This time of year many of us in Real Estate are searching for scary real estate stories to tell at the next office party. But, who knows more than you really want to know about that house you are thinking of buying? Agents and neighbors! Like the buyers, you will shaking your head wishing you didn’t ask after reading these horrific tales of scary real estate!

1. A woman’s body turned to liquid and destroyed the flooring

“The lady next door to me died, and wasn’t found until she was… more liquid than solid on her living room carpet. The family couldn’t pay something about back taxes or something, and the house went to HUD to auction. Hud paid for some cleanup, but not to replace the carpet, only steam clean it.

So it finally sold, and was talking to the guy who is flipping it, before I could mention the death, he asked if the house had a water leak under the foundation… Because when they ripped up the carpet and pad to put down the lament floor, it was really dirty and got all over them and their clothes… Told him what happened and how HUD went cheap on what to fix before the auction, he got green as a pea and started puking right there on his side of the fence.” — tieberion

2. There were scratches in the closet from the children locked inside

“My parents were realtors, and also flipped houses. When I was growing up I used to help them a lot, usually by cleaning. When I was 12 I was helping with a house that was infested with roaches. I noticed the closets were smeared with shit and children’s hand prints… there were fingernail scratches on the insides of the doors as well. I asked my parents why this was the case. They told me the old tenants used to lock their toddlers in the closets for days.” — JaytheFarmer

3. A serial killer buried bodies on the property

“When I was looking for my last house, I went with my wife and realtor to look at several houses. We went to look at one house in particular because it didn’t seem like the price they were asking for could be real… huge house sitting on tons of land with outbuildings, going for millions under market value. We got there, and the realtor said, ‘Oh, I should mention, a serial killer lived here and when he was put away cops found 11 bodies on the property.’” — Yup4545

4. They found a heap of baby skeletons

“Not a realtor, happened to some friends who bought a property, very old site, about 300 years old which had been part of a convent, the living room of the nuns exactly. The aforementioned place had been refurbished as small apartments/houses about 50 years ago.

They went to live there and there was some maintenance given to certain places of the property (the common areas) there was a wall which was slightly wider than the others, they began to give maintenance to that wall but the outer layer fell apart (due to the rain and age) while trying to fix that they found dozens of skeletons of babies, very little babies and very old little skeletons.

Well, authorities and historians came and went by, and they came to the conclusion that the nuns tossed their babies there right after giving birth to them, lord knows if they were alive or dead by then.” — Moonwarden666

5. There were blood stains on the walls

“Not a realtor, but when the sold sign went up on our last house our neighbor came over and said, ‘Now you’re moving out, would you like to know about your house’s history?’ Turned out the previous owner was a heroin dealer, who allowed his customers to shoot up in the living room – explains the brown arcs all over the walls when we stripped the wallpaper. He also used to pimp his wife out from an upstairs room (our then bedroom). Lovely.” — dgbgb

6. He killed himself inside of the house

“One of our sellers killed himself in their living room while we already had a buyer in place. Postponed the sale while the drywall was fixed. Didn’t have to disclose.” — insipidrose

7. Multiple people were shot down during a rave

“In Seattle there was a house just up the block from my work. This was probably around 2007/08 or so. There was a zombie themed rave and said house became the after party. Most of the club kids knew each other and the ages ranged from like 16 to 21. Unfortunately they invited this loner dude who came over and started unloading a shotgun around 6:30-7 in the morning.

Kids dressed like zombies were pouring out of the house jumping over fences, into the street, into the backyard. Nobody knew who was actually wounded and who wasn’t because everybody looked fucked up due to their costume. I think like 6-7 died. It was totally fucked and has always stuck with me. Probably because it was in my neighborhood in which I lived and worked.

