house hunt hilarity

jenna8984

So we looked at a house tonight. The house itself was great. Then we step in the backyard and What. The. Fuck.

There were all these camp cabins like right there along the edge of the backyard, less than 50 yards from the house, basically in the backyard. We're like uuum? And we see one giant metal building like thisfuckingclose to the property that has a bathroom sign on it. So we go walk around checking it out and between signs and google we find out it's a Christian Bible Camp. And they already have activities booked for this summer.

Now if you haven't figured out by now, DH and I swear a lot and we are athiest so we'd rather that be next door to a check cashing store (TK joke). No offense meant to any Christians, just not for us having their camp (or any camp) in our backyard!
We just thought it was so hilarious and bizarre, even the Realtor was like "well that's a new one".

JoanE2012

hahaha!  I learned early on in the house hunting process to look at VirtualEarth first before going to look at a house in person.  Especially when the house price looks just a tad too good to be true.  Then I'd see it backs up to a river (flooding!) or there are high tension power lines or a business/school or whatever. 

jenna8984

We totally google stalk every house and this one just looked like all woods from the aerial view! You couldn't see any of the cabins haha

theartistformerlyknownas

JoanE2012 said:

hahaha!  I learned early on in the house hunting process to look at VirtualEarth first before going to look at a house in person.  Especially when the house price looks just a tad too good to be true.  Then I'd see it backs up to a river (flooding!) or there are high tension power lines or a business/school or whatever. 

I did a lot of this too with Google Earth. Great houses backing up to the freeway, a high school, or just REALLY creepy looking rundown houses next door. Newp.

sarahufl

oh yeah, Google Maps is your friend when house hunting. Especially for us- we were only looking for homes within a 15 minute or less walk to the train station. This was non-negotiable for us because we commute into the city every day and we wanted to be able to walk to the train.

SO MANY houses said "walking distance to train" or "close to train" or "commuters dream". Then, when you mapped them it turned out they were 30 minutes away, or a 10 minute drive, or just a generally horrible walk.

We wouldn't even go look at those.

[Deleted User]

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novella1186

When we were house hunting, we went into a basement of one house and the entire basement was taken up by a huge blow-up bounce house, and it was full of those big plastic balls (like for ball pits). We started laughing, looked at each other and said "SOLD!" 

jenna8984

novella1186 said:

When we were house hunting, we went into a basement of one house and the entire basement was taken up by a huge blow-up bounce house, and it was full of those big plastic balls (like for ball pits). We started laughing, looked at each other and said "SOLD!" 

lol that's pretty bizarre!!

My mom joked that it was like the Simpson where you hear fast foot steps, car door slam, and tires screech haha

southernbelle0915

The strangest house we ever viewed was a grow house. 

A really pretty, story book looking house with a stone front porch and big wooden beams. The front door had about 10 locks on it, security cameras EVERYWHERE, motion sensors, alarms, a giant control panel in the master bedroom... We were like "oooook.. these people are super paranoid.." 

Then we went into the basement. A massive ventilation system, and a concrete room with steel doors and steel beams with hanging chains and a bunch of lights hanging from the ceiling. A generator venting to the outside. A little room with a gun safe, a mattress on the floor and a toilet/sink were right next to the door.

We honestly didn't buy it because we were freaked out that some old crime boss wouldn't realize it had been sold and would come in looking for drugs.

[Deleted User]

When FI and I were house hunting, we went in to tour a house that our realtor picked out...  We only had pictures of the outside, which was nicely taken care of, but we liked the area so decided to check it out.

The man that lived there apparently decided not to leave for the showing, and was like just sitting on the couch watching TV (and was only wearing an undershirt and boxers).   He just grunted and nodded at us when we walked in... 

It looked like a hoarder lived there... there was carpet on the walls in one room, and the majority of the other rooms were warped dark wood paneling.

Couldn't get out of there fast enough, and never looked at a house without pictures ever again.

jenna8984

@southernbelle0915 & @alisonm23 oh my god, those are both super crazy and ridiculous!!!

kvruns

novella1186 said:

When we were house hunting, we went into a basement of one house and the entire basement was taken up by a huge blow-up bounce house, and it was full of those big plastic balls (like for ball pits). We started laughing, looked at each other and said "SOLD!" 

