What's your funny or weird story about a property viewing?

Posted by BarryFairbrother@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 137 comments

I love these anecdote-based Q&As on this sub. What's a weird, funny or somehow otherwise notable experience you've had when viewing a property (to rent or to buy) or when you are the person whose property is being visited by prospective takers? Weird agents? Weird prospective buyers/sellers? Bizarre requests/criticisms/needs? Strange items left visible? Mine is probably fairly tame - I once visited a rental where the outgoing tenant had printed and framed dozens of his payslips and hung them up on the wall.

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Own-Presence7397@reddit

My story is boring. My wife and I went to see the house we are living in now. The previous owner showed us around and we eventually came to the kitchen with patio doors over looking the garden, all very nice. The owner said go outside and have a look. We could see the whole garden so politely declined. She kept insisting "No really go out and have a look" "No thats fine we have seen everything we need to. " She then opens the door and literally pushes us out into the garden telling us to a look at it. So we quickly walked around and then left.

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Red9zero@reddit

Went to view a house where the seller collected empty fire extinguishers. They were everywhere, in cupboards, under the stairs, behind the sofa, the garage was full of them. We were assured they would be removed before sale. We passed.

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BarryFairbrother@reddit (OP)

I guess it would pass the safety checks at least.

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Successful_Bee7522@reddit

Been house hunting around london recently and seen some wild things. Saw a two bedroom property where the ONLY toilet was an en suite in the master bedroom, so if you had guest staying who needed the bathroom in the middle of the night they would have to cross into the main bedroom for a week. Places where the bathtub has been just off the kitchen which seemed odd no sure why. A place with a bedroom in the roof eaves so you would never be able to stand up straight. A place advertising it had a balcony which in reality was just the rooftop of the store underneath. A place where the structural beam was in the dead center of the living room, dead between where the sofa and tv would need to be.

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Xaphios@reddit

Bathroom off the kitchen is pretty common. Old places where the plumbing was originally outside. Then a kitchen is added, maybe with an outside loo. Once that's done you've pretty much set the position of the main drain, and that limits where you can put a loo, basin, bath, or shower. Particularly in older places you've got maybe 2 or 3 bedrooms so you don't want to lose one. The drainage is at the back. Adding a 2 storey extension is expensive and blocks the light to a bedroom, and before indoor baths people were used to filling a tin bath downstairs and probably using an outside loo anyway so it was a normal thing to have it all downstairs.

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OneRandomTeaDrinker@reddit

Yeah I’ve got one and I think it makes the most sense for my street. Two up two down with a decent size square yard. There are various options people have done: Two story rear extension, kitchen downstairs bathroom upstairs, but you lose width of the already small back bedroom to add a corridor. Single story rear extension, lose most of the yard, have both kitchen and bathroom downstairs Single story bathroom extension, kitchen remains in original place under back bedroom (no dining room). No extension, partition back bedroom into a very small single and a very small bathroom. Neighbours have done various combinations of the above and I do genuinely think option 3 makes the most sense, closely followed by option 4. Two good size double bedrooms is more useful to me than a double and a single.

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Miss_Type@reddit

I really need to know if you had to cross the main bedroom for a week or for a wee.

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Successful_Bee7522@reddit

Haha wee

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Miss_Type@reddit

Thank god!

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General-Bumblebee180@reddit

when I was living in London in the 1980s, there were still council houses which had bathtub in middle of kitchen, with lid on top to make it into a dining table

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Cool_Doubt2152@reddit

London is a Wild West when it comes to house viewings honestly

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bopeepsheep@reddit

Bathtub off the kitchen is a "bathroom built after house" issue, often. It would have had an outside loo originally. If newer, it's probably about the plumbing logistics. We seem to have collectively agreed that houses *must* have upstairs indoors bathrooms around 1948. (They do exist before that, but rather hit and miss.)

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CarpeCyprinidae@reddit

My whole street were built as 3 bedroom, downstairs half-width bathroom and half-width kitchen, and open-plan front room 90% of them at some point got redone to have full width downstairs kitchen, upstairs bathroom where the smallest bedroom was, and 2 bedrooms - normally also with an extension a ground floor

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bopeepsheep@reddit

Yup, I lived in one of these 1930s builds - ours had the upstairs bathroom conversion ("too big" according to partner's mother, but the downstairs ones seemed poky to me!).

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Historical_Project86@reddit

A lot of houses we saw in Reading were "2+1", I think the idea was that the nursery would be the +1 and was only accessible from the main bedroom. It was surprising how many houses we saw where the upstairs bathroom was now that "+1" room.

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Careful_Software7232@reddit

Years ago I saw a house that had online pictures of an inflatable hot tub in one room 🙃 just that, right in the middle of the room! It had been up for sale for 6 months or so, guess the owners used it now and then and it was just there when the pictures were taken. Wife and I decided that the house was in a nice area and thought "what the heck? Let's view it anyway". Start going through the house, nicely presented then walk through the door and "Bam" inflatable hot tub still centre stage 😆 bent my brain 7 ways from Sunday 🤪

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zeewesty@reddit

Lone woman in her late fifties, early sixties showed us round her house. "Sisters are doing it for themselves" playing on repeat, throughout the entire viewing, at a volume which made asking questions tricky.

