Friday is upon us once again, and I hope that you've exceeded all of the goals you set this past week.
They say that "Laughter is the Best Medicine", and I definitely agree with that. If you look at things with the proper perspective, you can always find some funny things, and Real Estate deals are no exception to this rule. In the spirit of the joy of an upcoming weekend, we're going to look at some funny stories from the Professional perspective (Realtors, Commercial Real Estate, Loans), and also from the home buyer's perspective.
Jennifer De Vivo, a Realtor with Charles Rutenburg Realty, provides us with what she refers to as, "funny and awkward situations when showing homes.". One example was about a homeowner that was a single male, and in the home he was selling, he had a special room..."a room completely done with Wonder woman paraphernalia...(Figurines, curtains, bed sheets you name it)". De Vivo says that he was very proud and, "made sure to point out his vintage Wonder Woman boots and asked us if he wanted to twirl for us. All we could do was smile and kindly decline. In the end our clients were able to see past the superhero customization, put in an offer on the home and closed 45 days later."
De Vivo points to another time when she was showing homes in a community with several elderly residents, and in one of the homes that appeared to be empty, they found a man sleeping so still that he appeared to be deceased, at which point, De Vivo and her buyer raced out of the house !
"Four years ago I was taking a loan application for an unmarried couple that was purchasing their first home.", says Matt Perillie of TheRenovationLoanGuy.com. Perillie says that when he got to the point of the application where he asked if the husband pays child support, "the man says yes and she (the wife) gives him a long look and then proceeds to yell at him for about ten minutes asking how could he have a child and not tell her. It was a bit uncomfortable and the application ended right there."
Changing gears, there are also funny stories that come from people looking for homes. Sarah Anderson of Millersville, MD describes one specific day where her and her husband visited, "half a dozen houses one Sunday morning, and returned" to an open house in the afternoon. As Anderson describes it, there were, "toddlers running around in bathing suits", which indicated that perhaps there was no open house. However, as she says, they went in. "Fortunately, the homeowner happened to be the agent, so he wasn't too terribly jangled by our random appearance", says Anderson, but it was still "pretty awkward" since he had an open house months ago...but certainly not that day.
Another home buyer received the, "Bomb Shelter Option". Sherri Gomez said that when they were doing their final walk-through of the home, the owner was very evasive in terms of where he would let them walk in the backyard. Afterwards, Gomez asked the man what the metal sticking up out of the ground was, and he said, "That's your bomb shelter", and, "too bad - you signed the papers !". Gomez said that she sued him for the cost of filling it in and she won. She also found out that the development, "was built in the late 50's and that was an option when you bought the property. You could choose an above ground or underground bomb shelter.", and says that, "this has become a joke in our family whenever we look at houses!"
Well, as the saying goes...all in a days work !
Do you have any great stories to share. Please add them here, since we all could us a good laugh !
Have a Great Weekend, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes Blog http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Website http://www.lease2buy.com
