What is your best horror story

[TEL2002]

This was years before I started appraising. I was traveling the back roads of Virginia when I passed a double wide. My guess is it was a 64+ footer. It was raised up on about 4 blocks. The blocks were at the far ends of the I beams, with nothing in between. There was a sag at the center of the roof line that was at least 12 inches deep. The double wide looked like it was a newer home.

 

[William K]

Off the top of my head .....The attacked by Python house, the attacked by Monkeys( Oops Chimps) house, the no plumbing below the main floor into the basement house ( everything just hit the basement floor from the upper 2 floors of baths and kitchen), the "is that sofa moving" in a dark house ( not a sofa, a sofa completely covered with cats), the foreclosure house where a double murder took place in the middle of summer and had to get the detective to open the door ( he said "you will never forget this smell" and stood outside, he was right!), the I'll kill anyone who comes in my room house, the tenant who didn't want to let me, the owner and realtor in and called the police (because he didn't want the owner to sell ) and stated he was the owner so the police said get off his property house, the retired school teacher who was tearing up her hardwood floors in all the bedrooms to burn the wood to heat the dwelling house, the "do you bring your Doberman with you on all your appraisals? thats not my Doberman I thought it was your dog " house, the piles and piles of clothes in a 2 story farm house that kept moving and moving house( don't want to know), the "I told you to only play with the dead ones " grandma talking to the diaper wearing child on the floor with roaches house, the "vacant" home with the Gold Jacket wearing RE agent when we walked in on 4 dealers cutting drugs and money in a basement room house, the " thats an interesting rug, oh thats not a rug thats my sons dead dog he just died there 4 yrs ago and we never did move it" house, and finally the woman who was worried what I might tell the bank when I saw her state of the art basement S&M chamber house.:laugh:

 

[Donna Quixote]

Where do you work that you got all these crazy stories

Love the dog story, I will be chuckling over that for a while

 

[Mztk1]

A creepy attic I entered, I could swear had someone tied ang gagged in a dark eave who was mumbling and rustling trying to get my attention. Gave me the chills.

A 75 year old lady greeted me once in a negligee, when I was in my 20s, and worked very hard trying to get me to "stay awhile".

Did a vacant REO that smelled like an overflowing septic tank. I was on the phone with a friend talking about how bad the place was and opened a closet door when a homeless person lept out at me and then ran out of the building.

The first appraisal I ever did was in a town called Salem, NJ in the middle of the Pine Barrens, not another house around for dirt road after dirt road. I swear the guy was a serial killer. He met me at the front door with a hatchet in one hand and a riflle in the other. His eyes were grazed, had frizzy dirty blond hair, stood about 6'6" and was very broad in the shoulders. The look on his face was perpetually frozen in the deranged position.

But the creepiest by far: I appraised an octagenarian couple's cape COD and felt the upstairs was too narrow in the MBR so I began knocking on the walls and pushing at them. Eventually a door slid open and I stepped in to find a love dungeon, complete with rack, wall shackles, and display of whips and collars, as well as...should I say, other toys (and lots of them).

 

[Tom Woolford]

Many years ago, I was training my brother, and we were working in a drug infested area. We went to the door, and met the owner, then started measuring. Within 2 min there was a crowd of about 8-10 "people" wanting to know why were hasseling "Ms Smith". Several were showing weapons and moving in for the kill when "Ms Smith" realized what was happening and sent them off. I noted in the report that I did not inspect the neighborhood due to being chased off by large numbers of residents of the neighborhood

 

[Dutchman]

Nice two story house, 5 years old, nice neighborhood. Walked up and noticed a different smell, I couldn't place it. Heard terrible screeching noises from the inside. Rang the doorbell and was answered by the lady of the house. The smell could have knocked me over. I noticed two very large floor to ceiling cages made of very sturdy steel and inside one a large chimp and the other a baboon. These cages were attached permanently to the floor and ceiling. Continued the inspection and in the master bedroom, the master closet door was removed and replaced with two inch pipes and behind it a (I swear to God) a gorilla. The second bedroom had the same treatment as the closet and contained an orangutan. I appraised it with a cost to cure to remove the cages and repaint the inside with "Killz" to get rid of the smell. Almost ended up going to court over that one, untill the HO was reminded the local requirement for having permits to house certain type of exotic or dangerous animals.

 

[ezillmer]

Several years ago I had a home that was a converted church however the grave sites that were in the rear yard made it hard to call it a single family dwelling.

 

[Vicki Galloway]

The minute I got out of my truck I could smell cat urine (and I was over 100 ft from the front door). The owner let me in the house and there was 100's of cats, the smell would awful. This lady was a true hoarder just like what you see on Animal Planet. She would not let me in the bathroom, stated she had kittens in there and I might scare them, It was so sad. I left and called animal control, then I called the loan officer. That was a sight and smell I will never forget.

 

[RSW]

I was measuring the exterior of a dwelling one day and I was walking in the mulch pulling my tape when I tripped over a rock. I looked down to see what I had tripped over and I found a tomb stone that said baby with dates on it. It was right next to the garage wall on the front. I said to myself, "Oh, $hit!"

When I went into look at the interior, I asked the home owners about it is a very polite manner. They told me they had a pet dog that had passed awway. What a relief!

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

Take your pick...

1. Mentally retarded family (5 of them). House so filthy mold was growing every where. Found a dead dog in the basement shower with 4 dead puppies. They never took out the trash...just threw it down the basement steps.

2. A refinance...in the main bedroom where two coffins used as beds.

3. REO...freezer full of elk meat. Electricity off for about three months in the middle of summer.

4. Python crawled into heating duct work and died. Whew!

5. House filled from floor to ceiling with boxes of stuff. Little narrow passage ways between the boxes. You know, that mental thing where you can't throw anything away.

6. Rural property with five cars buried on the lot.

7. Cat house, about 50 of them. Had to tear out all the interior and start over, worst smell ever.