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CwningenFach@reddit

I went to view a house where there was a toilet plumbed into the main bedroom. It wasn't in a room adjoining the bedroom. It wasn't even in a cubicle. It was just plumbed into the middle of the bedroom

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gherkinassassin@reddit

We turned up outside the house at 9am and had to wait 5 mins for the agent. He arrived in his freshly scratched and dinged up car, in his clubbing clothes, and coked out of his mind. We then entered the house together. It looked nothing like the photos at all. The family of 3 were there. It became obvious the parents were getting divorced and the wife had, or really wanted to, have sex with the agent. The husband was into it but appeared to have been sidelined....or something!?! They then started a conversation about about serial killers and finished off talking about how shit the house was and all the things they would change if they were the ones buying it. Their lovely little 5 year old daughter showed us around the house and asked to play with us in her room. When we left, the agent fell down the last 3 stairs and wrecked his shiny black waistcoat and shiny black trousers. He was openly swearing. His car wouldn't start so I gave him a push

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First-Lengthiness-16@reddit

I once viewed the property of Barry Fry (well my dad did, I was there too). He had an open copy of his own autobiography on his bedside table

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BarryFairbrother@reddit (OP)

An underrated legend of the game!

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CrossCityLine@reddit

I love stuff liked this. I worked at Smiths at Brum Airport when I’d just got out of school and sold Quentin Wilson a copy of a magazine with his own face on the cover 😂

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Parking_Doughnut_453@reddit

My sister worked at an airport our price. Helena Christensen came in and picked up Kylies CD. At the time Michael Hutchison had just dumped kylie for her. She didn’t actually buy the CD.

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saq2k@reddit

Was his name J.R Heartly?

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vipros42@reddit

When my parents were selling our old family home, they had gone away over Easter weekend with a viewing happening while they were away. I came home with my girlfriend on Easter Sunday to find that the estate agent had locked the outer front door which to my knowledge had never been locked in the 20-odd years we had lived there so obviously I didn't have a key. We had family friends living next door so I had to go and disturb their large Easter lunch gathering to borrow a long ladder because I never locked my bedroom window. After sending my girlfriend up the ladder and through the window we got in and our neighbour was like "right now have you got enough wine?" and gave us a couple of bottles.

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BarryFairbrother@reddit (OP)

I love this neighbourliness!

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clickyclicky456@reddit

Viewed a house we were considering buying. We were shown around all the rooms by the current owner, who did not appear to be at all embarrassed about showing his teenage son's ~~bedroom~~ wank dungeon. All black room, walls, ceiling, bedding... with the walls covered in posters of naked women 😳😳

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anabsentfriend@reddit

I have a great one. I've mentioned it before so apologies to anyone who remembers it. I was a CSI. I was attending a serious assault between two neighbours. Four storey house. Man A in 3rd floor flat was annoyed by noise coming from upstairs, so confronted Man B on 4th floor with a knife. Man B was a drug dealer and as they do, kept a baseball bat behind the door. An 'altercation' ensued and both A&B end up with serious injuries. Blood everywhere. Man A runs out of house and up the road leaving a trail of blood. Dropped knife. Police and ambulance called. I attended to conduct an examination. Wearing usual CSI gear, mask, hood, gloves etc. Recover huge blood stained knife and put it in a clear tube. Walking down to ground floor to put it in my van when the front door opens. Estate agent with young prospective flat buyer and his mum coming to view ground floor flat. They come to a halt in the hallway, agog. I stare back holding bloody knife in front of me. I just remember saying 'I'd probably give this one a miss'. They all shrunk back outside like Homer disappearing into the hedge. I always wonder what conversation they had afterwards.

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hunsnet457@reddit

Went to a flat viewing a few years back where the agent just let me into the flat then stood outside, didn’t say a word and just left me to my own devices in this already occupied flat. They also had dozens and dozens of entry wristbands to a nightclub that I worked at stuck to their walls, easily 80+ of them. That same week I went to view another place and they showed me the wrong flat. That wasn’t managed by their company. Then when he realised he used the exact same keys to get entry to the correct flat…

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over-it2989@reddit

Moved to Canada and were looking at acreages. We found one going for stupidly cheap ($90k) on 5 acres of land with access to a private lake. We thought it was cheap because it was a trailer as they’re hard to sell. Nope. Main bedroom: mirror on the ceiling above the bed. Behind the head of the bed was a window. On the other side of the window was a hot tub. Every other room had mirrored ceilings too. Out the back was a swimming pool with a wrap around deck. They’d built a shower/changing block without doors and a bar/karaoke space to one side. Attached to the far side of the pool/deck was another trailer which wasn’t mentioned (neither was the pool) with windows running along the whole side of the building facing the pool. Inside: SIX double beds laid side by side to create one ginormous orgy bed where observers could watch from the deck. The bin was still full of used condoms. Turns out it was a notorious swinger house that had been foreclosed on and so the bank were selling it as-is with all of the furnishings. Our agent only agreed to show us the place because he wanted to see it for himself due to the local legend surrounding it.

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Tango91@reddit

Went to see a rental place in Plymouth, Eastern European lettings agent drove us from the letting office in a little Vauxhall agila or some such POS tinfoil econobox. Lovely guy but should not have been on the road and nearly got into serious crashes a couple of times. We got a bus home, he couldn’t grasp why we didn’t want a lift

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cantsleepclownswillg@reddit

Two within a week of each other3 Looked at a house and it was... sort of ok in the "needs a lot of work" sense. But there was something odd about the floor... it... moved. A lot. Like being at sea. Eventually figured out the current owners had out mandate floor down over \*thick\* shag pile carpet. Second one a few days later.. Arrived to look around and there was blood \*all over\* the walls, up to about low chest height. All we could figure was that the dogs that there was evidence of in the house spent a \*lot\* of time fighting..

