Weird open homes

[Propertunity]

I think Jax and Prop will have seen some fun things....

I guess we get to look at more than our 'fair share' - many 1,000's of inspections all up.

Memorable ones:
One guy asleep on a mattress on the bedroom floor with 3 other women with him. This was a 1:00pm Open and because I knew the agent, I went in with him to 'open up'

A double storey house that had a padlocked door downstairs for all the Opens / inspections. When P&B inspector came to do his thing, tenant magically found the key (after the inspector pulled out his trusty screwdriver to beak in). Found shelf after shelf of snakes in glass aquariums, along with mice being bred presumably to feed them. The P&B guy found a live termite nest.

Had a few where you get more than you bargain for. Dirty places where you come away with 100's of fleas biting your legs.

Also a couple where the agent strategically places laminated A4 sheets on the floor, stating "DO NOT STEP HERE". Typically these are terraces in the Inner East or Inner West, where we are looking for 'potential to renovate'. The risk being that you may fall through the floor at that point.

I'm sure some more will spring to mind

 

[cmason]

One place we were looking at the agent said the tenant was out but he had a key. We walk in and I could here a shower promptly followed by a female wrapped in a towel walking out saying what the hell is going on. Quick discussion between tenant and agent discovers there was a miscommunication between reception and the tenant. We just wanted to go so the tenant could finish her shower in peace but she kindly let us walk through except for the bathroom.

Another one in the same area had about ten eighteen to twenty year olds recovering from a big night. Some rooms still had sleeping people, a table in the lounge was covered in empty cans and bottles and there was a couple of blokes out the back having Sunday morning recovery with a few cans

 

[Kamak]

Called agent and arranged for an inspection, wasnt a open...

Place was tenanted with a young guy, had about 3 wrecked cars out the back, 1 defected car out the front next to another car. Out the back had 2 massive dogs.

Beside that place was kept pretty clean, tenant was paying $300p/w (prob due to age and dogs, was above market rent)

Property had been on the market for a while actually, pretty sure the tenant and his cars/dogs would scare alot of buyers off.


hrmmm maybe I should look back at this property asking price was ~$240k

Had a tenant like that in Bendigo plus the cars coming and going all day and night and only staying a couple minutes. They never once complained about anything and I really didnt care what they were up to. Bongs etc in the lounge rooms during inspections was the norm.

Had a DA for demo and 3 townhouses knocked back for the place after the nieghbours kicked up even though it was in full compliance and we were headed off to VCAT. I told the neighbor giving me the most grief that if the development didn't happen I'd leave the guy in there forever. Went to VCAT, won then waited to sell it all the while nothing changed. 12 months went by, tenent stayed, neighbor left so sometimes those guys arent all bad

 

[Ed Barton]

Tenants sleeping
Tenants showering.
Tenants mowing the lawn.

But the best was a rather large middle aged couple sitting in the lounge room chain smoking. him in a pair of y fronts and her in bra and panties (at least I think she was wearing panties, her gut was obstructing the view and I didn't look to closely)

 

[wylie]

But the best was a rather large middle aged couple sitting in the lounge room chain smoking. him in a pair of y fronts and her in bra and panties (at least I think she was wearing panties, her gut was obstructing the view and I didn't look to closely)

Thanks for the chuckle... but I wish I hadn't read that (and the mental picture reading it conjured up) so soon after brekky .

But... ain't love grand. They both probably think the other is looking "mighty fine" in their reggies .

 

[Jacque]

Geez I could tell you some stories but not all of them would be family friendly

Like Prop, I've seen sufficient to last me a lifetime and nothing really surprises me anymore. Besides the obvious grotty tenants, filth, vomit, drugs, doggy-doo and dry-retching aromas and smells that I've had to put up with at various times, I've encountered ALL sorts of animals, including snakes, ferrets, giant roaches (in tanks), rabid dogs and numerous cats and rodents, of course No dog bites to date, but I've had a couple of close calls and naturally several trousers damaged from enthusiastic scratching!

Tenants (and owners teenagers) doing all of the above and I even left one house when it became obvious that two of the inhabitants were about to become physically violent with one another.

I've encountered padlocks, rooms with stuff up to the ceilings (hoarders), bongs in bedrooms, illegal drug-making equipment in bathrooms, sex toys in places that probably weren't appropriate as well as some pretty explicit graffiti (yes, inside on bedroom walls) and graphic porn posters (you should have seen the garage that bikie tenants were renting OMG- it was enough to make me and the male agent blush!)

But I've got to say the best and most memorable actual OFI was one in Brissy that I attended many years ago (albeit in a slow market!)- I arrived to find the house open, the agent in a sleeping sitting position on the front lounge, with his clipboard on his lap and the owners dog stretched out asleep next to him. It was certainly a site to behold!

 

[depreciator]

Our quantity inspectors have encountered some odd ones, too.

When I got the keys for the first house I bought for myself and let myself in the front door, I could smell the dope plants immediately.

They were in the back room upstairs.

About a dozen of them - chest high. All with big heads. Beautiful plants.

I had spoken to the previous owner so I gave him a call and asked him if there was anything he was missing when he unpacked at his new place.

He said he had moved out during daylight and didn't want to carry them down the street into the removalist van.

He said, 'I guess they're yours now.'

But I knew there would have been people who knew him and knew the plants were there and might come looking for them.

So I harvested them and put them in garbage bags and he and we met up in a dark back street in Erskinville so I could hand them over.

 

[Sheryn]

Nothing memorable comes to mind but I did read the following article the other day and had to chuckle...

http://www.northernstar.com.au/story/2012/09/14/real-estate-agents-wild-inspection-client-snake/

Cheers
Sheryn

 

[Peter_Tersteeg]

One of my more memorable inspections involved the door being answered by an attractive goth chick in corset & stockings.

I've also seen more than my share of hydroponic setups as well.

 

[Graemsay]

Not an open house story, but when I signed a lease for an apartment in the Netherlands there was a clause in the contract that I wasn't to grow cannabis!

 

[geoffw]

Not an open house story, but when I signed a lease for an apartment in the Netherlands there was a clause in the contract that I wasn't to grow cannabis!

The house we owned in England, built in 1890, had a clause stipulating that we would never sell spiritous liquors from the premises.

 

[saiman]

went to a house in carlingford where the owner had mental issues and was a serial compulsive hoarder

floor to ceiling piled high with newspapers and magazines from years and years ago with only a tiny walkway through each room. Bathroom and kitchen was pitch black full of grime and old wet newspapers, whole "house" had not been cleaned or maintained for what looked like decades...funnily enough it didnt smell really that bad!