Eventually the house went up for sale and I always wondered how much the prospective buyers knew about what happened there. Houses in Seattle don’t stay long on the market so it had a lot of real estate agents and buyers coming and going. I also wondered if there was a little discount considering it’s history.” — TheGhost206

8. The mother killed her kids and then herself

“I’ve been in a few where the realtor might have a hard time selling it after it is fixed.

One in particular where the mom drowned her two kids in the bathtub then set herself on fire in the back utility room.” — fireinvestigator113

9. He murdered his sons to get back at his cheating wife

“I’m not a realtor but suppose the story is relevant.

My extended family used to live in a really old house located just north of London. Previously it used to be queen Victoria’s stop when she was traveling in the area.

Im told my uncle (mums sisters husband), when younger never believed in ghosts or spirits and would be the first one to call it a load of rubbish.

He was sleeping one night and was awoken by a man staring at him at the end of his bed, dressed in an old army uniform. My uncle froze for a few seconds, panicked and flicked the bedside lamp on and then the man vanished.

He refused to sleep in that room from that night onwards.

We later found out that the man was a previous owner who had returned from war to find his wife having an affair. He was so furious that his wife reported to have told her he would do the worst thing possible to get back at her.

He took his twin sons (toddlers at the time) went to the back of the garden where there was a forest and shot them both dead before killing himself.

The funny thing is that since my family bought the property my uncle had twin sons, my mum had twin sons and my uncles brother (who is also a part owner of the property) had twin sons.

The weirder part is that my brothers and my uncle/aunties kids were playing near the forest when they were in their early teens and kept on saying they heard boys laughing but couldn’t see anybody there (not knowing the houses history).” — bs3ac

10. A dead baby was found inside of the wall

“This involves a couple who bought a house in the 1980’s. They called me a couple year ago wanting to sell. As we’re talking, the wife starts telling me about her difficult pregnancies and how she’d been pregnant many times but lost them all. I feel bad for her, but I’m wondering what this has to do with anything. The husband pipes up and says, ‘After the last one, I didn’t know what to do… I came home and the first thing I thought to do was remodel the kitchen… I had to break something!’ He goes on about his impromptu kitchen demolition (dishes still in the cabinets and everything). The guy was devastated that they’d lost another baby. Anyway, he says he’s ripping out a corner and he always knew there was a dead pocket there because the span was like 3 feet, but the closet behind it was only 2 feet deep. He rips out the drywall and finds a ball of cloth. As he pulls back the layers, he realizes it’s the skeleton of a baby. It was wrapped up with a teddy bear. He called the police and said they never got any follow-up on it.” — Myzyri

11. A ghost haunted the house where a man died

“My dad moved into a house where we later learned that the previous owner’s son killed himself. There was no saying as to whether he lived in the house, but we do know which bedroom was his.

I’m not into paranormal nonsense but my sister had that room. Before we learned about the son killing himself, she had all sorts of weird things happening in the room, alarms going off at odd hours of the night, the tv just turns on/shuts off whenever it feels like it (especially weird when it’s at night and you’re alone)

I don’t like going up there for that reason.

The previous owner also came home one day to catch his wife cheating on him and started shooting at them. He missed them and you can still see the bullet marks in the wall of the master bedroom.” — spaghatta111

12. His body was decomposing from the heat

“Didn’t sell the house but was managing an apartment and walked in on a guy who was in bed decomposing for two weeks over the worst heat wave in years.

His head was partially melted into the pillow and his back was full of maggots. Had a couple stiff ones that night.

Walked through a house where a hoarder lived and was attacked by fleas and saw a rat in the master bedroom the size of a football. Noticed droppings on the bed too. Lady had been living there her entire life and never threw anything away. Apparently, couldn’t get rid of the rat either.

I’ve flipped and helped with flips and sales since I was 18. I can go on and on and on with the conditions I’ve seen people living in and the history behind them.” — avettwhore

13. Prostitutes used to work inside the house

“These are mostly from the commercial side, but here goes (various, Florida mainly):

Crack house/apartment complex where the previous owner was in jail for fraud.