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GodDamnShadowban@reddit

My old black lad wagged his tail so much and so hard he regularly cut the tip open. He sprayed most the place with spotty red lines and thought us chasing him to try and bandage it was the best fun ever. We made peace with the extra cleaning, much to his disappointment.

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Xaphios@reddit

Wouldn't make the amount you've suggested, but you brought back a memory: The retriever we had about 15 years ago used to wag his tail so hard he'd occasionally cut it on the end of the radiator in the hall. Then we'd get spatters of blood at waist height all through the ground floor! Daft as a brush, he never noticed.

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cantsleepclownswillg@reddit

Ah, yes, happy tail syndrome! I've had to dock the tails of two spaniels because of this! Once came home to a living room that looked like the scene of a grizzly decapitation murder!

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Could_not_decide@reddit

I feel like people are focusing on the blood splatter and not the far more concerning and frightening laminate over thick carpet

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cantsleepclownswillg@reddit

I've got to tell you, it nearly broke my brain.. I mean, what is the thought process that makes you think this is a good idea?... It wasn't even like a small area... it was the entire living room... And what was hilarious was after like five minutes when my brain had sort of unlocked and figured out what was going on, I turned to the EA and said "Errrr..." and they sighed and looked defeated and said "Yeah, you're going to ask about the floor..." and just sort of shrugged... 🤣🤣🤣

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Sburns85@reddit

You would hope its dog. A friend of mine was looking at renting a flat and seen a large old blood stain outside a window. Found out someone had jumped from the flat he was looking at while high on drugs

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cantsleepclownswillg@reddit

😳

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Kvark33@reddit

When we were in uni, estate agents did a viewing for a flat, must of been 20-30 people there. The estate agent asked everyone to go outside and handed a piece of paper to a representative from each group of pair. They then said 'The first person to get this to our office gets the flat... GO'. It was like something from hunger games. We got the flat.

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BabyinAjar@reddit

Almost exact same thing happened to me. But the rule was that the 'running' would only start after the letting agent had locked the front door and taken the key out for some reason. They'd been doing viewings for a couple of hours so there were around 60+ students all loitering on the street outside who had come for an earlier viewing and were waiting for the letting agent to let the games begin. We didn't get that flat.

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Snoo-84389@reddit

How many of the other Tributes did you have to kill to win?

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Kvark33@reddit

Only 2, the others tried taxis or gave up

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Master_of_Ocelots@reddit

Had something similar as students but with slight differences. The landlord was in his very posh car in the driveway. His son got out, came round to the passenger door, in which the window wound down an inch. He leant down as the landlord told him something, then stood back up and announced to the 30 odd students milling that the first group to get the £1500 deposit to him in cash would get the house. The nearest banks were about a 20 minute brisk walk away. Almost all of us laughed and just walked off. Some didn't. I always saw it as a test, finding people that were willing to put up with that level of crap. We reported him to the University (he was on their "approved" list) who told us that "the method by which a landlord decides who to offer a property to is not within our remit" (or words to that effect).

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OkTechnician4610@reddit

We saw a house a while ago. Very b& q matching decoration apart from son’s room. It was dark purple with a massive poster of Jesus with a huge cone split. & I mean massive poster about 6ft x 6ft above the bed. The parents seemed very strait laced & apologised for the room decor. It was very amusing. We didn’t buy it as it had stream at bottom of garden & I knew that area flooded.

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Interesting_Annual81@reddit

We went to view a house that had tenants in situ, and the estate agent opened the door to one bedroom and we strolled in, then the bed started moving and we noticed a sleepy 20-something year old was still in it…! Also had one hilarious estate agent who blasted rap music and told funny partying stories while he drove us from viewing to viewing. Most agents suck, but I remember him fondly.

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IOnlyUpvoteBadPuns@reddit

I had an agent adamant that an 800mm high bedroom door on a loft conversion was completely legit, met building regs, and had full building control approval.

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n0p_sled@reddit

Did you have to crawl through?

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IOnlyUpvoteBadPuns@reddit

It was literally a hands and knees job. I felt like I was in Alice in wonderland

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n0p_sled@reddit

"I mean, what am I?... fucking Noddy??!" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FBsqKPdOUk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FBsqKPdOUk)

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b-roc@reddit

The estate agent showed me around a rental. I spotted some nail clippings and pointed them out to which she said "sorry about that. They'll be cleared before you move in". So I asked her what the weirdest thing she'd ever seen post-rental was and she replied: "This one guy left tissues everywhere. On the dressers, in drawers, on the sofa. The apartment was covered". Naturally I asked: "were they used?" She responded: "yes" And I, hesitantly, asked: "...for what" And Shakira (that was her name) looked me dead in the eye and just said: "Cum". And then there was the time an estate agent told us that she could picture herself taking a shower in my bathroom after a steamy night with me.

