Do You Ever Get Spooked When Appraising Vacant Homes?

[Gobears81]

I always got a little nervous doing the vacant REO homes also. Seems like the properties are mostly cleared out except for a mattress in a lot of cases, so you are always waiting for someone to pop out.

I remember looking at one in a not so great neighborhood and it hadn't been completely cleared out, but there was a knife in the bedroom. That one got me spooked.

 

[spittman]

There is a SpookLight about 50 miles north of me...I dare anyone to see it and not have the hair raise on the back of their neck

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spooklight

They claim it is reflected light from autos miles away and several experiments support that, but does not explain why it has been well documented since 1881.

Have you ever seen it. How exactly are you able to see carlights from miles away through the woods? Is it similar to seeing water in the desert?

 

[spittman]

...When I got to the top floor I entered the first bedroom and there was a women sitting in a rocking chair. I panicked because the home was vacant and I asked the women who she was and then poof she was gone...

Jeez, I think that would be enough for me to quit the biz ... naah!! I've never run into something so extreme and I hope I never do.

One of the creepiest was an old victorian style home in the middle of nowhere. Had to inspect the basement with just a flashlight and it was pitch black in there. I could hear what sounded light tiny footsteps above, but thinking back now I'm sure it was just a squirrel or some other critter.

Did another one out in the country. Home was fine, but there was a huge barn/stable out back that looked like it was being used as a smoke house with several large old style meat lockers. Every turn I took there was another door to something and weird looking contraptions and meat hooks. All I kept thinking about was Texas Chain Saw Massacre. lol.

A couple of other instances I have found huge python snake skins, but no snake and plastic trash bags with things moving around in them.

 

[Meandering]

Glenn,
Too much sunshine impacts the brain. Find some shade.

The worst are the vacation homes they abandoned as a 2nd thought. Clothes in the closets, beds made, dishes in the dishwasher, mail on the counter, and a thick layer of dust on everything. Makes you feel like your walking through something reminiscent of the body snatchers, or alien invasion, like maybe Will Smith will pop out with the cure for the zombies that might be huddled in the basement waiting for the dark.

.

 

[glenn walker]

I have no idea what I Encountered *** All I know is I was scared to death and high-tailed it out of the property ! If the agents I spoke to had NOT encountered a similar situation I would completely have dismissed the event.*** BUT the one house the owners actually moved out due to weird things happening and I had no previous knowledge about this until I inspected the home and fled in a panic.

 

[spittman]

http://appraisersforum.com/forums/threads/dress-code-no-firearms.208959/page-14#post-2625266

Sometimes when I'm clearing the house, I like to point my fatmax laser into each room and call out any potential lurkers. Not sure what I'd do if someone actually came out swinging an axe though.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Watching the house of a deceased relative. I leave the utility room light on. I came back yesterday and a ceiling fan and light was on in another room. I do not think I left that. And the other relatives claim they did not go into the house... BTW, that deceased relative died and was not found for 14 days.

 

[GWISC]

I have inspected two houses which had great stories.

1st one was in a small village in south central WI. Large two story with a veranda porch around both levels. The 2nd floor front bedroom was surrounded on 3 sides by the porch. Each morning the owner could hear footsteps (like someone with wood heeled shoes) outside on the porch, but could never see anyone. This borrower also would also have friends stay over who would talk of seeing a ghostly woman in the corner of a room. A onetime boarder saw the same woman and promptly move out. Turned out the property was a carriage stop in the late 1800's and part of the underground railroad (had a trap door behind the bar in the back room leading to a room which was walled off from the rest of the basement).

2nd house: Large Italianate style house in a rural township. Current resident was a tenant and then bought the place. The owner's daughter would bartend and would not get home until well after 2 am. A small boy would be at the top of the stairs waiting for her (no children were currently living there). She said the daughter and boy would have conversations, but then she would drift off to sleep. The back section of this house was once used as the township gathering spot for meetings and sometimes dances. The daughter was frequently awakened by music and laughter comming from the back 2nd story section. She would yell to keep it down and the noise would stop. She talked of seeing a red headed gentleman with a large handlebar mustache in this portion of the house. Sometime later, the owner spotted a car at the end of the driveway. The driver indicated she was with her grandmother who had once lived in the house. The grandmother talked about her dad who built the place and described him as a red headed gentleman with a handlebar mustache. Not long after that, the owner had the house blessed. That night (was a sultry summer night with no wind) the doors on one side of the house burst open as if a wind had opened them. The owners then hear a loud roar. Then silence. After that, no more ghosts.

I bet every appraiser who has been doing this over 10 years has encountered similar stories.

 

[Carlos Danger]

I once inspected an abandoned salt mine. I had followed a tunnel half a mile underground and came upon a giant chamber. Satan was having a meeting with Hitler, Pol Pot and Chad Kroeger. You could feel the evil. I ran out and declined the assignment.

 

[bnmappraisal]

First off, I do believe in ghosts, so just to get that out there ...
Those who don't (like my wife) I respect and understand where you come from, but I've had a few things in my life and know of others who have, so that makes me believe

A few years ago I was doing a vacant house. 2-story, (I forget the age off hand, but def 80+yr old house), long time resident who had died, etc and this was for the purchase.

Long story short, had an eerie feeling walking through that I wasn't the only one/thing in there, although I literally was (no realtor, no assistant, etc) I stand at the bottom of the stairs and say "Make a noise" ... nothing. I wait about 7-10 seconds. Still nothing. I head to the kitchen, which is about 15 feet away and as I enter I hear a bottle FALL inside a cabinet! I run out the back door and yell a few expletives! I go back in to find the bottle (some liquor bottle) on its side but DEFINITELY NOT a usual way to "store" a liquor bottle! I took the last few notes I needed about the property and left.

I've had to do a number of other houses in that neighborhood over the years since then and each time I drive past that property, I feel an eerie feeling. Also, that same week, 2 friends of mine had strange/"unexplainable" things happen ... my grandmother always told me things happen in 3's ....