Unusual or Funny stories about moving in/out of houses

[NFLDERS]

Maybe not unusual but because I'd never experienced it personally it seemed odd to me. A Dsil had the unfortunate experience of being in their old home at the same time the new owners were moving in. Somebody made a mistake in planning but they agreed (both parties) to make the best of it.

Until, the new owner was ripping the wallpaper off the kitchen wall; describing to her friend or family member there to help with the move-in how hideous blah, blah, blah, it was. Dsil had lovingly picked the paper just a year earlier not realizing they would be moving any time soon; (it wasn't a cheap cosmetic choice). My brother showed the newbies the door at this point.

So.. Unfortunately, for them they'd had to wait curbside until their new place of residence was vacated!

Personally, all we had were deer tapping on Ds's uncovered window curious as to who and, what was going on in their backyard or simply seeing their own reflection! Scared Ds only 11 at the time.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

My husband is a corrections officer. The previous owner of our house is now an inmate at the same facility. Awkward.

 

[tina.tina]

My husband is a corrections officer. The previous owner of our house is now an inmate at the same facility. Awkward.

I've been told it's worse when a former inmate is your new neighbor.

 

[denisem]

You know how you sometimes give a "shorthand" label to different houses you've viewed when buying? Like, "the pool home", "the pink house" (EVERYTHING including the kitchen cupboards was pink)? We viewed a home that had a woman's thong lying on one of the bar stools.

Even our realtor started referring to it as the thong house. (We ended up buying it!)

 

[Darcy03231]

DH and I just bought our retirement home last fall. It was a second home for the sellers, so they were selling it fully furnished. When we moved in we found they'd even left clothes, including underwear, in the dresser drawers, their toothbrushes, toothpaste and prescription medication in the bathroom cabinets and dirty dishes in the dishwasher. It looked like they came in, hooked up their boat and left!

 

[NFLDERS]

DH and I just bought our retirement home last fall. It was a second home for the sellers, so they were selling it fully furnished. When we moved in we found they'd even left clothes, including underwear, in the dresser drawers, their toothbrushes, toothpaste and prescription medication in the bathroom cabinets and dirty dishes in the dishwasher. It looked like they came in, hooked up their boat and left!

OMG "Fully", literally!

 

[Wishing on a star]

This was an apartment, and not a house.
And, this happened many years ago.
Way before selfies and sexting.
We found a very, ummmmm, eyebrow raising picture of the previous occupant, totally naked, showing off his 'goods'.
OMG!!! Hahahaha!!!!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

BIL began ripping out the carpeting as the previous owner was taking one last, tear-filled look at the house.

 

[mnrose]

We looked at house one time (a foreclosure) that was empty except for (1) ketchup spread liberally on the living room carpet, (2) completely rotted food in the kitchen, (3) a basket of kids toys in one bedroom, and (4) a sex toy in the other bedroom. Very odd. Didn't buy that one. LOL.

 

[HM]

When we sold our house, we left a potted plant for the new family with a note of welcome.

It just so happened that the gas service change didn't go right and they had no heat their first day. They called me to see if I could help, so I went to the house to see what was up. (The pilot light had gone out and they ended up having to call repair which was covered under a warranty we bought them). Luckily we had a built in electric heater on the bonus room 3rd floor so they could keep that part of the house warm; they had a newborn.

Anyway, turns out their realtor got into the house first and took our note off the plant and left one of his own! I was so shocked. I did tell the new owners that we had in fact bought the plant and later called his real estate firm to tell the managing partner what he had done. Not happy.

 

[Happy Snowman]

I don't know about funny but we were helping some friends move many years ago. The people they bought from were building a house so they had actually closed on the house in May and were renting it back to the previous owners until August. The possession date arrives, we all show up with loaded cars, U-Haul, etc. and the previous owners had not packed a single box, not ONE. They were supposed to be out by noon. We spent most of the day just dumping their stuff into boxes, laundry baskets, etc. to get them out.

 

[elgerber]

We sold a house 13 years ago, we closed on Friday morning, and they were to be allowed to take possession Saturday afternoon. We came home after closing and started working on loading up the first moving truck load. The new owner pulls up in front of the house. We were a bit concerned since we had another 24 hours before they moved in. Well turns out he was just stopping by to drop off a 50 pound bag of white rice. He took it into the kitchen, set it on the floor, and left until Saturday.

 

[Nennie]

I bought my first condo when I was 24, and loved everything about it, except the carpet. I arranged to have new carpet installed the day after closing. So the day of closing, I go to do the walk through, and the furniture is gone, and I see for the first time that they painted AROUND the furniture!!! (Who does that????) Since I was having carpet installed the next day, I spent all day and night painting the walls. Got it done though! Probably should have asked for some kind of credit at closing, but didn't want to rock the boat, as I was excited to get my first place!

 

[yoopermom]

BIL began ripping out the carpeting as the previous owner was taking one last, tear-filled look at the house.

This same exact thing happened to us when we sold our old farmhouse eight years ago. We met with the new owners, signed the paperwork, followed them back to the house to get one last load out of the garages, and while we were doing so watched them yank out and throw out the living room carpet! What really made me mad was that I had always HATED that carpet, and DH was too lazy to rip it out...well it turned out there was hardwood under there .

Grrr....