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Menacegoose@reddit

I went to view a rental, I wasn’t particularly hopeful because the outside pics of the property looked like there were a lot of bottles piled up in the kitchen but we were getting desperate. I get there, it’s a pretty cute house on the edge of a big field. I notice that the door is wide open as are all of the windows. The estate agent meets me at the door and gives me a bit of a spiel before I go in. Immediately I am hit with the strong smell of vinegar and cleaning products and then I look down and I see a huge brown, rotten looking, about 5 and a half foot long stain I ask the estate agent what it is He says ‘ oh the landlord is going to re do the floor before someone moves in 🙂’ I say ‘ okay good to know, what is it though.’ He says ‘ it’s okay the landlord is going to re do the carpets upstairs too’ 🙂 Was in there for about 5 minutes, upstairs was rank and didn’t even have a working shower. I tried my luck one last time before I left but was brushed off again by estate agent. My clothes and hair stunk so bad when I left that I had a whole body hair wash shower and washed all the clothes I was wearing.

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TheToolman04@reddit

Defo was a body there...

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Menacegoose@reddit

Yeah… I wonder if it was the previous tenant tbh

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bacon_cake@reddit

Mine is really mediocre compared to these but we viewed a flat, loved it, bought it. Moved in, stood on the balcony, turned 30 degrees the other way and discovered there was a sea view. We were pretty nervous first time buyers and didn't *really* look properly but the fact the agent never once mentioned a sea view baffled me. Turns out he'd never been there before.

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djfnejdijRandom@reddit

This was so nice to read given how grim some of the other stories were!

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Euphoric_Wish_8293@reddit

I went to one once, the agent was already on the drive in his car. We approached, waved, he just....stared at me, direct eye-contact, unwavering, for around 2 minutes (it's hard to tell, time was moving so strangely). I couldn't believe it, honestly. I've never before, or since, looked another man in the eyes, unblinking, for that long. By this point I was invested, and I refused to look away. My wife didn't know what the fuck was going on, just watching me and a stranger staring at eachother in silence. Anyway, he eventually broke eye contact, wound down his window, and told us the door was open, then wound it up again. I walked around the (nice) house for about five minutes, then left and refused to make an offer out of spite.

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BarryFairbrother@reddit (OP)

After the end of the first paragraph, I was wondering if you'd say the agent was dead in his car!

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Euphoric_Wish_8293@reddit

Dead inside, maybe. It was so surreal. Not only the staredown, but the utter fucking gall of the man not to even show us around, and you know, do his job. Fucking oddball.

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Sad_Cardiologist5388@reddit

I looked at a lot of houses when we were buying, I never got showed around anywhere they just unlocked it and said go for it. I thought that guided stereotypical house viewing thing must be an american thing because it never happened to us

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remwreck@reddit

Every viewing Ive had the EA has been about 2ft away at every step, commenting on the usual keywords (stating the obvious).

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Sad_Cardiologist5388@reddit

Im in Yorkshire maybe its a northern thing

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BoredReceptionist1@reddit

I'm in Yorkshire, I've always had them follow me closely round the house

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Sad_Cardiologist5388@reddit

Well maybe its me :-P

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El_John_Nada@reddit

I feel there's a massive difference between unlocking the door but staying in the house in case you have a question (they probably don't know the answer to, but that's another issue) and not even pretending to do their job.

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Jordlr99@reddit

They are meant to escort you around to make sure you dont go robbing anything and to answer any questions you may have. If tou ask for a acout around after to discuss then they may leave you unattended but to not even enter the house is pure lazyness and unprofessional.

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Sad_Cardiologist5388@reddit

Sounds like its an Estate agent in my local area thing then! In my life ive probably looked around 30 properties either to rent or buy and ive never experienced that guided tour with them spouting all kinds of stuff about the rooms.

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IntrepidMaybe8579@reddit

😂😂 maybe in his perspective you both had the most romantic love at first site moment and you didnt tell him you love him so he ignored you out of spite

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NecroVelcro@reddit

He was preemptively judging you for typing "[each other](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/each%20other)" as a compound word.

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blitzwig@reddit

I prefer 'pre-emptively' myself, 'preemptively' is more common in American English.

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callisstaa@reddit

Yeah they should of used a space.

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Euphoric_Wish_8293@reddit

Your a compound word.

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BCBUK@reddit

About 15 years ago I was looking for an apartment to rent when first moving out of home. Was viewing this building and the estate agent was showing me around, I’d already peed them off by noticing their blurb was full of lies. I’d asked about any rules in the building and he said absolutely no pets were allowed, then opened the door to the second bedroom which had been turned into a giant rabbit hutch with 2 big bunnies looking seriously confused. The timing was impeccable

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Luton_Enjoyer@reddit

I viewed a flat that was furnished and the tenant wasn't in. They'd left a vibrator in a cupboard.

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CeaselessWatcher00@reddit

Viewed a rental property where the landlord had basically got about 20 litres of white paint and painted everything in sight. He'd painted cupboard doors and windows shut, gone over aerial cables, you name it. He'd also painted round some large furniture rather than move it. The carpet was covered in paint splatters and the house was also really dirty (he'd clearly not cleaned before painting and just painted over everything. In photos the house looked passable. But it really wasn't. Definitely the sort of place you wipe your feet on the way out! And of course he was asking about £1200 a month for it.

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Klutzy_Ad_8886@reddit

Ah the landlord treatment ✨

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sapphire-sky-dragon@reddit

Landlord special

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mata_dan@reddit

Surely also painted over the water stop if it even had one, and somehow expect to still be insured...

