17 Wildest Features People Saw In Homes While House-Searching
Recently, I asked the BuzzFeed Community about the wildest things they've seen while house-hunting.
Here are 17 of their most interesting answers:
1."In 1983, we sold our house in town and had to be moved out in three weeks. The house we ended up buying was still occupied, and on the wall by the stairs to the finished basement were three VERY large waist-up nude pictures of the owner's wife."
"DEFINITELY got our attention!"
2."While house hunting for our first home, we were on a pretty limited budget. This mostly lead to houses that could be listed as 'fixer uppers' or as the listing would state, 'ready for your personal touch.' We decided to take a tour of a two-story home that happened to be on the corner of a pretty busy intersection. When we went up the stairs to the second floor, we were shocked to find a toilet at the top of the steps!"
"Not just a toilet sitting there but an actual plumbed-in toilet right at the top of the landing. Not in a room. Not in a bathroom. No sink, no closet around it. Just an actual functional toilet that sat on the carpeted landing.
It was the very first thing you would see when you turned to look up the staircase. It also faced a window across from the steps that looked directly out to the busy intersection.
Apparently, someone felt very strongly that they wanted to watch traffic and pedestrians while they were doing their business."
3."There was a house that, in the listing photo, had a Liberator Sex Chaise Lounge. I tried soooo hard to get into that house for a viewing."
"Sadly did not happen."
4."In 2009, I looked at a house that was penguin-themed. Penguin curtains. Penguin wallpaper. But the main bathroom was just covered in penguins, including the toilet seat, wall tile, and shower tiles."
"Because I was looking for a house, it was in decent shape, and it was 2009, I put an offer on it. I did not get it.
Other than the penguins, it was a decent house, and I probably would have lived with them for a while because I didn't have much money in the way to fix things up."
5."A gigantic mural of Jesus above the fireplace; it must have been 10 feet tall. If that wasn't weird enough, all the bedrooms had tons of beds in them, Duggar style."
"I wish I could share the picture!!!!!!!!!"
6."We looked at a house several years ago that we really liked. The last room we looked at was the den. We realized we hadn't seen a second bathroom. We asked where it was, and they opened the blinds that were hanging over a closet, and low and behold, there was a single toilet right there in the den!"
7."In a sparsely appointed guest room hung a large nylon wall hanging of Kim Jung Un emblazoned with the words, 'Live, Laugh, Love.'"
8."A regular-looking house in the woods. The house had been vacant and open to the elements a little. The door to the basement has serious locks on it. Opened it to find a giant clown mural painted on the stairway ceiling."
"The steps ended next to a lamppost in the cement. One way led to a work room, and the other to a 60s-style lounge room with a fake fireplace. In the corner was a fluorescent light that hung over a long white table.
There were other bizarre things about that house, but it was utterly wild to encounter in the woods in the middle of nowhere."
9."Home for $450,000 in New England. 900 square feet. Listed as a two bedroom. I arrived, viewed the house except...no bedrooms. None. The realtor explained it 'could' be a two bedroom and had a septic for such, but the owners wanted open concept and removed the walls."
"So it was just a big room upstairs, then a walkout basement that flooded terribly."
10."It was a completely round, five-story house that had formerly been a retreat center. The middle of the living room/stage had a trap door to the basement, where a performer could pop up into the middle of the action. It also had sleeping alcoves for at least 30 people."
"I thought it was amazing, but it also had a lot of deferred maintenance, and my husband said there was no way he would live in it. Oh well."
11."I purchased a house in Montana built in 1900 and found the basement was filled with newspaper and rope as insulation between rocks."
"There was also a coal chute, and we found empty prohibition-era whiskey and moonshine bottles behind those rocks when fixing the foundation."
12."The electrical switch panel was on the bathroom wall between the sink and the shower."
"There was also a massive, raised brick platform in the living room where a wood stove used to be. It was at least as large as my sofa."
13."Went to an open house that had wood step stones in the living room, surrounded by shag carpet. There was no order, just randomly placed."
"It was so bizarre."
14."When designing my last home, I decided to add a 'secret tunnel' between the two kids' bedrooms. Those little girls loved that thing."
"Even the pug used the secret tunnel to get snuggles."
15."When I was looking for my first house, I wanted somewhere cheap, so I obviously looked in the 'dodgy' areas where I lived. The estate agent was trying to convince me the area was actually ok and had a bad rep (erm, mate, I grew up 'round here, I know how dodgy it is), but he soon shut up when we went into the back downstairs room. Not only had the back living room window been broken and glass was everywhere, they had also stripped the room bare."
"It was a rental property and partly furnished."
16."Husband and I were house hunting in a home that mostly hadn't been updated since the '50s/'60s. We went already 'mostly no' on it due to all the work it needed, but we decided to check out the basement. We descended the very steep staircase to find a single light bulb illuminating a basement straight out of a horror film."
"There was asbestos tile everywhere, clear water damage, a very creepy doll sitting on a discarded rocking chair that was obviously 100% haunted, an equally creepy storage room with a door that closed behind you if you entered, etc.
But when we rounded the corner, our agent said, 'Oh look, a chest freezer!' Upon closer inspection, the chest freezer was duct taped shut. Nope, nope, triple nope. We were OUT after that."
17.And finally: "My 13-year-old son and I were looking at a house in my desired neighborhood. It looked pretty good until we walked downstairs to the basement. On one side of the basement, there was a 4'x6' pit dug into the dirt floor. I was trying to ask the realtor what it was when my son said, 'It looks like a grave!'"
"I couldn’t get out of there fast enough!"
What's the wildest home feature you've seen while house hunting? Let us know in the comments!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length/clarity.
