As a real estate agent, property buyer/seller, or renter, do you have any real estate horror stories to share? Encounters with the supernatural, spooky atmosphere, perhaps a general feeling of being ‘watched’ when stepping into a house. While we hope we never have to see, hear or feel any of the things when property-hunting or showing in Malaysia, these people from Reddit definitely have some hair-raising tales to tell about their experiences in real estate. Talk about having skeletons in the closet – or in some cases, in the walls!
#1
Apparently the place wasn’t as holy as it seemed…
Not a realtor, happened to some friends who bought a property, very old site, about 300 years old which had been part of a convent, the living room of the nuns exactly. The aforementioned place had been refurbished as small apartments/houses about 50 years ago. They went to live there and there was some maintenance given to certain places of the property (the common areas) there was a wall which was slightly wider than the others, they began to give maintenance to that wall but the outer layer fell apart (due to the rain and age) while trying to fix that they found dozens of skeletons of babies, very little babies and very old little skeletons. Well, authorities and historians came and went by, and they came to the conclusion that the nuns tossed their babies there right after giving birth to them, lord knows if they were alive or dead by then. –Moonwarden666
#2
Do you believe in ghosts?
My dad moved into a house where we later learned that the previous owner’s son killed himself. There was no saying as to whether he lived in the house, but we do know which bedroom was his. I’m not into paranormal nonsense but my sister had that room. Before we learned about the son killing himself, she had all sorts of weird things happening in the room, alarms going off at odd hours of the night, the tv just turns on/shuts off whenever it feels like it (especially weird when it’s at night and you’re alone). I don’t like going up there for that reason. The previous owner also came home one day to catch his wife cheating on him and started shooting at them. He missed them and you can still see the bullet marks in the wall of the master bedroom. –spaghatta111
#3
It’s always best to do research before buying… or have a good memory for random news.
About 6 months ago I was looking into homes in the area I grew up in because I’m (still) planning on moving back to the area. I found a pretty cute house on a busy street in the town, read all the info, it seemed like a good option for my fiance and I. Then something hit me; based on the address and info provided, I realized it had to be the same house where a Chinese family of four was brutally murdered 2 years ago. The police still don’t know who did it. –sup518
#4
Definitely not something you forget in a hurry.
Didn’t sell the house but was managing an apartment and walked in on a guy who was in bed decomposing for two weeks over the worst heat wave in years. His head was partially melted into the pillow and his back was full of maggots. Had a couple stiff ones that night. Walked through a house where a hoarder lived and was attacked by fleas and saw a rat in the master bedroom the size of a football. Noticed droppings on the bed too. Lady had been living there her entire life and never threw anything away. Apparently, couldn’t get rid of the rat either. I’ve flipped and helped with flips and sales since I was 18. I can go on and on and on with the conditions I’ve seen people living in and the history behind them. –avettwhore
#5
What kind of parents do this to their children?!
My parents were realtors, and also flipped houses. When I was growing up I used to help them a lot, usually by cleaning. When I was 12 I was helping with a house that was infested with roaches. I noticed the closets were smeared with shit and children’s hand prints… there were fingernail scratches on the insides of the doors as well. I asked my parents why this was the case. They told me the old tenants used to lock their toddlers in the closets for days. –JaytheFarmer
#6
A house with a gory history makes for great conversation when guests come over though.
When I was looking for my last house, I went with my wife and realtor to look at several houses. We went to look at one house in particular because it didn’t seem like the price they were asking for could be real… huge house sitting on tons of land with outbuildings, going for millions under market value. We got there, and the realtor said “Oh, I should mention, a serial killer lived here and when he was put away cops found 11 bodies on the property.” Oh, well that’ll do it. –Yup4545
#7
A room that used to be a morgue? No thanks.
Not a realtor (have taken the course twice just never took the test) but I’ve been in the residential property management industry for 14 years and have managed/leased thousands of apartments and single family houses. A historic building I used to lease apartments for was formally an insane asylum and prior to that was a hospital. The building itself is on the national historical registry. Thankfully I never had a bad experience here except for one unsettling thing in a stairwell but I did meet people over the years with stories… The thing that creeped me out was the basement. Even after 50+ years on most days you could catch a whiff of formaldehyde. Some days were more pungent and distinct than others. Of course being the basement it also had the addition of that musty basement smell. Since this was once a hospital obviously it had a morgue. There are a handful of apartments in the basement and the original tile on the floor marked where the morgue actually started. In one of those apartments there is a bedroom with incredibly spacious walk-in closets. If you haven’t already figured it out these two massive closets are the old body lockers with the original latches on the walls next to the entrance to the closets. I still for the life of me cannot understand how anyone could live in that apartment because I wouldn’t even go into that apartment by myself. –Player_Haterz_Ball