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Isgortio@reddit

I went to view a flat that was being sold for £30k (not auction). That price would've been perfect for me at the time, no mortgage! The guy inside of the flat was, something. The place was an absolute mess, he pinned towels up in place of curtains, the bathroom was falling apart, the kitchen was tiny and messy, and there was a cupboard held shut with a screwdriver wedged in between the door and the frame which he called "the crap cupboard". The guy told me "Asda is just up the road!" and pointed down the street out of the window, as though it was a short walk away (it's actually 3 miles away, and there are closer shops and supermarkets). Afterwards, the estate agent pulled me aside and said "please don't buy this place. It's a shit hole" lmao.

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Cool_Doubt2152@reddit

Viewed a ‘5 bed’ house in London (house share with 4 other girls), the estate agent showed us round but there were only 4 bedrooms. Asked where the 5th one was and he said ‘so the biggest bedroom can be made into 2 rooms with a partition wall’ but that would have meant you needed to walk through someone else’s bedroom to get out Like uhhhh no dude. I like my friends but not that much

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Savings-Lemon5901@reddit

There's the one with the sticky floor and sticky handrail which I touched before I realised how bad it was. Wipe your feet on the way out. One where, at the top of the stairs, the slope from subsidence sent you flying into the hall wall. This also had a very sunken garden with a huge deep well. Best one was a main house with a, only slightly, smaller bungalow built in the garden. His son lived in there and seemed to think he was staying when it was sold. The house had a balcony held up with 2x4s and acrows. It had a crooked chimney due to a window being it the way of the stack going up straight?

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Munchkinpea@reddit

A couple of decades ago I was selling my flat and one of the estate agents was obsessed with a painting I had in my bedroom. I swear she spent more time talking to prospective buyers about the painting than about everything else combined.

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Mumlife8628@reddit

What was the painting off

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Away_Swim1967@reddit

Op legs akimbo

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Mumlife8628@reddit

Lmao imagine

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Munchkinpea@reddit

Please do not imagine that 🫣 It was (still is) a painting of Eleanor of Aquitaine.

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Iminawideopenspace@reddit

We viewed an empty property recently. No furniture inside, just a few bits and bobs, and a framed black and white picture in the living room of the lady that lived there before she died. We explored the whole house, all 3 bedrooms, and decided to go and look at the main bedroom again before leaving. There was now a Polaroid picture of said lady in the middle of the bedroom floor by the door. Now, 3 of us had been in that room minutes before, and there was definitely no picture on the floor. I know it probably got knocked off of a shelf as we left the room or something, but having a picture of a dead lady looking up at you in a strange empty is quite unnerving! Needless to say we didn’t put an offer in.

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MoshizZ@reddit

Once went to a house to view and the woman showing us didn’t seem overly interested. I pointed out, jokingly that a light switch was wonky and she said “yep, that’ll be my husband. Did most the electrical work in the house but he sure does love a bodge job” Thank you, but no thank you.

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marabltheancient@reddit

One and only bathroom in the house (including bathroom's walls) was in blue carpet which was strongly black-ish around bathtub and toilet. Cherry on the cake was mould "blossoming' at the ceiling. And the rent was madly high 😶.

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lornamabob@reddit

1. I went to a viewing where the current tenants didn't know their flat was on the market. They didn't know we were coming and it was just so awkward standing there while they argued with the estate agent. 2. I went to view a house that looked ok in the pictures but once we were there it was a shit hole. An overpriced shit hole. Like, not been renovated since the 90s but asking top market rate for rent. Even the estate agent said she wouldn't pay that, she was hilariously honest about what she thought of the place and the owner.

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Eastern_Cow_6810@reddit

Highly unethical, but… We once viewed a typical probate property, (now dead oap’s forever home, etc). Lots of work to be done by whoever takes this one. Having split up during the viewing, my partner is chatting with the agent in another room, I see a bunch of papers on the counter in the utility room, flick through them. It’s from the son who’s looking after the house now, and one of them is a full quote for bringing the property back up to spec. I take a photo for later and needless to say, the numbers did not add up with the asking price, and some of the things listed as jobs to be done saved us a survey.

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pocahontasjane@reddit

The woman had arranged the viewing but never told her husband who had just walked out the shower as we were coming up the stairs. She called out to him as the lock turned in the bathroom to say 'we have guests'. Cannot remember what the property even looked like now 🤣🤣

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cryamiga@reddit

"An unusual property this, a two down one up with a dirty back garden"

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ProfessorYaffle1@reddit

When I was last househunting I looked at one house - it had just gone on the market so only 2 photos available. Got there, and it was clear that they were of the 2 rooms that had been updated, the rest were very dated. It was actually very funny as the owner was showing me all the stuff that needed work and telling me what issues there were, while the agent desperately tried to shut him up. (I'd previously told the agent i wasn't interested in properties that needed work beyond decoration) Another one , opened a bedroom door and the owners teenaged son was in bed, and the room had a pungent smell of Lynx plus stale BO. The owner was showing me round, it was 2 in the afternoon, and they didn't mention he was there. As a seller, I had told the agents I needed 24 hours notice for viewings- they were mostly doing them while I was out of work but needed to know, yo make sure everything looked good. Got a call one morning when I was home, sick, to say could they move the viewing booked for 3pm to 10am. The call was at 9.45, and they hadn't notified me of the viewing at all. I was on the sofa in my PJs . I told them no.

