says when did I show it last, well Saturday why?, Well someone kicked in the back door. I say that couldn't be there is no way to get up there. The seller says my son went up and found the door kicked in. I said if your son or someone visiting got locked out on the deck they could jump to their death or kick in-the door. He says "my son says he didn't do it" well I guess that means I did it....
Steve
I had a buyer that passed gas almost everytime we stepped foot into a house. It took me a few tours to figure out it was a buying signal. So, I waited for it and sure enough the next time he tooted, he bought a house.
Gary - Hmmm, so many stories. I walked into a spider web one time in a dimly lit basement and you can pretty much imagine my reaction. My client thought I was having a seizure. ...I got chased along with buyer clients a few months ago while the seller cursed at us to leave before he called the cops (I did have an appointment). I did not argue, we just left - because you never know what wacky person might havea gun. ....I had a pitbull run out of a basement to greet me once when I opened the door. It was during a listing presentation - I was trying to make a nice impression - do I reach out and say "nice doggy" or do I bolt? - Everyday is an adventure when your a Realtor!