Previous owner killed in officer-involved shooting.

Current owner was a ward of the state due to advanced dementia and family drama.

Site was owned by relatives who can’t get along with one another.

Homophobic dad tried to screw his gay son out of their apartment building and shopping center.

Tax fraud.

Migrant farmworker housing with open code violations (the owner preferred illegal immigrants because ‘if they complain, they’ll get deported so they keep shut’).

‘No-tell motel.’

Owner sponsored jet ski racing.

Tenant sponsored jet ski racing, including the same riders as above (this is a totally different property in a different municipality).

Neighbor sponsored jet ski racing, including the same riders as above (seeing a theme? Welcome to Florida).

Shop/apartment where previous tenants were crackheads who repeatedly burglarized the shop.

Code violations, code violations, code violations.

Prostitution.

We once did a Pentecostal church, too. Not during services.” — 19djafoij02

14. The basement contained a torture room

“I’m a contractor and recently dismantled what seemed to be a torture room in the basement of a house some clients were selling. Creepy broken mirror included.” — groel220

15. The house was repeatedly broken into

“I work in property management on the rental side, and would frequently do post move out walks to assess damages from previous renters, and make ready lists for new ones.

There was a house on my list that had been vacant for a while in a semi seedy area, not a huge deal by any means as it’s the middle of the day. I go to the front door, and it was stuck shut. Shoulder checked it a few times, and it would give a little but I couldn’t get it open, like furniture or something was barring the way.

So I walk around back and completely ignore he broken storm door (oops) leading up to the other entry. The second I open the door I notice three guys standing in the living room around a table. One conveniently had a gun pointed directly at me.

I apologized, and politely let myself out. No more than ten seconds after I get into my car, our maintenance calls warning me that the property has been broken into half a dozen times already and I shouldn’t go in alone.

Wasn’t the worst I’ve seen, but certainly the scariest.” — Turkeyhuts

16. They found a dead body years later

“Property inspection turned up a dead body in the attic, it was a suicide, someone hung them self. Home owner thought her husband had left her years ago…

I guess he did.” — colonrody

17. Someone was brutally shot and died of blood loss

“My father was speaking with the previous owner about anything he is needs to know about the house. The previous owner starts mentioning that a man who lived in the house as a tenant was brutally shot and only made it to the backyard before he had dies from loss of blood. This house is located in a very bad area of our city so shootings are not at all uncommon. Fast forward a few years and we find out that one of the people living in our house was selling drugs. The drug dealer is eventually arrested in that house leaving his wife, mother in law, and daughter in the house. Few years more and we needed to kick out our tenants because they hadn’t paid rent for months. A few nights after my parents went to go tell the tenants to leave or else they were gonna get kicked out. The house burst into flames. A very large portion of the house was in ruins. All the kitchen, one of the rooms. and most of the living room burnt to a crisp. Luckily the insurance covered the damage. Thankfully the house has been sold. Last thing that i heard about it is our now ex-tenant ( a new one) was not paying rent and got into a very nasty fist fight with the people in the neighborhood. he got into the house completely covered in blood and bruises. They had to call the ambulance to save the guy too. A small word of advice people. If you are going to buy a house ALWAYS take location into account. Sometimes buying a house in a dangerous neighborhood for a cheaper price can prove to be a big mistake.” — EveryDayRay

18. They locked their children in the basement

“I’ve been doing this job for a while now. The thing that scares me most is how often I find the locks reversed on bedroom/basement doors.

