Thursday, March 6, 2008

Buh.

My realtor and I went out to look at houses last night for the first time. The first house we went to was tenant occupied and the tenants were still going to be there when we looked. This is kind of awkward. The tenants know you're there to possibly buy the house and, in turn, possibly kick them out. I've been to one tenant occupied house before and they made absolutely no effort to make the place look presentable. I kind of see their point but the house is going to sell eventually guys so you might as well get used to it.

The real estate agent who was selling the house had noted that it was a bit messy so my realtor and I came up with a code that I should say if we walk in and I knew immediately that I didn't want to look further. "So, our next appointment is at 7 right?" That was the code. I was ready.

I wasn't ready. Never before I have seen such filth. The smell hit us like a wall. A mixture of smoke, food and unclean people. We walked in and there was a kid playing a video game in the dark. The other kid went to get his dad and got screamed at when he opened the bedroom door. I wanted to give the code right away but it was like a car wreck. I just couldn't look away. I had to keep going. I had to see it all. I had to see the kitchen with the week old food still sitting on the stove. I had to see the basement with piles of crap covering every square inch of the floor so we couldn't go any further than the bottom of the stairs. My realtor pushed aside a curtain that was serving as a door and said "Ok, we're done. I wouldn't sell you this house even if you wanted it"

Once back in the car I could not only still smell the house on me, I could taste it. IN MY MOUTH. We asked each other how could people live like this? We didn't know. What we did know however, is that they would likely be living like that in that house for a long long time because no one is going to want to buy it in that condition. Not unless they go way down in price. Way down. Like 0.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yuck. I can relate.
We went to one house where they had two big dogs and were too lazy to take them for walks.

So, the piles of "crap" in the basement were exactly that.

My God, the smell! Can you imagine living there, smelling that?

Some people are just beyond words.

www.erinkelly.ca said...

THIS MAKES ME LAUGH!!!!

And cry, really.

but mostly laugh...because who hasn't accidentally seen a tenant's dirty underwear before?

notquiteawake said...

They let their dogs crap in the basement? Oh my god. That is too much. My dog sometimes has "accidents" in the house but they're on newspaper. And I clean them up. And he's 3 months old.

tee said...

Once I went to see an apartment and when the landlord went to open the door the chain was on and the tenant refused to let us in. That was kind of funny. But the white-trash vibe I got from that exchange kind of soured me on the building. I also viewed an apartment where the refrigerator was actually in the hallway outside the apartment. But it had a lock on it so at least no one could steal your food...'cause that's totally normal right?

Wanderer said...

Hmmm, this brings back memories of the crazy dog house we had to go to in Medicine Hat. Remember that? Remember the fly crap everywhere - not to mention the dog crap.

That still gives me the heebie-geebies.