Terri

 

[The Mystery Machine]

You know how you sometimes give a "shorthand" label to different houses you've viewed when buying? Like, "the pool home", "the pink house" (EVERYTHING including the kitchen cupboards was pink)? We viewed a home that had a woman's thong lying on one of the bar stools.

Even our realtor started referring to it as the thong house. (We ended up buying it!)

LOL. Yes.

We had a home we called "Angry Johnny" (a song from a group called POE). Now it WAS a home that needed to be rehabbed however there was writing on the walls, like kill, death, hate, and various symbols. It was literally a house of horror. (did not buy it)

The first house we bought the owners took the mailbox.

 

[Waddler]

My husband bought our current house as a fixer-upper back when he was a bachelor. The previous owner had more or less gutted the place, but only partially rebuilt/renovated it. When my husband viewed the house, it was littered with over a thousand beer cans and bottles, and matching white and blue china had been smashed to bits on the back on the house. (I still find pieces when I'm gardening!)

Our neighbors recently confirmed that the house was put on the market after a nasty divorce and substance abuse issues. They told us that we "didn't want to know the details". We've finished the renovations and are very happy with the house, but I'm glad that my husband bought it before we were married. I think I would've been scared away!

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

I don't know about funny but we were helping some friends move many years ago. The people they bought from were building a house so they had actually closed on the house in May and were renting it back to the previous owners until August. The possession date arrives, we all show up with loaded cars, U-Haul, etc. and the previous owners had not packed a single box, not ONE. They were supposed to be out by noon. We spent most of the day just dumping their stuff into boxes, laundry baskets, etc. to get them out.

My husband's sister did this to us not once, but twice. The first time was after she and her husband divorced and sold their house as part of the settlement. We showed up at the crack of dawn (she insisted we HAD to be there early) only to find out that not only had she not packed one thing, she was having a yard sale to pay for the truck. We weren't allowed to touch anything until she was done with the yardsale because we "would do everything all wrong."

Finally, about 5:00 in the afternoon I tell dh to go get the truck and everyone else to start packing boxes. Get everything loaded , ask for the 100th time where we are taking it, and she tells us that she figures she'll just store it in our garage. Uhhhhh, NO.

Then, a few years later her next house is foreclosed on. She again calls dh and their Dad to help move. They fly from KY to FL (she never reimbursed them for their tickets even though she said she would, their Dad lives on a tiny fixed income) pay for the truck again, packed everything again. Stop at a gas station on the way out of town, she fills up her car and then peals out of the parking lot before they finish filling the rental truck leaving them to pay. They don't see her again until 2 days after they get back (before cell phones), so they ended up paying for the gas to get home as well.

Next time she mentioned moving, she couldn't for the life of her understand why everyone refused to help?

 

[barkley]

You know how you sometimes give a "shorthand" label to different houses you've viewed when buying? Like, "the pool home", "the pink house" (EVERYTHING including the kitchen cupboards was pink)? We viewed a home that had a woman's thong lying on one of the bar stools.

Even our realtor started referring to it as the thong house. (We ended up buying it!)

we looked at a home that we immediately nicknamed 'the eggplant house'. it was an open concept floor plan so when you walked in you were immediately surrounded by a living room, dining room and kitchen that had been painted the DEEPEST shade of purple (bordering on black) I've ever seen, and with the accent color a DEEP forest green it was like crawling into a giant eggplant. dh kept saying 'paint can get changed' but when I pointed out that the carpets, all the window coverings and the kitchen counters/backsplash was color coordinated to the purple/green he had to agree that it would have been too costly to renovate w/the asking price.

funny thing was a few years later we were at a school event and someone mentioned they were house hunting in the same area that house had been in-I said 'oh we looked at a house there-but wow the colors it was painted'-and the other parent immediately said "oh the eggplant house? we passed on that too' apparently it was still sitting on the market waiting for someone with a lot of money to throw at it (or a deep affection for the color scheme).

 

[Gracie09]

LOL. Yes.

We had a home we called "Angry Johnny" (a song from a group called POE). Now it WAS a home that needed to be rehabbed however there was writing on the walls, like kill, death, hate, and various symbols. It was literally a house of horror. (did not buy it)

The first house we bought the owners took the mailbox.

Our current house they took the batteries out of the thermostat. We didn't find out until we tried to turn on the heat. They also took most of the light bulbs, which was really annoying the first night. They were just odd. They painted the tiny master bathroom orange - the walls and ceiling. They also told their realtor they felt we were pushing them out of the house. Um we took possession at noon, we showed up at noon. We signed the paperwork the day before.

 

[Darcy03231]

You know how you sometimes give a "shorthand" label to different houses you've viewed when buying? Like, "the pool home", "the pink house" (EVERYTHING including the kitchen cupboards was pink)? We viewed a home that had a woman's thong lying on one of the bar stools.

Even our realtor started referring to it as the thong house. (We ended up buying it!)

We did this! We had:

1. The raccoon house - There was a family of raccoons the size of small dogs living under crawlspace of the house.

2. The boulder hill house - The back yard was a steep hill going straight up covered in boulders.

3. The TP house - House was ok, but there was a random roll of TP sitting on the counter.

4. The match house - House was such a nightmare all it needed was a match. We actually considered this one because it had a great lot. If we could have negotiated a much lower price we would have just torn the house down and built something else.