Realtors Share The Weirdest Reasons People Decided Not To Buy A House

A realtor is "a real estate professional who is a member of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and includes agents who work as residential and commercial real estate brokers, salespeople, and property managers."

Dealing with buyers and sellers, realtors get the chance to see a lot of interesting, entertaining and odd things.

Reddit user 1132saturday asked:

"Realtors of Reddit, what's the most bizarre reason someone decided not to buy a house?"

Not A Mellow Yellow

"Former realtor here. Had a couple that wanted to live in a specific neighborhood and wanted a rectangular pool with a small pool house and covered patio."

"There were exactly 3 houses in the neighborhood that met those requirements. I spoke with all 3 owners and one said they would sell and they were generous on their pricing."

"Why, you ask, did the couple decide not to buy?"

"The house next door was yellow."

~ twodogstwocats

Curtains Are Removable!

"Spent around two months looking for a property with a couple. They barely qualified for what they were looking for, so each offer was a battle just to get it reviewed."

"Finally found a house that had a willing seller, good listing agent, and it checked all but one box. That box?"

"The guest bathroom had a shower curtain the wife didn't like."

"Seriously. Not a glass door or anything permanent but a removable curtain held up by those bars you twist into place."

"I even offered to buy them a $200 gift card for Home Depot or Bed Bath and Beyond to help them find something different."

"Nope. That curtain killed the whole thing for the wife."

"Needless to say, I fired them as clients immediately after that."

"Obviously I was pretty perplexed after that showing/interaction. When I got back to my computer I sent them an email just recapping and following up—I always do that."

"They reiterated the shower curtain disliking, so I responded suggesting that they may not be ready to buy if their expectations are this specific and let them know I'd no longer be able to assist them until they were serious about the process."

"I tried to be as professional about it as possible, but I wouldn't be surprised if they sensed I was done with them."

"Never heard back from them and I'm so much the better for it."

~ ThePirateDuckbeard

Why Do People Hate Yellow?

"My dad did some residential and commercial real estate back in the 70s."

"Lady came in and loved the house until they got to a guest bedroom that was painted yellow. She instantly switched and said 'I can't buy this house because this is yellow'."

"My dad says 'We'll paint it. Any color you want'."

"Her response drove him to do strictly commercial after that: 'But I'll know it was yellow once'."

~ mtcwby

Not Purrfect

"I worked in finance at a mobile home/RV dealership a few years back."

"I had a couple fly in from out of state to look at a brand new $400,000 unit that had specific features they were after and they put a deposit on it."

"I got them approved and scheduled a time for them to sign, but they backed out at the last minute because they weren’t sure their cat would like it."

"They flew back home."

~ sarcasticb

Not As Advertised

"Our realtor brought us to a house listed as a 3BR, 2-1/2 Bath [3 bedroom, 2-1/2 bathrooms]."

* Full bathroom: toilet, sink, bathtub and shower—or a tub and shower combo

* Half bathroom: toilet and sink

"After going through the house, we liked it a lot, until something clicked for us. There were no bathrooms to be found."

"We went through the house again, and upon opening a closet door in a bedroom, we found inside the tiny closet with just a toilet. Just a single child-sized toilet inside a very tiny closet."

"No lights, sink, tub, nothing. The house wasn't even a 1 bath, it was like 1/4 bath."

"The realtor, very seriously, told us if we knocked down the wall and ran some pipes, we could convert one of the bedrooms into the bathroom."

"We laughed thinking he was joking."

"He wasn't."

~ Zaldn

Just Say No

"Found a dead body in the bathroom."

"Apparently a contractor working in the house decided to use drugs before he left on Friday and OD'd. Nobody was in the house all weekend."

"He was found Monday afternoon during a showing."

~ IvoShandor

Dearly Departed

"The owners had a clause in the purchase and sales that the buyer would have to guarantee that the resting site of their deceased and beloved cat would not be disturbed forever."

"And the placard would remain intact."

"The sellers, the ones with the buried cat, were my wife's and my clients. We represented them, the sellers not the buyers."

"Our clients were adamant, at a very emotional level, that this is what would be required for them to sell the home. So, we disclosed this up front with any potential buyer during any showing, in as sensitive a way as we could which did put some buyers off."

"It went under contract in about 2 weeks by maybe the 5th lookers. The buyers agreed in both the purchase and sales agreement, and a separate side contract that they would honor the prior owners' request in posterity."

"But, the agreement does not appear on the deed."

"About 3 years after the sale, the former owner contacted us and asked that we confirm that the placard was still there. We contacted the new owners, and told them the story, they laughed, we stopped by, and the placard was still there."

"But, we ended up having to stay for a barbeque and drinks as this story had become quite the conversation piece, and we were recruited to confirm the story to all of their friends at the barbeque."

~ barbershores

Dethroned

"My childhood friend’s mother was a realtor, and she told me this story when I was in 4th grade, and I still think about it nearly 20 years later."

"She came home upset one day after school, and we asked her what was wrong. She said she just lost a sale because of a toilet seat."

"During the initial walk-through, her client pointed out an epoxy toilet seat that was filled with sea shells and how much she loved it. She made an offer on the house."

"Later, they do the final walk-through right before going to go sign the closing documents, and that toilet seat is gone and replaced with a normal white one. The woman is pissed and refuses to close without the toilet seat."

