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Original poster

Funny experiences in viewing houses

86 replies

potas · 04/07/2013 16:10

I went to view a house last week in the corner of a recently built estate with not much space out the front. When I got out the house after the viewing I found the neighbour had blocked me in with her car - she didnt need to park there she had a double drive - whereas I had parked in front of the house i was viewing. When asked to move the car she went off on a rant about how people in that house had always parked their car somewhere else before! Feel lucky to have met her then and not after buying the house!

OP posts:

CecyHall · 04/07/2013 16:13

I went to view a rental house and my beaded bracelet just exploded for no reason! Teeny tiny beads everywhere. Luckily we went with the house as I was still hoovering the bloody things up months later!

BabsAndTheRu · 04/07/2013 16:14

Many years ago being shown round a two bedroom flat, got shown the second bedroom which clearly had someone in the bed with the covers over their head. Owner sat on the end of the bed and kept talking to us as if to disguise it, when all we wanted to do was leave the room. Weird.

flow4 · 04/07/2013 16:19

We went to see a house that was vacant and owned by one of the estate agents. It's about 5 miles outside the nearest town in a semi-rural suburb. There was no downstairs furniture, there were no beds... But in the bathroom, there was a damp towel, some shower gel, splashes in and all around the shower and an unmistakable damp footprint!

I can't help wondering who chose to use the shower in an empty house, and why?!

foofooyeah · 04/07/2013 16:20

Shortly after my Dad died my Mum had lots of visitors.

One day the door rang and a youngish couple stood there. "sorry we are a bit late" "Oh come in" said my Mum thinking they might be friends of mine as I was due round any minute. Slight silence and the girl said 'Shall we show oursleves round' Mum looked a little surprised then the penny dropped. They were due to view a house three doors down.
I arrived at that point, the couple were very embarassed, but Mum and me found it hilarious, dont think they bought the house down the road but at least they would have known the neigbours were friendly.

flow4 · 04/07/2013 16:31

In the first house we viewed, an ex-council semi, there were three ducks quacking around the garden... The owner told us we could have them if we paid the full asking price!

Pancakeflipper · 04/07/2013 16:39

I went to view a house with my then boyfriend. The estate agent was showing us around one weekday afternoon.

I walked into the main bedroom and a man screamed and leapt naked from his bed and ran into the ensuite. I screamed even louder and refused to see the rest of the house.

Apparently he was the brother of the house owner ( they were on hols which is why the estate agent was showing round) who had been on the beer the night before and decided to use their siblings empty home as a crash pad.

Hobbes8 · 04/07/2013 16:45

I once got shown round a flat by a tenant who didn't really want to move quite yet. He enthusiastically demonstrated how the pipes under the kitchen sink just snapped off on your hand and made sure I noticed the large damp patch on the ceiling of the bathroom which kept coming back no matter what he did. I didn't buy it.

flow4 · 04/07/2013 16:46

In another house, my teenagers went to check out the cellar - they're always interested in the prospect of dens/hang-out space - while a nervous EA stood at the top telling me he thought it "might have a bit of damp"... Within seconds the boys yelled, "MUM IT'S FLOODED!"

It apparently had over 10cm of water in the cellar because its foundations were lower than the water-table!

froginthepond · 04/07/2013 16:48

when we were viewing houses 4 years ago we went to see this one house where the lady owner looked less than amused with us (too young lookung i assume). It was an old country house nothing special though. She took one look at us and decided we could never afford her place and that we were wasting her time. She kept insisting that someone was buying the house a couple of days later so there was no point looking round all the house as we would not be able to buy it. Stupid women who ended up screwing herself over with her ignorance as her house stayed on the market for over 6 months after that and we ended up buying a bigger better and more expensive house than what she had.

noisytoys · 04/07/2013 16:52

We viewed a 2 bedroom flat. Or it would be if we put a partition up in the kitchen, moved the bathroom and were ok with not having a living room. The flat is still on the market 5 years later!

Thistledew · 04/07/2013 16:54

DH went to look at a house when we were house hunting. It was dark but there was outside lighting at one particular property. It had big French doors out onto the patio, which had a curtain drawn across them.

The estate agent flung back the curtains, and he and DH were confronted by the spotlit faces of about two dozen gnomes, who had all been arranged so that they were looking in through the French doors!

