Have you ever had a bizarre property viewing?

You never know what you’re going to face when you turn up to view a property.

When I was buying a place, I saw everything from much-loved family homes to ones that looked as though they hadn’t seen a lick of paint since the foundations were laid.

One smelled so strongly of fresh baking you practically inhaled bread. In another, the remains of various meals laid littered around the worktops.

And then there are the owners.

‘Oh, it’s you, is it? I forgot you were coming,’ one practically snarled at me. At another viewing, the man seemed to have lost interest in selling as we entered the second room and gloomily reflected on the various problems there were with the property, including the young lads who roared around on motorbikes on the open field at the back. ‘But only when the weather’s good.’

Bizarre home-viewing sights

Nothing I saw though was quite as bizarre as the sights reported by buyers in our annual home moving survey.

Of course, we all have our own ideas of décor, but what do you say about a tree growing through the ceiling or a medical hernia belt in an otherwise empty house, which buyers also reported. ‘Oh, it looks great. Love what you’ve done with the place’, perhaps?

In some properties, the position of the toilet was also a ‘feature’, with some reporting that they’d seen one installed either in a bedroom, a living room and even a hallway. It was at least situated in the bathroom at another property. You might think that this would guarantee a level of privacy – except that the room had glass walls.

Not all viewings are like that. Most of the owners I met when I was looking were happily and rightly proud of their lovely, family home where they had lived and obviously enjoyed many happy times.

I particularly remember the pride of one man who had rewired the entire house himself when his family first moved in, 50 years prior. He also recalled, as if it were yesterday, all the details of the happy day when they had first moved in and started their life together in that house.

What are your experiences of property viewing? Have you ever encountered anything unusual when you were being shown around a home?