Scary Real Estate Stories: The House Is Vacant, But Someone’s Home…

By: Victoria Holmen

We love ghost stories. Ever heard this one?

For Halloween, we asked real estate professionals to share their creepiest stories from their time working in the field. And based on what we received ... well, let's just say your clients may not want to know what’s lurking out there in the housing market—at least until All Hallows’ Eve has passed. But these real estate tales of terror could be fun to share with colleagues, friends, and family on this spooky day.

• “I always make a habit of knocking or ringing the doorbell, even if the house is vacant. My clients and I were standing on the porch as I rang the doorbell of a vacant house, and we all distinctly heard “Who is it?” in a gruff little old lady’s voice. We all looked at each other. I asked if they heard it, and they nodded their heads up and down. We went in and checked out the house (and all the closets) but found no one. We didn’t make an offer, needless to say.” —Barry Long, EverStar Realty, Kennewick, Wash.
• “Years ago, I had a listing that the seller said was haunted by a young boy. When my article came out in the newspaper for the advertisement of the new listing, there was a young, dark figure of a boy standing in the doorway in the picture.” —Julie Beltran, Premier Real Estate, Tulare, Calif.
• “I had a client a couple of years ago who was eccentric, to say the least. Every time I showed him a house and we got to the basement, he would make a comment about how many bodies he could hide in it. Pretty nice guy, though.” —Chase Adams, 1st Rate Realty, LLC, Franklin, Pa.
• “I was showing a home this past spring and as we were coming down from the walk-up attic, the door slammed in my face. I pretended that it was no big deal, but I was instantly unsettled and couldn’t wait to leave.” —Jane Johnson, Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, Jackson, Mich.
• “An agent I know had a listing whose owner kept taking it off the market (then back on, then off again) because, she claimed, the ghost of her deceased husband was telling her to do so.” —Sara Minshull, Redfin, Aliquippa, Pa.
• “I was showing a home built in the 1800s. The kitchen was actually located in the basement. When I went to get the lockbox key, my client told me that the door to the basement/kitchen was unlocked, so we went ahead and went in that way. We pulled the door closed behind us but didn’t touch any locking mechanisms. We proceeded to preview the home. We decided to exit the same way we came in, but when we went to open the door, it was locked. That creeped us all out, so we ran upstairs and fortunately were able to get out of the back door.” —Beth Baldwin, GRI, ABR, Virginia Capital Realty, Richmond, Va.
• “I showed a house once, and the only things in the house were two boxes in a bedroom closet — each box containing the ashes of the owners. Pretty creepy.” —Caroline Blankfort, William Raveis Baer & McIntosh, Nyack, N.Y.