PeterParkerSays · 04/07/2013 16:58

We went to see a house with sitting tenants. The living room was piled high with DVDs, model darleks etc and we had to step round the tenants who clearly had no intention of making to easier to view the house.

Upstairs the main bedroom and a double bed, more stacks of DVDs and a complete plastic toy farm laid out on the floor, with fences and tractors and everything, in a house with only 2 adults. We didn't like to ask.

Unsurprisingly we didn't buy the house.

froginthepond · 04/07/2013 16:59

Oh god Thistle if i saw gnomes i would faint hate the bloody things!

PeterParkerSays · 04/07/2013 17:00

Flow4, we saw a house like that, but they had a pump in the cellar which automatically pumped the water away once it got to a certain level within the pipe under the floor.

Zynia41 · 04/07/2013 17:01

viewed one that turned out to be a repossession. They didn't get out of bed!! there were cobra bottles and last night's takeaway plates and foil boxes strewn around.

Pimpf · 04/07/2013 17:06

I remember having an argument with one tossed of an ea, the house was advertised as a 3 bed, but you couldn't fit a bed in the 3rd room, he insisted you could. Shame as it was a lovely house!

LottieJenkins · 04/07/2013 17:17

Thistle that really made me chuckle!
I hate the Ikea advert with the garden gnomes charging across the lawn and having the hose turned on them. That really gives me the willies!

wonkylegs · 04/07/2013 17:24

When we bought our current house, we viewed a property which had an old couple who were looking to move as the stairs had got too much for her. They asked us if we could show ourselves around upstairs for this reason. They warned us that their teenage son ('late in life surprise child 4') was up in his room but it would be fine to poke our heads in.
We did and nearly passed out from the fug of cannabis smoke! He'd obviously forgot his parents were doing a viewing.
We never said a word... The whole experience was made more ridiculous when 'mum' proudly showed us the portraits of her other sons hanging on the wall - all three were police officers!

TeamEdward · 04/07/2013 17:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Bumbez · 04/07/2013 17:52

I have a couple .

Last year I saw a really lovely period property with dds in tow. I turned to the estate agent to ask seriously about offers and saw dd1 aged 8 inching towards me, she proceeded to give my boobs a squeeze with both hands. I ignored her hoping estate agent hadn't noticed so she then nestled her head in the middle of them and wobbled it about a bit saying mmmn.

Another viewing different house we were amused to see a car number plate on the wall with the word cunt dds didn't notice thankfully.

SugarMiceInTheRain · 04/07/2013 18:07

We viewed a house where the owners had clearly watched a couple of house makeover programmes (y'know the ones where they make a house look much worse in just an hour!) and they had done some hideous things. The kitchen cupboards were painted in two bright shades of green - sponge effect The dining room walls were dark blue with random silver spray effect patches here and there. The owner said 'We've gone for a modernist look here' and the garden was full of cds hanging from fences, bushes, tree branches, allegedly to 'reflect light around the garden'. Weirdos.

Another house I viewed on my own had the living room wall painted to look like exposed brick. The owner had a vast collection of garden gnomes and ever so kindly and enthusiastically offered to leave some of his gnome collection behind as a bonus if I bought the house. Er, no ta....

jennycoast · 04/07/2013 18:12

We view a house in a big farming town. The owner was the local retired bank manager, and he and his wife had just returned from lunch at the golf club. They were roaring drunk. It was hilarious, especially when he insisted on showing us how to use the ride on mower which they were going to throw in the the sale.

They had a built in deep fat fryer, from the 70s and I swear the oil hadn't been changed in all that time.

superbagpuss · 04/07/2013 18:18

a couple of stories

a couple of houses being sold as a result, being shown round by bitter exh trying to avoid exw

one had a half finished kitchen that had been started before the split .
over sad houses, didn't buy any of those

the happier house we did buy is in the middle of an estate. when trying to visit it on a second viewing we couldn't find it

superbagpuss · 04/07/2013 18:19

a result of a split in the marriage

karatekimmi · 04/07/2013 18:29

Erm I was in a very embarrassing situation while viewing an empty house with DP. I hadn't had chance to pop to the loo when leaving for work and really really needed a poo. Well as it was empty I thought I would check the water was on and flushed the toilet, and it worked so I used the toilet. And then tried to flush the toilet ... The water was off, and I had just used the tank of water checking it was on!

The million dollar question is what would you do in that situation?

I made my DP take the blame and ask the EA to turn the water back on. It was very very tempting just to leave without fessing up though!!

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