"The sellers refuse to give her the toilet seat. The sale falls through."

"Can you imagine buying a whole a** house because you want an epoxy toilet seat?"

"This was the 90s so there wasn’t the whole internet of things at our fingertips to just up and get a replacement. But still."

~ wiggysbelleza

Two Minutes Too Much

"It was 12 minutes from a specific place instead of 10 minutes."

~ omfgjanne

The Power Of Christ Compelled Them

"During an open house I was hosting, someone pulled sage out of their pocket and started burning it to get Satan out of the black counter tops."

~ BFitz_RE

B*ttheads Butting Heads

"Back in 2010 when foreclosures were still skyrocketing and prices were dropping—I was the buyer's agent, I had a sale fall through at the closing. Both parties had everything they owned in moving trucks!"

"The seller was bitter about prices, saying he was getting ripped off, etc... He removed the chandelier in the 2-story foyer, and he wasn’t supposed to as it was attached and did not have an amendment saying it did not convey."

"Go to the walkthrough, and the buyer immediately said he wants that specific chandelier or he is not buying it. I called the seller’s realtor, and she said she knew; she told him not to take it, but the seller said NOPE, he is taking it."

"Thought we could close by offering $500 each from our commissions since there was no way the seller was going to budge. Buyer said NO."

"Went up to $1000 each—so $2000 total—and there is no way that chandelier cost $500, and the buyer said I want that one from that jerk. Told the seller he still had to pay our commission because we held up our end and brought him the buyer."

"He didn’t care."

"Cooler heads did not prevail, buyer sued for his moving and living costs. Seller went 'for sale by owner' so have no idea what he got for a price."

"Buyer lost confidence in me, so he went somewhere else—new build spec in a different part of town. It was a very expensive nightmare."

~ Yelloeisok

Rumpus Room

"When we were looking at houses in the early 2010s, we went to see what we thought was a really nice house. The listing did not show any pics of the finished basement."

"We toured the upstairs and were very happy. Then we went downstairs."

"The stucco on the walls was the hard icing kind, which had been pulled outwards into sharp points so that, if you had fallen down the stairs, you would have impaled yourself.

"There was a wet bar made of thousands of pieces of tacky 'cowboy' kitsch that had padded faux leather (with buttons) on the three surrounding walls. Everything was glued/screwed/nailed to the wall, including the animal heads, and was listed as 'included' with the sale."

"It smelled....odd. There was a giant shrine to Mary with a water feature and a ton of plants embedded in a divider wall. It took up the whole wall and we couldn't figure out how they had run the water supply."

"There was a bathroom off the wet bar. It was purple. The walls were purple. The floors were purple. All of the porcelain was purple and had Russian Oligarch style gold fittings.

"It matched nicely with the all-teal master bedroom ensuite."

"After about ten minutes of looking at this, our realtor glanced at us, said, 'This is too bizarre,' and suggested we leave. The house was still on the market a year later."

~ Adastria

Don't Talk About It

"Walked into the house and noticed a crystal hanging from the ceiling. In the kitchen, there were more."

"Kinda strange, but OK. I went upstairs, and all of a sudden, there were 10-15 in the hallway."

"Then we got to the basement. There was a room in the back corner."

"Opened the door and turned on the light. Hell bells, that is when it went to a 10."

"It was a dungeon."

"We backed out, looked at the realtor, and she said it before we did: 'We are never talking about this'."

~ Jayhawker_Pilot

Dollhouse

"Loved the house. It fit all our needs. We were pumped."

"As we were leaving, we stood on the porch to take in the neighborhood."

"The house directly across the street had built shelves into the windows facing the house we were viewing. The shelves were filled with old creepy dolls staring at the house we were looking at."

"Hundreds of dull, lifeless eyes waiting for you to go to sleep so they could kill you. They were sun faded."

"We noped out of there with our realtor’s blessing."

"It was 20 years ago, and it still freaks me out. Why? Just, why?"

~ Agitated-Equipment59

Spooky...

"My partner was a bit more superstitious than me, but not to the point where I ever thought it was odd or obnoxious. Enter the downtown house we both looked at.

"It was small and old and 'quirky,' which I was OK with. It had a pond in the backyard, and I love ponds."

"So we get to the house and go in. It is extremely segregated—there are many oddly shaped rooms and lots of doors and no hallways and no flow."

"We get to the kitchen, and there is a very narrow and small door leading up to the attic access. I realize now that’s pretty normal for old houses, but at the time, my reaction was more 'oh neat, like a hidden passage!'."

"My partner, however, saw that hidden doorway and got very spooked and just bluntly and suddenly told me and the realtor, 'I’m Sorry, this house is a no for me, I hate it. I’ll be outside'. We both looked at each other like ???"

"I followed him asking him what was wrong. He totally had the heebie jeebies and was almost shivering and was like 'I’m not going back in there, there is something really wrong with that house'."

"I asked him if it was OK if I finished looking at it and he said that was fine, but there was no way in hell we were buying it. The realtor and I finished the tour just fine."

"I didn’t find anything odd about it at all; it was just a bit of a weird layout, it needed some fixing, and the house had no flow. The pond was neat."

"My partner never was able to articulate further on what creeped him out so bad about the house."

~ geeltulpen

Have you gone house hunting?

Any odd stories from your experience?