Queensland real estate agents have shared some of the craziest things they have encountered while selling property, and let’s just say they well and truly earned their commission.
In one case, an agent found wardrobes with “glowing lights”, while another had to make excuses for a topless sunbathing vendor at an open home.
On behalf of News Corp, the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) hit up their thousands of members to find out just what goes on before, during and after the doors open on a listed property.
Here we look at the most recent ones, and revisit a few from the past.
There’s Something About Mary Vibes
One of my most memorable was when I was down the Gold Coast many years ago.
We went to do an open home at this really lovely high end property in the area, rocked up and buyers were starting to arrive.
I was still pretty young at this stage and new to real estate.
I opened up the house and the owner said she would just be out at the pool during the open home and that was fine.
What she didn’t tell me was that she had planned to sunbake topless during the open home.
She was a more mature lady and gave ‘There’s Something About Mary’ movie vibes.
Actor Cameron Diaz in scene from film “There’s Something About Mary”.
Being not long in the industry I had no idea what to say so I just said to buyer, “please excuse the owner she is just laying by the pool” and pretended it was normal.
Reluctant to Move
My older couple had a contract on their house.
Less than a week before settlement my agent went to see them to make sure things were on track for their move and they told her they were going to start looking after they had money in the bank from settlement and would let her know when they were going to move out.
She then spent the rest of the day organising removalists, someone to pack for them, called their family to help and got them a rental.
Above and Beyond
On settlement days we have packed trucks, mowed lawns, cleaned houses, moved livestock, found homes for chickens, rehomed goldfish, replaced plants that have been taken from gardens, gone on hunts for media system remotes because buyers are refusing to settle without them cause they can’t prove its working and the seller accidently packed it and its in the truck somewhere.
Illegal Amenities
Finding wardrobes with glowing lights that when you open you find a ‘tomato garden’ where the plants don’t seem to have any fruit on them at all.
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Not a tomato plant . Picture: NSW Police
Jailhouse Block
About 10 years ago we were selling a property for a gentleman who ended up in jail during the process.
It was before all the electronic signing stuff came in so one of my agents had to go to the jail during visiting hours to get him to sign the contract.
Snake Gone Rogue
Ray White New Farm agent Brandon Wortley recalled conducting an open house in one of Brisbane’s blue chip suburbs when a snake went rogue, flying out of a bush and hitting the vendor in the chest.
“I was walking out to meet the owner on the river walk when I caught sight of the tail of a snake slithering in to a bush,” he said.
“It appeared to be making a beeline for the courtyard next door where there were two dogs.
“My plan was to jump the fence, grab the dogs, do something. I was just operating in the moment.
“But the snake had made its way up inside the hedge and then bam, as the vendor was walking past it, it literally flew out of the hedge and whacked her in the chest.
“She just bolted up the boardwalk. I have never seen anyone turn so white.”
Police Raid
Henry Hodge of Hodge Real Estate recalled conducting an open house at a “dingy apartment in Fortitude Valley” when police suddenly raided the building.
“There was lots of noise but we just minded our own business,” he said. “I was mortified.”
Not a selling point. Photo: QPS.
1% Club
Place agent Ben Cannon recalled selling a house for a man who denied being a bikie.
But the cache of firearms hidden around the property — and in the roof — suggested otherwise.
“He told me at the 11th hour that he wanted to cancel the open house because he had guns,” Mr Cannon said.
“I told him to stick them in the roof but he said he couldn’t because it would cave in, it was so full of guns.
“I said, surely you can’t have that many guns so I went around and sure enough, he showed me cupboards full of guns.”
Yeh, nah
Feeling overwhelmed after seeing the arsenal of firearms, Mr Cannon said he wanted to find a way to “fix it”.
He said the owner pulled a handgun out from a bedside table and walked downstairs with it.
“He was saying, why isn’t my house selling but it was so full of guns and he was always there,” Mr Cannon said.
“When I did present an offer, he pulled a handgun out and put it between us during the negotiations,” Mr Cannon said. “I was glad to see that one gone.”
Squatters Paradise
Ray White Bulimba principal Scott Darwon has dealt with everything from a cantankerous cat that refused to budge from under a house to a homeless man who invited himself into a New Farm property he was showing potential buyers.
“He (the homeless man) just came in and started ripping up the lino and stealing the newspapers,” he said. “It was all a bit weird.”
Buff Audience
“I went to do an open in a brand new home and two gentlemen were tanning naked,” one anonymous agent said.
“One was scooping the leaves up into his pool net, butt naked, and the other splashing around the shallows.
“They were very angry when I showed up as I was 10 minutes early.
“I said we had an open and I had to open everything. They jumped into a car with just towels draped around them and fortunately left with a very amused buyer with three kids watching them get hastily into the car.”
Minus the clothes
Unwanted Tenant
Meanwhile, another agent recalled opening a house for inspection only to find it was not vacant.
“I did not see a massive green python draped over the top of the shower screen in the main bathroom, which I would have walked right past to get to the light switch,” the agent said.
“A buyer found it when he was checking the shower. The buyer bravely locked the snake in the room, and I had to tell all the buyers at the inspection to not open the door that was shut downstairs as there was a snake that had snuck into the property.
“One lady just freaked out and left. I called a snake catcher and he came to the property later that day to rescue and release the snake.
“Funnily enough the buyer that found the snake put an offer on the property.”
Green Tree Python where it belongs
When Paranoia Strikes
In another case, a paranoid agent who thought he was being secretly filmed by the vendor reportedly copped a dose right in the eye.
Dobbed in by a fellow agent, the tale goes that Mr Paranoid “noticed a small mobile air freshener unit on the mantelpiece in the lounge that was emitting a small flashing light every minute or so”.
“Convinced that he was being secretly observed and recorded, he sidled up to the unit to take a look straight down the barrel of the ‘camera’ that he believed his untrusting sellers had hidden in this sneakily arranged security contraption, only to have a metered dose squirted squarely and fairly directly into middle of his right cornea. There was no camera,” the source said.
Can’t Be Unseen
While another agent owned up to their own faux pas after accidentally escorting several groups into the wrong apartment in South Brisbane.
“I didn’t realise I had walked straight into the unit next door to a naked couple in a very passionate embrace on their couch. That’s was a tough day,” the agent said.
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