People candidly discuss absurd reasons that home buyers had, which eventually made them not buy a house.
Buying a house is a big and complicated decision for many. They often have to give up a huge amount of money and plan their finances for the following years before making a significant purchase. So it's perfectly understandable when people back out of their decision to purchase a house. However, sometimes people back off for absurd reasons. u/1132saturday became curious about these reasons and inquired, "Realtors of Reddit, what's the most bizarre reason someone decided not to buy a house?" Here are 10 of the most interesting answers they had to share.
Spent around two months looking for a property with a couple. They barely qualified for what they were looking for, so each offer was a battle just to get it reviewed. Finally found a house that had a willing seller and a good listing agent, and it checked all but one box. That box? The guest bathroom had a shower curtain the wife didn't like. Seriously. Not a glass door or anything permanent but a removable curtain held up by those bars you twist into place. I even offered to buy them a $200 gift card for Home Depot or Bed Bath and Beyond to help them find something different. Nope. That curtain killed the whole thing for the wife. Needless to say, I fired them as clients immediately after that. u/ThePirateDickbeard
Former realtor here. Had a couple that wanted to live in a specific neighborhood and wanted a rectangular pool with a small pool house and covered patio. There were exactly 3 houses in the neighborhood that met these requirements. I spoke with all 3 owners and one said they would sell and were generous with their pricing. Why, you ask, did the couple decide not to buy? The house next door was yellow. u/twodogstwocats.
I knew someone who didn't buy a house because it had too many closets. Other than that, they thought the house was perfect. After a moment of stunned silence, I suggested they buy the house and close some closet doors and just not use the closet(s). u/WINTERSONG1111.
Not me, but my dad did some residential and commercial back in the 70s. Lady came in and loved the house until they got to a guest bedroom that was painted yellow. She instantly switched and said, "I can't buy this house because this is yellow." My dad says, "We'll paint it. Any color you want." Her response drove him to do strictly commercial after that. "But I'll know it was yellow once." u/mtcwby. When I bought my first house, one bedroom was HOT pink. Like, blinding pink. I painted it a very light blue but continued to call it The Pink Room. Eventually, my partner moved in & he started calling it The Pink Room. We sold the house after 7 years, still called it The Pink Room. u/BeerBoilerCat
This story goes back to around 1960, but my parents found it so stupid they told me. A family friend and his young wife found a home they wanted to buy. The wife's mother was going to give them the down payment. They were super excited about the house and said it even had a breakfast bar, i.e., a counter with bar stools underneath, in the kitchen. The mother said no way would she ever allow her money to be spent on a house with a bar. They tried to explain it to her but ultimately could not buy the house. u/Myviewpoint62
Not a realtor, but I worked in finance at an RV dealership a few years back. I had a couple fly in from out of state to look at a brand new $400,000 unit that had specific features they were after and they put a deposit on it. I got them approved and scheduled a time for them to sign, but they backed out at the last minute because they weren’t sure their cat would like it. They flew back home. u/sarcasticb.
My family home was bought by a young man in the military and his very quirky wife. They had already ruled out dozens of houses and settled on ours because it had adequate chi flow from the front door. When they saw that the bed was directly under a window in the bedroom, the wife freaked out and said that it was sucking out our brains. u/Brucine.
Not a realtor but a potential buyer, our realtor brought us to a house listed as a 3BR, 2-1/2 Bath. After going through the house, we liked it a lot until something clicked for us - there were no bathrooms to be found. We went through the house again and upon opening a closet door in a Bedroom, we found inside the tiny closet a single Toilet. No lights, sink, tub, nothing. The house wasn't even a 1 Bath, it was like 1/4 bath. The realtor, very seriously, told us if we knocked down the wall and ran some pipes, we could convert one of the bedrooms into the bathroom. We laughed, thinking he was joking. He wasn't. u/Zaldn
Walked into the house and noticed a crystal hanging from the ceiling. In the kitchen, there were more. Kinda strange but OK. Went upstairs and all of a sudden, they were 10-15 in the hallway. Then we got to the basement. Room in the back corner. Opened the door and turned on the light. Hells bells that is when it went to a 10. It was a dungeon. We backed out, looked at the realtor and she said it before we did, "We are never talking about this." u/Jayhawker_Pilot
Loved the house. It fits all our needs. We were pumped. As we were leaving, we stood on the porch to take in the neighborhood. The house directly across the street had built shelves into the windows facing the house we were viewing. The shelves were filled with old creepy dolls staring at the house we were looking at. Hundreds of dull, lifeless eyes waiting for you to go to sleep so they could kill you. They were Sun faded. We noped out of there with our realtor's blessing. It was 20 years ago and it still freaks me out. Why? Just, why? u/Agitated-Equipment59