There’s lots of shitty parents out there.” — CubbieBlue66

19. The basement used to be a morgue

“A historic building I used to lease apartments for was formally an insane asylum and prior to that was a hospital. The building itself is on the national historical registry. Thankfully I never had a bad experience here except for one unsettling thing in a stairwell but I did meet people over the years with stories. Anyways, certain things are required for historical landmarks and restoration tax credits in this particular city so in many of the apartments had to maintain certain features of the original design/architecture like some old tile was still on the walls and floors. The thing that creeped me out was the basement. Even after 50+ years on most days you could catch a whiff of formaldehyde. Some days were more pungent and distinct than others. Of course being the basement it also had the addition of that musty basement smell. Since this was once a hospital obviously it had a morgue. There are a handful of apartments in the basement and the original tile on the floor marked where the morgue actually started. In one of those apartments there is a bedroom with incredibly spacious walk-in closets. If you haven’t already figured it out these two massive closets are the old body lockers with the original latches on the walls next to the entrance to the closets. I still for the life of me cannot understand how anyone could live in that apartment because I wouldn’t even go into that apartment by myself.” — Player_Haterz_Ball

20. A young man killed himself inside of the apartment

“The flat opposite my house was occupied for a couple of years by a lovely young man, long hair, Goth clothing (may not be the right word, but fuck it, I’m old), super polite if a bit reserved.

He hanged himself in the flat one day. I only found out afterwards that he had had a liver transplant some years before and was worried his new liver was failing.

I wish I could have helped him. I used to see him at my doctors surgery (I had a new and sickly baby and was there a lot, so was he) but we just said hi, how are you, etc. So sad for him.

The flat has been occupied since by a succession of young couples, I’ve never said a word in case it troubles them but I’ve tried harder since to let them know I’m there if they ever need a friend. Being young and just starting out can be lonely.” — GreyhoundMummy

21. There was a secret passage hidden somewhere unseen

“That there was a ‘secret passageway and stairs’ between bedrooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors that no one now could find, but it was there, well hidden.” — Back2Bach

22. The apartment was a converted asylum

“Not a realtor, but I used to rent an apartment that was in a converted victorian asylum. It was rumored to be haunted but I never heard or saw anything whilst living there.

When I met with a letting agent to hand the keys back at the property, and for him to run through a final inspection he asked if we had been ‘happy’ there. I said something to the effect of yes, but we were only moving as the landlord had it up for sale. It became clear he was after some kind of ghost story as he explained that none of his colleagues liked going to any apartments in the building because when taking photos to market one of them, the red eye detector kept triggering on his phone when no one was in frame!

The poor guy looked nervous as hell the whole time we were there.” — Zutsky

23. There was a camera hidden inside the bathroom mirror

“I went to visit my sister in California and once I flew in I wanted to shower. Well I took a long enough shower that the mirror was all steamy when I got out. Except one tiny dot in the middle of the mirror. My immediate thought process was “oh weird. I guess if you draw on a mirror with expo it won’t steam around it”. So I went to go investigate and upon looking right up to it I realized it was a fucking camera lens.

Well I freaked and ran out to her room and dressed then went and told her. We went around our back and looked in a utility closet type thing that looked like it was in line with her room. Sure enough the drywall had been cut away and re patched at some point. We cut it open and while there was no camera there was a little lens still stuck to the mirror. It’s real freaky to think whoever was getting actually spied on and if they ever actually knew. Eeeeeek.” — snapdragonflies

24. A woman was beaten to death next door

“Got a good deal on an old apartment because a lady was beaten to death next door. It was on old house converted into separate units.” — Thelatedrpepper

25. An entire family was murdered there

“About 6 months ago I was looking into homes in the area I grew up in because I’m (still) planning on moving back to the area. I found a pretty cute house on a busy street in the town, read all the info, it seemed like a good option for my fiance and I. Then something hit me; based on the address and info provided, I realized it had to be the same house where a Chinese family of four was brutally murdered 2 years ago. The police still don’t know who did it.” — sup518

26. A young kid drowned in the pool

“How about the one I bought… A kid drowned in the pool, so far every person that I have met asks me, ‘You know what happened there right?’ People are nosy.” — SDr6 

Have a scary Real Estate story other than the time you lost a pile of money? Leave it in the comments below!