Inspired by a post by Keith Klassen, I wanted to put up a quick post to a question I am sometimes asked. What is the strangest thing I’ve encountered while on an appraisal inspection? I’ve inspected thousands of houses, and I’ve come across some odd things along the way, no dead bodies and nothing too wild or raunchy, but this situation below takes home the prize for me because of the uncomfortable factor.
A few years ago a home owner (grown man) came to the door in nothing but his yellow Sponge Bob boxers. And he stayed in his boxers the whole time of my interior inspection. With his belly hanging over and out, he just walked around a bit and then sat / laid down on the couch when I asked him questions about his property. I did a pretty quick interior inspection that day. 🙂
Thats good. I would have had a hard time not laughing. The strangest thing I ran across was a mountain lion…yep, the owner had him chained up out back and as I came from around a bush I saw it, which took my breath away since I was not expecting it. It was pretty docile then, but I would not have wanted to be there without the owner.
Tom, that is wild (literally). It’s just not a good idea to have a mountain lion at all. Why did the owner have a mountain lion?
Gosh… there was the pots plants at the one house (typical); Then there was the homeless folks sleeping on the porch at another (not too strange); And the squatters that just walked right passed me as we walked in (a little unnerving); Okay, the strangest thing I can think of at the moment was the time when the tenant opened the home to show us and proceeded to follow us around the house at an uncomfortable distance (if I stopped abruptly, he would have hit his face on my back. OR each time I’d turn around, bam, there he was all up in my grill). The tenant proceeded to tell us random, awkward stories in each room we passed through. Not too shocking, but a fresh memory.
Nice, Keith. That’s a bit akward to say the least. We’ve seen so many vacant properties in the past several years, so it’s always a wonder what you’ll find when you walk in, especially if the property has been boarded up for some reason or the type of house where the agent says, “just go in…. it’s open” (no door or windows.
Holy cow. We should get together and write an EBook with all of our stories and pictures, I have some great photos. I have appraised two vacant properties where the owners abandoned dogs or cats (or both) and their feces were all over the interior. I had to leave to buy a gas mask at Lowes because the smell was so bad. I still carry the mask with me. One time when calling to confirm an appointment for later that day the owner told me to be sure and bring rubber boots since their basement was flooded. I still carry those rubber boots around with me too.
Hmmm, could we call the book Mountain Lions to Squatters, A Day in the Life of an Appraiser.
I forgot another one. One house I looked at had a dancing pole set up in the basement. The owner said it was part of a stage they made for karioke singing…yeah, right!
For “karaoke” singing. It could have been to practice for American Idol somehow too. Well, I guess I don’t remember poles on Idol.
False breasts – 3 of them – I wonder what happened to the 4th one?
Wow, Anne. I don’t even know what to say to that. 🙂 That’s quite an interesting find – and an interesting number too. Thanks for the comment.