Based on the feedback we’re receiving on this topic, there’s no doubt that many of you are enjoying reading the weird and wonderful stories about open homes gone wrong.

A few years ago, I shared a series of horrifying, strange or funny (some not so funny) real estate related stories that I had experienced, other agents I knew had experienced or you (the consumer) had experienced whilst looking to either buy or sell property.

At the time, I seemed to empty out my arsenal of funny events but a few years later, the ‘story tank’ is starting to fill up again.

One of the great things about Social Media is that real estate agents from competing companies often share ideas and thoughts in private agent groups and sometimes the chat is quite amusing.

In complete honesty, I can tell you that the majority of real estate agents in Australia are very honest and really try to do the right thing by their clients – it’s just the bad apples that seem to consistently pop up time and time again with amazing regularity.

Anyway, let’s get started with a few open home stories that are bizarre, funny, horrifying or just plain weird…

• A few years ago, one agent shared a story where the next door neighbour tried to buy a home that he was selling and made an offer that was unacceptable to the owners. Because the owners did not accept it, this next door neighbour stood on his balcony fully naked during an open home and announced to any potential buyers that he was the neighbour and chanted loudly “Welcome to the new revolution”. Whilst most people’s reaction to this story was to laugh, this situation posed a massive headache to the stressed agent in question and his owner as it could mean that the home will not fetch the value that it truly deserves.

• Another agent shared with me a story where she started an open home and after a few minutes, a commotion broke out across the road where a huge domestic altercation took place and police cars turned up with sirens screaming. They quickly pulled two males out of the home in handcuffs and placed them up against the police car. They had clearly been in a fight and proceeded to take photos of their bloodied faces on the footpath – right in the middle of the open home. Needless to say, no-one purchased the home that day.

• This story comes from Michelle (thank you kindly Michelle as this one is a cracker although probably didn’t seem too funny to Michelle at the time)…”We were in the market for a new home,  this was when we were living in Christchurch and we had gone to several open homes in a row,  the last one was due to finish at 2.30 and we had turned up at about 2.20,  we spoke to the agent and signed the book he then told us to look around at our leisure which is what we did.  It was a double story house and we went upstairs. When we came back down the agent was no-where in sight and we had been locked inside the home.  We tried to call the agent he didn’t answer and we ended up climbing out through a window to get out.  We rang the main agency and it wasn’t for several days that someone finally called us to apologise. I felt for the owners more though as I’m not sure if even to this day they were told of the incident.”

• Here’s a story from a good friend of mine (Rod Westerhuis – a real estate agent from ‘Huis Estate Agents’) … “After an open home, my assistant casually told me she bumped into the ghost of an old man as she was walking up the stairs. She described him and said they didn’t communicate. She said he was a little startled to see her coming up the stairs, put his head down and just shuffled past. A few weeks later I was going through the contract with the seller and when I got to the disclosure of facts clause I felt it prudent to suggest that included ghosts etc. The wife turned to the husband, the husband rolled his eyes and said ‘you tell him’. She proceeded to describe the ghost of the lovely old man that lived downstairs – right down to the cardigan and beret. The seller had never met my assistant. The house had been on the market several times in the past and always took several agents and a long time to sell. Thankfully the buyer was as sceptical as me.”

Over the course of the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing more funny stories of open homes gone wrong…stories from other agents, stories from the general public and a few more stories I’ve tucked away in the memory bank (even though I tried as hard as I could to forget them).

If you have a story you’d like to share, please e-mail it through. I’ll be offering a prize of a $200 Coles/Myer gift card for the person that sends us the best story.

We’d love to hear about your experiences.

Until next week, Happy Listing & Happy Selling.