That would be awesome!  I saw a house online one time that had a slide from the main level to the basement - told FI our next house had to have one of those

classicalandedgy

Years ago when I was house hunting, we looked at a house that somehow abutted another normal looking house except the yard was filled with semi trucks and trailers.

No thanks, can you imagine going into your yard for a nice barbeque and someone fires one of those babies up, much less having to look at them.

 

 

thisismynickname2

These stories are crazy!

When I was looking for a condo, I checked out a spacious garden unit. I was attracted to pictures of the living area with built in book shelves. Well, there was no picture of the kitchen on the listing. 

Because it was hot pink. Hot pink formica everywhere. Pink cabinets. (And a wine fridge.) 

I wasn't in a position to buy and plow $50k into a gut rehab, so... no. 

lovemesomemonster

kvruns said:

novella1186 said:

When we were house hunting, we went into a basement of one house and the entire basement was taken up by a huge blow-up bounce house, and it was full of those big plastic balls (like for ball pits). We started laughing, looked at each other and said "SOLD!" 

That would be awesome!  I saw a house online one time that had a slide from the main level to the basement - told FI our next house had to have one of those

This is AWESOME! Now I need to figure out how to install ASAP! 

We looked at a house when we were buying our first one that was on a great lot in a perfect part of town. As soon as we got there we realized it was "Santa's" house (the guy was the best Santa in town and his wife played Mrs. Clause). Then it made us sad because Santa lost his house to a foreclosure after Mrs. Clause divorced him.. The inside was painted red and green and was the strangest house I have ever seen. The floors were at different levels in each room and it would have been a knock it down and start over house!

novella1186

thisismynickname said:

These stories are crazy!

When I was looking for a condo, I checked out a spacious garden unit. I was attracted to pictures of the living area with built in book shelves. Well, there was no picture of the kitchen on the listing. 

Because it was hot pink. Hot pink formica everywhere. Pink cabinets. (And a wine fridge.) 

I wasn't in a position to buy and plow $50k into a gut rehab, so... no. 

Yeah pictures can be super misleading. 

I fell in love with one house via pictures. It had these amazing round windows with really beautiful trim, huge skylights, all these awesome unique features, etc. I was absolutely convinced that that was the house we would buy. 

We get there, and the layout absolutely sucks. It was so bizarre how the rooms were. The master bathroom had no door, and had a weird arch so to even put a door on you would have to tear down the arch and re-frame it and whatnot. The master bedroom had no closet. You had to walk through a "sitting" room and then into the no-door bathroom and then around a weird corner thing. And the house had been sitting empty for several years so the carpet was all mildewed and rotting, most of the fixtures were rotted, and tons of stuff needed to be replaced. 

To top it all off, we go down the basement and as the real estate agent is talking to FI, I start wandering around and hear running water, like a waterfall. I get back to the utility room, and there is a shit ton of water gushing down the wall from something that broke. Perfect. 

Also, the backyard really sucked. 

More than a year later, that house is still on the market. Wonder why. 

blabla89

That is super weird!

Our condo is right down the street from a HUGE church. Whenever they have services there's a never ending line of cars that goes past. And I hate to say it, but the churchgoers aren't especially nice about stopping to let people pull out of the driveway. FI said he didn't know about it when he bought the place, and I was surprised he wasn't familiar with this particular church. It's usually only a problem on Sundays and Wednesday nights, though.
ETA details

jenna8984

my brother just posted this on my FB. I'm dying haha

Belthil

AlisonM23 said:

When FI and I were house hunting, we went in to tour a house that our realtor picked out...  We only had pictures of the outside, which was nicely taken care of, but we liked the area so decided to check it out.

The man that lived there apparently decided not to leave for the showing, and was like just sitting on the couch watching TV (and was only wearing an undershirt and boxers).   He just grunted and nodded at us when we walked in... 

It looked like a hoarder lived there... there was carpet on the walls in one room, and the majority of the other rooms were warped dark wood paneling.

Couldn't get out of there fast enough, and never looked at a house without pictures ever again.

H and I had almost the exact same experience, except it was three generations of women all watching us and the TV. We had to walk through a tiny path among the piles of stuff to get down to the basement. The foundation looked like it was going to collapse at any time so it was an immediate no. I felt kinda bad because the little girl (like 8 years old) seemed really excited to show us her room but we couldn't get out soon enough