As the Real Estate World Turns – True Real Estate Stories

Before I entered the world of real estate about 7 years ago, I worked in radio for a long time. Boy! You’d think that in the radio business I’d have some wild stories (and I do), but NOTHING compared to the stories in this business!
 
Some good and some bad, but nevertheless, interesting. What’s great about hearing all the other Realtor stories is that I seem to learn something new (and VERY valuable) that I may have never thought of, For instance:
 
1) I learned that when I’m having an open house, tell the seller to go through the medicine cabinets and make sure any presicription medications are well hidden. The Realtor that told me that story learned first hand that your seller can get very upset if their heart pills are missing (along with various meds)! You wouldn’t think that an addict would cruise open houses on an Sunday so they could go in and secretly take any drugs they could find. Apparently that agent never thought of that either, but it’s true. She was holding an open house and it got pretty busy so she had a hard time keeping on eye on everyone looking around in the house, and wouldn’t you know it… yep, stuff goes missing (apparently that guy hit several open houses that day). We learn from day one to tell sellers that when you put your house on the market, REMOVE ALL VALUABLES!! Including, jewelry, heirlooms, etc… but now add prescription drugs to that list.
 
2) I learned it’s a good idea to make sure that when I have a homebuyer that’s buying a home, really keep on top of the agent to keep on top of their seller. I had a client who was moving into town and starting new job. We set the closing date for that Friday so she could move in over the weekend and be ready to start her new job on Monday. We showed up for the final walk through a couple of hours before closing. I was shocked when we walked into the house! The seller had NOT packed a thing!!! Now, usually the seller is packed and all things are removed and ready for the new owner. Not in this case though, not one box was packed… Not one cabinet emptied. I turned to my buyer and told her that we need to postpone the closing until the owner got packed and got out. Unfortunately, that was not an option. So we closed on the house and while the seller is moving out, the buyer was trying to move in. It was a mess… Note to self: specifically ask the listing agent if the seller has moved out!
 
3) An agent was telling me one day that she had a client who bought a home. The first time the home buyers saw it they fell in love with it! It showed really well, it was clean, smelled nice, perfect floor plan, nice yard, etc… It was the perfect place! That is until they went to their final walk through before closing… There were numerous holes in the walls behind where the couches were sitting, on the kitchen counter, there was a massive hole (that was covered up by the microwave). Also, in one of the closets… the children had kocked knocked a hole in it so they could walk through it and be in the closest of the bedroom on the other side of the wall… Hey, I’m all for secret passages, but really? Needless to say… the buyer’s weren’t happy and they threatened not to close. If I remember right, that agent told me that the home sellers agreed to make all repairs. That other agent did say at first, the sellers tried to say they didn’t “notice” the “issues” and didn’t know about them……… “Ummmmmm, yeah, okay”
 
4) I was showing a house once and I had this eeeeerie feeling that we weren’t alone. Chalk it up to the fact that the house was in the middle of nowhere, it was vacant, it was starting to get dark, it happened to be close to Halloween. The perfect recipe to have the heeeebies jeeebies scared out of ya’. Anyway, I agreed to meet my buyer at the house. They had actually arrived before I did and took a few minutes to look around on the outside. So far so good. I opened up the door (and of course the hallow creeky sound didn’t help) and proceeded to go inside the house. Still this strange feeling was with me that we weren’t alone. I began to look around for the usual stuff like lights, indication of foundation issues, water damage, etc…. The buyer had proceeded down the hall to one of the bedrooms. A few seconds later they came running out of the room – pretty much screaming. They yelled at me to GET OUT! GET OUT! No asking why on my part! (usually when someone yells duck, I duck first and ask questions later). We both bolted for the front door. I got it locked back up and we walked (rather quickly) back to our cars. The buyer had this white look on their face. I asked what happened… After catching their breath, they began to tell me the whole sordid details… needless to say I was SHOCKED! I’m just glad I got out of that house FAST! If you’d like to know what they saw, just give me a call and I’ll be glad to share it with ya’! Yeah, I know, it’s mean 🙂
 
5) Usually when someone enters the real estate business, they’re taught to always ask a potential buyer if they are currently working with another agent. It gets drilled into our brains. After all, you don’t want to spend the entire day (and gas) showing homes to someone that already has a Realtor. Yep, you’d be surprised, It happens ALL the time! Maybe someone sees a house they are just dying to see and they can’t get their current agent on the phone to show it to them. It’s not uncommon for some people to call around and call around until they find an agent that can show them THAT house, RIGHT THEN AND THERE.
 
A few years ago I got a call from someone moving to town. She said they were moving to Waco in a month, they needed to find something pretty quick. So, of course, I asked if they were already working with another Realtor and they said “no”. We set up a day and time that week to look at houses. A couple of days later I met the buyer at the office and we headed out with a list of homes to see. Since they were new to the area and didn’t know much about Waco we visited several different communities. The buyer had actually found a couple of houses they she liked. She wanted to sleep on it and let me know which one she wanted. So I called her the next day and she said that she was still thinking and to call her back. I Called her the day after that and couldn’t get her on the telephone. She didn’t return my messages. She didn’t return my emails. Basically she disappeared. After a couple of months, one day, I decided to look and see if she actually ever bought a house (and which Realtor she used).
 
Anyway, come to find out, she did buy a house…. a house that she HAD UNDER CONTRACT WHILE I WAS SHOWING HER PROPERTIES! Yep, she apparently had put a house under contract about a month before she called me. Maybe she wanted to see if there was anything on the market that she may have liked better before she closed on that house? Maybe. Who knows. Maybe next time I need to specifically ask a potential buyer “Do you already have a house under contract?” Hopefully they’ll tell me the truth.
 
These are just a couple of stories really. It seems that I’m always hearing about something new! Something that makes you scratch your head and say ARE REALLY FREAKIN’ KIDDIN’ ME!!!!!
 
I may make this a “series”. Some of the stories are funny, some are unbelievable, some are sad and everything in between.