Dear person who's trying to sell their home, - Page 3

[lucyem]

The worst house I ever saw was owned by a real estate agent. About 1/3 finished, plywood floors, no doors, no front steps just a ladder, filled with clutter, junk, toys, dirty dishes, crazed animals, dirt. She told our agent to show us her house that day. I think she was desperate.

My cousin once was shown a house that had sex toys left out and sexually explicit material and photos all over.

When we sold our house I drove my agent crazy. She has no photograph skills and every one she took was slanted. She took odd photos that made the house look weird. I ended up taking all the photos. I eventually realized the photo taking was a problem with her whole office. I would look at their listings of houses I had seen in person and would be confused as to what I was even looking at.

The photo thing seems wide spread. We had friends selling a house with views of literally almost the entire state. Jaw dropping views. The agent posted photos of the exterior of the house but not one view. The photos were taken on a perfectly clear perfectly beautiful fall day. I cannot even imagine how amazing the view was that day. And yet no view was shown.

[Delicateflower]

Originally Posted by mamagemini

Sure, we’d let our little one crawl around and get burned by the radiator, right? I don’t believe there’s anyway to childproof that.

I don't think they get hot enough to burn you. I'd love a house with radiators. forced air sucks the moisture right out of me.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by mamagemini

I don’t believe there’s anyway to childproof that.

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-...582598,00.html

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by sapphire_chan

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-...582598,00.html

Is that like the best tv show ever made or what I could watch it for hours and droool hehehe.


We just viewed a house for rent and omg... dude was still there moving out (which is fine) and did us all the honour of putting a shirt on at least lol. The agent handed him his notice to vacate while we were there which I thought was bad form on her part... but the house was piled with crap everywhere, which is sad because it would have been a good place.. cept there was no yard. Even if there was I wouldn't have been able to see it cause he was out there smoking on the patio and I had my LO with me.

[kittywitty]

We have been looking at houses pretty much nonstop for a year. One we walked right back out of. The woman who owned it was home. She had at least 50 little dogs, mostly in cages all over the house. The house had plywood and only subflooring for a lot of it, and it smelled so badly of dog doo that we almost vomited. The realtor said he was considering calling the humane society. It was horrible. Most people have been very clean and considerate. I think that one and one other where there were dirty dishes everywhere were the only bad experiences so far.

[chinaKat]

You know, I *love* the cluttered, poorly decorated houses on the market. The more crap stuffed in there, the better. Because I'm really good at seeing beyond the surface and I can always find the potential in a good house with cosmetic issues.

As long as there isn't anything truly disgusting, like pet feces lying around, I can get over it. And since lots of other people can't get past bad wallpaper and shag carpeting, I'll get a good deal on a house nobody else wants to buy.

But, I love fixing stuff up, some people don't care for that.

[Dabble]

Ah that lovelylisting site is hilarious! I love the ones with people in the pictures. Seriously, you couldn't have the person move out of the shot? Crazy.

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by kittywitty

The realtor said he was considering calling the humane society. It was horrible. Most people have been very clean and considerate. I think that one and one other where there were dirty dishes everywhere were the only bad experiences so far.

Considering !?!?! That place sounds like it's not fit for Anyone to live in Sad for both the people and animals

Originally Posted by chinaKat

As long as there isn't anything truly disgusting, like pet feces lying around, I can get over it. And since lots of other people can't get past bad wallpaper and shag carpeting, I'll get a good deal on a house nobody else wants to buy.

Now ugly wallpaper & shag crapet I can live with and even have a good laugh about. I like the fixer upper a bit as well, but I could live without seeing piles of someones dirty undies and such lol. or dinner from 3 days ago

[StrawberryFields]

This thread is great!! Dh and I saw so many nasty and/or weird things when we were house hunting. In one home we peeked behind a large set of heavy drapes to find... no window. Just a regular wall.

Another home had the staircase to the upstairs (where there were bedrooms) in the bathroom, with no door or anything at the bottom or top of the stairs either. OMG could you imagine as a child, having to sit upstairs in your bedroom and wait for your dad to finish taking a poop so you could come down for breakfast? LOL!