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VeedleDee@reddit

Went to view a flat with my then partner with a view to buying it. When we arrived we discovered there was a tenant in it, which wasn't how it was advertised. She had no idea there was a viewing scheduled, was in her pyjamas, and it was messy. We said we would reschedule for another day but she insisted it was fine and to look around. So we were awkwardly shuffling around the flat with a bored estate agent and this too-polite lady. I went to have a look at the bedroom and it became clear she had been having some 'personal time' before we arrived, as her battery operated companion was still on her bedside table. We did not make an offer on the dildo flat.

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mad_saffer@reddit

Ah! The battery operated boyfriend!

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AubergineParm@reddit

Looking for student housing in Oxford. Lettings agent took us to view a property in Abingdon. Walking up to the front door there was a massive stench of body odour, curry, and rotting rubbish. As soon as we walked in, there were 12 men on makeshift beds and old dirty mattresses all over the kitchen and living room inside sleeping, they didn’t even wake up. One guy in the corner was just in his pants and stared at us silently the entire time. The agent still led us round the house while we all had to try and step over them. We didn’t follow up after. In hindsight, it was almost certainly a modern slavery situation and we should have called the police.

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cantevenmakeafist@reddit

Went to see a flat. The regular estate agent sent someone to substitute for them: he was so scruffy he looked more like a troubled detective from a TV show, and his car was some decrepit old banger. He couldn't get in as he didn't have a key. The woman who lived there had somehow been accidentally locked in by her husband, who was on his way back. In the meantime, detective/estate agent said we might as well look around the garden while we were waiting... but he couldn't open the gate after four attempts. I tried once and got in immediately. Eventually we got in, and detective/estate agent whispered to me, "I don't like this one much, I don't think you should buy it."

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mad_saffer@reddit

Went to view a house. It was in a reasonably up market area in the UK and the seller was apparently from the same country I am (not UK). Was very excited to see the additions they had made to the house as we were told they were traditional (for our country) so we had some ideas and expectations. What we were NOT expecting was a toilet in the main bedroom cupboard. A toilet. IN the cupboard. As in, open the cupboard and take a seat on the throne in full view of whoever is in the bedroom with you! You could NOT close the cupboard door while sitting on the loo either. We RAN away from that house. Ran screaming!

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Barbecuedtrashpanda@reddit

I was an agent at one point in life, showing a couple around a house when suddenly all we could hear were a lot of car horns going off at. Looked out the upstairs bedroom window to realise my car had rolled off the driveway and was blocking a busy road. They had a good laugh at my expense at least

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pixpix89@reddit

We went to look around a property where the agent was supposed to do viewings but she’d told me her 4 year old daughter had had the top of her finger chopped off by her brother slamming the door on her hand so she was recovering from an op. Anyway, we rocked up at the house, knocked on the door. The owner was like ‘Oh.’ In the most miserable tone of voice ever. Then said. ‘You’re not the agent.’ In quite a rude manner. Explained the above. He was still adamant that she was supposed to show us round but ‘because she couldn’t be bothered to come he supposed he’d have to’. The whole experience going round was honestly so bizarre. We felt like we were trying to sell the house to him. We asked him about the solar panels on the roof or the EV charger. He had no idea about them. The rooms upstairs hadn’t been dusted. Maybe ever. The dust on the lampshades was honestly about 5cm deep. The garden has been partially used for chickens that they no longer had but hadn’t tried to make it look presentable for prospective buyers. It’s possible he was neurodivergent as he seemed very uncomfortable but he didn’t seem to know any answers to our questions about his house. Needless to say. We didn’t offer on that one.

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Substantial_Air_1473@reddit

I went to view a house and the agent opened a bedroom door for us to find people asleep in bed!

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Historical_Project86@reddit

Back in 2003, my wife and I were viewing properties in Reading, almost all Victorian terraces as it was our first house. We didn't have any filter, we didn't know Reading that well, so viewed pretty much anything. One viewing was for a terraced house off Oxford Road, near Reading West train station. The owner was leading the viewing, and as we were coming to the end of our visit, he sort of drew us aside in a somewhat conspiring fashion and uttered the immortal words: "I'm not racist, but..... Next door - white. Next door the other side - well, Polish, but white. Opposite - white." We made our excuses and left, incredulous.

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BarryFairbrother@reddit (OP)

An agent once said to us "This is a safe area, as no black people live here". We were lost for words. This was in 2012 - not that it has ever been acceptable but it was decades past that kind of casual racist attitude. We thought it was a very poor attempt at a joke, but the agent was completely straight-faced.

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cheandbis@reddit

When I last sold, we had already listed with an agent but another one really wanted to list our house also and tried to convince us by saying they had buyers lined up etc. They said they'd even get someone to view that day. That evening a 'newly-wed couple' arrived for a viewing. They barely spoke to each other, looked like they'd only just met, didn't ask any questions or show any enthusiasm and did the bare minimum of a viewing. I'm convinced these were two bods from the Estate Agent's office sent around to pretend to be prospective buyers to try and tempt us to go with them as proof they had willing buyers lined up. The whole thing was very surreal and strange. I remember buying my first house and it was a lot more exciting than they made it appear! If they were indeed a legit couple, I'd love to know how their relationship panned out.

