Well, it wasn't really the house that was unusual, but when we were looking, we went to a home in Highlandtown that had closed circuit security cameras all over the property, and each room had a tv that showed the camera feeds, ON, while we watched. Also, the homeowners were THERE while we toured with our agent. AND there was a bubbling jacuzzi tub in the basement... yes, it was full of water, and turned on.

I was not remotely into the place and I wanted to leave pretty early on, but our agent said "We have to look, they are WATCHING us!" and when we saw the jacuzzi, we both said "Somehow I feel like we just walked on the set of a movie...."

It's stuck with me. I wonder if anybody bought it.

Eeek -- unnerving.

Informative. I didn't expect that a realtor can be so easily irritated.

My realtor and I saw a home that was listed as needing some TLC. When we got there, it was clear the listing photo was at least 10 years out of date. As we walked up to it, I said, "It sure does need some fixing up!" My realtor replied, "Yeah. With a bulldozer."

The best part was as we were leaving this smoker-infested ruin, I noticed that a front window was propped open by with a Budweiser can that doubled as an ashtray.

I'm kind of fond of the $850,000+ rowhome development featured in today's blog post. Would you pay $850,000 for THAT?

My first experience looking for a home to purchase -- the realtor took me to a house in "Federal Hill" (actually it was more in South Baltimore, but apparently those boundaries get blurred). We walked in, and I couldn't believe this house of horrors. Overflowing ashtrays, food stains (assuming they were food stains) on the floor...and the piece de resistance... the kitchen counters were covered in rat feces. Not mouse poop...RAT feces.

I asked the realtor what it was about me that made her think this property would be okay with me, and left her standing there -- hopefully feeling like an idiot.

Never again.

Jaime-

To be clear, the home I referenced in my post wasn’t necessarily hideous. My post was more of a comment regarding price expectation vs. value ratio. I actually think the home that I linked has some charm, just not half a mil charm. In other words, if you got a half a million cash, or need to borrow or some ratio in-between- is a rehabbed barn the best place to say, "yeah, I'm all in."

Here's the rub and the part that I just don’t get. Everyone ...every politician, media source, investor and citizen readily admits and recognizes that from 2000 (and probably earlier) till 2007 the housing run up was all smoke and mirror Ponzi scheme non-sense. THERE WAS NO REASON FOR ANY INCREASE IN PRICE DURING THIS TIME PERIOD. The only thing driving the run-up was ...
1. Loose lending standards that allowed people with a 620 credit score, no money and a box of stupid to compete with well qualified buyers.
2. Loose oversight of investment purchases that circumvented securities laws and ratings.
3. Loose regulation of Realtors who are nothing but cheerleaders that took a two week course and monopolize the MLS. Have you ever had an investment (elweedz does not consider real estate to be an investment) professional that told you it was always a great time to buy? Don’t forget, throughout all of this that has continued to be their mantra.
4. Loose regulation of mortgage loan officers (disclaimer-elweedz was one for 12 years but never did home purchase loans). You need all kinds of licensing to sell penny stock but could have been a bar tender at FRIDAYS by day and loan officer by night. Advising people on their biggest financial obligation of their lives required no license.
5. Loose risk aversion by borrowers, stretching to the max with kooky loans so that they could “cash in” on some sweet equity (elweedz will be submitting a post shortly on the lie that is equity)
Most people are amazed by the low levels of sales these days. I am amazed any homes sell at all. I would contend that you could take 100k off of every home on MLS and we would still see paltry sales. Don’t forget, 10 years ago, lending standards were much looser than they are now and this was before the big run-up. Just 10 years ago you could buy a nice townhome in White Marsh, Cockeysville, Owings Mills, and Arundel for 150k. What changed? Ponzi scheme, that’s all.

There are people out there buying homes because they are down 15% from 2007 levels thinking that they are getting a deal. The people that are buying now are bidding against themselves. Whatever offer you make, yours is the only bid.

I can't claim to compete with Carol Ott in the yuck dept., but i will never forget walking into a house that had the world's biggest hairball deposited in the entry way. I guess the cat didn't want to move.

I think the oddest was a little gem on Fleet.

Crumbling plaster walls + duct tape = awesome.

When looking at a house recently, I came up the staircase and was surprised. Looking out of the doorway of a bedroom was a life size cutout of the Twilight vampire. A little unnerving.

A few months ago we went to see a house. The owner was home for the showing, which we thought was odd, but this has happened with many of the homes we have seen. He instantly asked everyone to take off their shoes before coming in. His lunch was cooking on the stove and the He accompanied us to each room and the top 2 levels. As we started to go see upstairs he stopped us and said "Wait, before you go up let me check if my daughter is asleep". So while we waited at the bottom of the stairs, I assumed he was checking if a bbay was sleeping, which as mother of 2 young kids would have been ok in my book. He comes down and says she is asleep but we can come up and look anyway. He opens the door to her room and there is a sleeping TEENAGER in a bed right by the door. We stood in the doorway and quietly peeked our heads in. He couldn't tell his teenager to wake up for 15 min at almost noon so he could try to sell their house??!! The master bedroom still had the guy's dirty socks on the bed. The spare bedroom was being used as a prayer room and had a sign on the door saying not to go in with shoes on. My young son came in the room with me to see and the owner cringed the whole time. Then when we got to the bottom of the stairs of the unfinished basement we realized the stair case was barely being help up by 2 rickety two by fours and we could rock the whole staircase by slightly pushing on it. We were scared to go back up with our 2 kids so we went fast! When we left and he walked us outside to the front yard and asked to hold our baby! And surprise- that house is still listed several months later! Oddly enough I really liked the house, my husband thought I was crazy!

The most unusual house I've seen recently was billed as a full rehab in Canton, but in fact, it appeared to have been done by a "weekend warrior" rather than a professional. No doubt, the person who did the work possessed greater home improvement skills than I, but drywall know-how appeared to be something s/he lacked. Every wall and ceiling surface - seriously, I mean EVERY wall and ceiling surface - was covered with something other than wallboard. There was tile in the dining room, smoked mirror in the kitchen, paneling in the living room. The only acceptable surface (outside of the bathrooms, where tile was great) was some exposed brick.