Anyway our house, the one we finally settled on. When we went to our showing we actually had to step over kids sleeping on the living room floor. And their teenage daughter was still asleep in one of the bedrooms, too. It was extremely awkward poking around in someone's bedroom while they were asleep right there. We pretty much got in and out with a quickness It was very nasty dirty too, and so nice of them they left the garage piled to the ceiling with crap, bags of food garbage on the curb attracting flies, and dirty laundry behind for us to deal with.

Did I mention they lived here for 15 years and waited until the day before they were supposed to move out to start packing?

Isn't house buying FUN! LOL! :

[~Boudicca~]

A couple years ago my best friend and her fiance were house hunting and one place they looked at was great from the outside but reeked of cigarette smoke on the inside, it was so bad the walls were dingy. Then they checked out the back yard and the above ground pool was green and had snapping turtles in it.

[Danidama]

Originally Posted by ~Boudicca~

Then they checked out the back yard and the above ground pool was green and had snapping turtles in it.

Awesome.

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by ~Boudicca~

Then they checked out the back yard and the above ground pool was green and had snapping turtles in it.

Sweet...comes with it's own nature reserve

[mightymoo]

Originally Posted by StrawberryFields

This thread is great!! Dh and I saw so many nasty and/or weird things when we were house hunting. In one home we peeked behind a large set of heavy drapes to find... no window. Just a regular wall.

Another home had the staircase to the upstairs (where there were bedrooms) in the bathroom, with no door or anything at the bottom or top of the stairs either. OMG could you imagine as a child, having to sit upstairs in your bedroom and wait for your dad to finish taking a poop so you could come down for breakfast? LOL!

Anyway our house, the one we finally settled on. When we went to our showing we actually had to step over kids sleeping on the living room floor. And their teenage daughter was still asleep in one of the bedrooms, too. It was extremely awkward poking around in someone's bedroom while they were asleep right there. We pretty much got in and out with a quickness It was very nasty dirty too, and so nice of them they left the garage piled to the ceiling with crap, bags of food garbage on the curb attracting flies, and dirty laundry behind for us to deal with.

Did I mention they lived here for 15 years and waited until the day before they were supposed to move out to start packing?

Isn't house buying FUN! LOL! :

I think that (staircase) definitely takes the cake! We saw some weird ones when we were looking too - one house had a bathroom between two bedrooms that had a shower and toilet - no sink! My mom had a listing where they built a second full bathroom right next to the first on the first level, despite the fact that the second level where there were bedrooms didn't have a bathroom. They just wanted more bathroom space for their teenage daughters and it was cheapest to build right next to the existing bathroom!

Another one we looked at had put an addition on a 1 story house, the staircase went through the living room (but they were thoughtful enough to make the stairs floating with no risers so you could see through!) and directly at the top of the stairs smack in the middle was the exhaust pipe for the wood burning stove in the living room below.

[Brisen]

Originally Posted by chinaKat

You know, I *love* the cluttered, poorly decorated houses on the market. The more crap stuffed in there, the better. Because I'm really good at seeing beyond the surface and I can always find the potential in a good house with cosmetic issues.

: Though with me, it's more a matter of having no sense of taste when it comes to decorating, so nothing really bothers me. Dh makes the decorating decisions.

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by StrawberryFields

Another home had the staircase to the upstairs (where there were bedrooms) in the bathroom, with no door or anything at the bottom or top of the stairs either. OMG could you imagine as a child, having to sit upstairs in your bedroom and wait for your dad to finish taking a poop so you could come down for breakfast? LOL!

omg how did I miss THAT gem!?! that is some srsly bizarre design lol

[serenetabbie]

We looked at a lot of houses too... for two years we looked! Where we live, there are lots of houses with weird layouts... walk through bedrooms and bathrooms, etc.

One house was so filthy the windows looked like they had been blacked out, and I swear the cobwebs looked like spanish moss hanging off the ceiling. Another had very hostile renters in it (in bed and in their pjs. At noon.), blankets nailed up over the windows and dead bolt locks on all the bedroom doors. Then there was the one with the shower and toilet in the basement and the tub and sink on the second floor. The best one was the one with dead squirrels in the living room. That was awesome.