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Cuznatch@reddit

You're probably spot on. I also know someone that worked at an estate agent and used to call and book viewings at their rivals to see what material they gave, how they toured the houses, spoke to potential tenants/ buyers etc, as well as calling up as if they wanted to sell their home. It was a level of corporate espionage I didn't necessarily expect in the South London property market of the mid 2010s.

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Master_of_Ocelots@reddit

Once had a letting agent who insisted that ceiling heating was just the same as underfloor heating but above you. I think it was perhaps some infrared heating system, otherwise you're just heating the flat above you. Another insisting that an electric boiler was just the same as a gas boiler, even the running costs.

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InvestigatorSoft3606@reddit

Went to view a house, and was shown around by the husband. house was nice, but not quite what we were after, but 2 really weird things. 1. He had cooked a giant ham, and timed it to come out of the oven when we arrived. He said he had read making a place smell nice would make it appealing. 2. He was going through a divorce but living in the same house as his wife in separate rooms. When we looked in her room, she had dozens of books about divorce, why men are useless etc.. all scattered over the room.

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Jordlr99@reddit

In my early 20s i owned a 2 bed flat which i decided to rent out instead of selling when i got married and bought a house. I had a few odd tenants but the last one was an attractive young nurse. I used to do bi-monthly visits to make sure there were no issues and fix anything. Everytime i went around she would have lacy underwear drying on a clothes horse in the spare room, 'toys' on display either in the bedroom or the bathroom and most of the time be dressed in skimpy PJs or Gym kit. Once she even answered the door in a shear summer dress with no underwear. As her landlord, I acted professional and didnt draw attention to the obvious but i always wondered whether it was a heavy hint to hit on her, or she was just comfortable, confident and didnt give a fuck.

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coolcroissant7@reddit

I was looking to buy a house around 10 years ago, it was a lovely little cottage, the asking price had dropped and it was quite affordable (I live up north). I didn't factor in the low beams 🤣 so the woman who owned the house was showing me the property, on the way downstairs... SMACK, I'd banged my head really badly on a low beam , started bleeding a little , had a great big bruise... Safe to say I didn't buy the house in the end haha

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dirty_papercut@reddit

Nothing major. But I once went to view a flat, the letting agent walked us up four flights of stairs only to get to the door and tell us he didn't have the keys on him.

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mata_dan@reddit

Last few places I viewed to rent had clear water damage from unmaintained gutters/roofs. Agent: "yes most of the roofs are like that in this city" .... WHO'S FUCKING JOB IS THAT THEN, FIX IT IDIOTS.

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djfnejdijRandom@reddit

Saw a London flat recently which looked gorgeous on the photos - everything look freshly decorated and new. The flat was in a block of flats I’m well familiar with, and I was a bit confused as the window in the living room in the pictures didn’t look like any of the actual windows in the block. Turns out the estate agents got slightly carried away with AI and have “airbrushed” the photos of a tired and tatty looking flat to look shiny and new. Something to look out for increasingly in the future.

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Artificial100@reddit

I had someone view our house that didn’t know what a leasehold or a freehold was. I awkwardly explained what a leasehold was and made it sound like the most terrifying thing ever. He didn’t make an offer.

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Boring-Print9058@reddit

My sister once viewed the house where the actor who played Chewbacca lived. She said there was quite a bit of Star Wars memorabilia dotted around. I was tempted to book a viewing myself just for a nosey. He definitely lived in my neck of the woods in the 80's as I saw him in my local quite frequently.

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BillyJoeDubuluw@reddit

Estate agent nipping in to the bathroom to let out a gigantic fart and finishing off by muttering to himself “Ahhh, that were a good un”… Honestly 😂🤣

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FunPie4305@reddit

One of the houses I went to view still had a full cannabis growing setup in the attached garage. There was no mention of it and no pictures in the brochure.

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ddmf@reddit

It was around winter time we viewed, and the only time we could organise was after 3 when it was dark so there was only a cursory look at the back garden which looked fine albeit the fence needed some repair. My wife was due in may, and we'd already bid on and lost 2 houses by this time so we were quite desperate. Bought the house, and when we got the keys we had a look at the back garden in daylight - what we'd thought was grass and pebbles was actually a sea of rubbish and rubbish bags.

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mjordan73@reddit

Many years ago myself/significant other were doing viewings for our first house. One candidate property we rocked up and had a poke around. The lad (who was thoroughly pleasant) let slip he was selling up because of a messy relationship split-up with his (no longer) fiance. It didn't take elite detective skills to pick up that this was very recent and also likely quite sudden. Anyway, we poked around downstairs and then went up. In the master bedroom there was a dresser against one wall with still a fair bit of (presumably) her stuff on it. The really awkward part though was 'BITCH' scrawled in lipstick across the mirror. The lad clocked it about the same time as us and in classic British understatement remarked "ah, probably should've cleaned that up". We didn't put an offer in on that one.

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tardiusmaximus@reddit

Selling experience recently. Viewer came to house, didn't knock, didn't call, just let himself I'm. (Bear in mind I am the owner and not the EA doing the viewing and live here with my family and dog) he just wondered into the kitchen from the front door and I was like "oh, you here for the viewing? " he was African and english wasn't very good, yes he was the viewer. He's very lucky my dog is a good boy otherwise he may have had his face re-arranged at completely his own fault. Lesson learned: lock all doors before any viewings.