Good luck finding an house! And thanks to whom ever posted It's Lovely

[PatienceAndLove]

Originally Posted by serenetabbie

We looked at a lot of houses too... for two years we looked! Where we live, there are lots of houses with weird layouts... walk through bedrooms and bathrooms, etc.

One house was so filthy the windows looked like they had been blacked out, and I swear the cobwebs looked like spanish moss hanging off the ceiling. Another had very hostile renters in it (in bed and in their pjs. At noon.), blankets nailed up over the windows and dead bolt locks on all the bedroom doors. Then there was the one with the shower and toilet in the basement and the tub and sink on the second floor. The best one was the one with dead squirrels in the living room. That was awesome.

Good luck finding an house! And thanks to whom ever posted It's Lovely

Sounds like they had been visiting the park...

I'd like to take you now on wings of song, as it were, and try and help you forget perhaps for a while your drab, wretched lives. Here's a song all about spring-time in general, and in particular, about one of the many delightful pastimes the coming of spring affords us all.

Spring is here, a-suh-puh-ring is here.
Life is skittles and life is beer.
I think the loveliest time of the year is the spring.
I do, don't you? 'Course you do.
But there's one thing that makes spring complete for me,
And makes ev'ry Sunday a treat for me.

All the world seems in tune
On a spring afternoon,
When we're poisoning pigeons in the park.
Ev'ry Sunday you'll see
My sweetheart and me,
As we poison the pigeons in the park.

When they see us coming, the birdies all try an' hide,
But they still go for peanuts when coated with cyanide.
The sun's shining bright,
Ev'rything seems all right,
When we're poisoning pigeons in the park.

Lalaalaalalaladoodiedieedoodoodoo

We've gained notoriety,
And caused much anxiety
In the Audubon Society
With our games.
They call it impiety,
And lack of propriety,
And quite a variety
Of unpleasant names.
But it's not against any religion
To want to dispose of a pigeon.

So if Sunday you're free,
Why don't you come with me,
And we'll poison the pigeons in the park.
And maybe we'll do
In a squirrel or two,
While we're poisoning pigeons in the park.

We'll murder them alamid laughter and merriment.
Except for the few we take home to experiment.
My pulse will be quickenin'
With each drop of strychnine
We feed to a pigeon.
It just takes a smidgen!
To poison a pigeon in the park.

[ashleyhaugh]

Originally Posted by CariOfOz

Yes that DOES suck as well. We live in rental homes and at the last place we lived I was sitting drinking a cup of coffee after finally getting the baby to sleep and there's a knock at the door. When I answer it there's a lady standing there saying she saw our house for sale on realestate.com and wanted to know if she could come in and look around!?! Um.. NO!:

The real kicker is we had not even been INFORMED that the house was for sale... I hit that site and there it was. OMG did the agent get an earful!

we had to deal with this last year. dh is in the army, and the people we were renting our house from were army too, and out of state. when we moved in, they told us we'd be responsible for showings when we left. all well and good, the person who showed us the house was super sweet about it, we called her and asked a good time to come by.

when it came time for us to move, the landlords had just moved (driving.... with 5 kids!!!!) from maryland to alaska, and were having major cell phone issues, and staying in on post lodging while waiting for housing.... not to mention the time difference between georgia and alaska, lol. anyway, all that to say that it was our phone number on the for rent sign, because there wasnt a sure way to get in touch with the owners for a while.

i was a sahm, we moved when ds was 9 months old. so many people came and knocked on the door and wanted to walk through it **right then**, that we eventually had to get some cardboard to secure to the for rent sign, as well as put a sign on our door, that said essentially said, please do not knock on the door to ask about the house, call and make an appointment to see it. it was beyond annoying

and poor them, the girl that ended up renting was such a whiner, complaining about everything from the tape we used when we painted and primed for her (which we didnt have to do, we were doing it to help out the owner) to stuff she knew about before she moved in, petty little things. i got an email from the owner a month or so ago saying they had finally managed to evict her, and she trashed the place so bad they had to hire professionals to clean up the place and repaint the entire interior