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Guilty_Struggle_6089@reddit

Me and my mate lived in his mams house that she owned outright so was renting to us for a good deal. She wasn’t living there as she lived with her partner..anyway she tells us she is selling up and we will be out in about 3/4 months.. The garden was literally smack bang south facing so used to get lots of sun. My mate and me used to pee in the spot that got the most sun so the smell of baked on piss was strong. Anyway a lot of the feedback she got from potential buyers was the strong smell of piss in the garden so a lot of them backed out from buying

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weeble182@reddit

Around 2012, me and my wife went to view a flat and inside the living room were seven huge CRT TVs on stands. The estate agent was just as confused as we were and mumbled that the landlord used the empty property for "storage". I asked if they were going to be removed before we moved in and he looked confused and told us he didn't know. We did not move in there

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FlagVenueIslander@reddit

My landlord was selling my flat. I was flexible with viewings, but did say please call ahead so that I can let you know whether or not it would be ok. One Monday, after work, got home, exhausted, decided to take my work clothes off and get straight in to pajamas. Get a knock at the door. I’m not expecting anyone, so I ignore it. Another knock. Ignore again. Then hear keys rustling and it’s the EA. Not only is it the EA, it’s also a colleague of mine coming to look around the flat 😳

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Snoo3763@reddit

Copy of "Mein Kamf" on the bedside table. Really weird house.

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Anathemare@reddit

Sounds like a great joke

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fluentindothraki@reddit

In another country I had moved into a rented flat, unfurnished, needing a new kitchen floor and some minor repairs. I was sanding the floor wearing noise protection headphones and only a t-shirt and shorts (summer) and suddenly there is a group of people standing in my living room, staring at me. Turned out the moronic estate agent failed to communicate that I signed the contract and had the keys (and obviously kept a set in the office) and was doing a group showing. Threw them out and took the keys off him.

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PerfectlyRoundBall@reddit

I viewed a 3 story property as a student. It had a staircase to the first floor that doubled back on itself to go to the second floor. At the point where the staircase doubled back was a tiny room / built in cupboard (approx. 1m x 1m) that had been converted into a shower cubicle. All that was between the person showering and anyone walking up or down the stairs was a glass shower door. There was no room for anything else. Great if you're an exhibitionist I suppose. I'm not, so didn't move in.

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NecroVelcro@reddit

I went to a landlord's property to see a room that he was renting. I knocked on the door to be met with him only wearing pants. I should, of course, have turned and left immediately but it is was so surreal that that almost felt too awkward. I genuinely wondered whether I'd made a mistake and arrived too early. I can't remember much else about the rest of the viewing (of the house, I probably should clarify, before a wag makes a "joke"). The full inappropriateness and the fear of what could have happened only hit me later.

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cdh79@reddit

2nd viewing, as a 25 yrl old i took my parents along. The EA was a good looking young lady with an ample frontage. Parents viewing another room and the only furniture in the entire house is a bed in the main bedroom. She sat down onto it and proceeded to bounce, saying "ooh this is nice and bouncy"... i really should have gone back for a 3rd viewing. Bought the house in the end, but no thanks to her, her boss had to take over the negotiating to get it done.

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10642alh@reddit

I was sitting at home (41 Northmead) and suddenly, someone came through my front door (estate agent and viewers) - my parents were selling their home at the time. They were actually looking for 41 Southmead (next road down) and they were also selling their house through the same estate agents!

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abstract_groove@reddit

Back in the 2000s me and a mate went to look round a city centre flat to rent. The letting agent, a very attractive young lass, showed us round, took her shoes off and proceeded to jump up and down on the bed. All three of us were early 20s, I wonder if it was some kind of invitation to funny businesses but nothing happened. A missed opportunity maybe. We didn't take the flat either - this was the halcyon days of affordable rents and none of the 'application' bollocks. You went to look at a place and if you liked it, you paid a month's deposit, signed a contract and moved in the next day. Bloody glad I'm not a young person renting these days!

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thesaltwatersolution@reddit

Agent had kindly offered to give me a lift from one viewing to the next one across town. At some point during the journey they inexplicably thought that a popular busy junction was a dual carriageway and pulled up to a red light very much on the wrong side of the road. I very quickly and somewhat calmly in the circumstances said, "what are you doing? Don't do that!" And they thankfully quickly came to their senses and pulled into the left hand lane before something came round the corner and drove into us.

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Galwayblue@reddit

We viewed a house on a cold December morning in the west of Ireland, which was very very warm. Agent says its typically a very warm house. At the end of the viewing, we arranged for the agent to look at our house with a view to selling it. Arrived the next day, advised us with all morning viewings to ensure we put the heating on very very early.

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WalterZenga@reddit

We had someone view our house and they asked where we kept our rice and where they'd keep their rice if they bought it? Well, we've just got a packet of Uncle Ben's in the cupboard.

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Old_Introduction_395@reddit

We did a viewing at 10.00 on a Saturday. What we didn't know was it a shared house. The agent opened the front door with a key, to reveal half a dozen occupied sleeping bags, piles of cans, bottles, and the smell of multiple unwashed bodies.

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yoloswaggins92@reddit

Tenant was still there (this was to buy the property and for whatever reason tenant was showing us around.) Was quite clear he didn't have much interest in helping sell the place. Flat was very untidy, visible mould on the walls, and a mountain of weed just lying out on the coffee table. Guy was very friendly but not much of a salesman. Ended up buying somewhere else.

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