Real estate is for sure an exciting business and if you ever want to hear some weird stories, just ask a REALTOR® to have drinks with you sometime. A current client posted something on Facebook this week that reminded me of a bizarre situation I found myself in a few years ago. I thought you might find it amusing.
Back around 2010 when the real estate market was tough and there were a lot of foreclosures, I did quite a bit of business with several local banks to sell their foreclosures. One day the president of a bank in Liberty called with the address of a home he wanted me to go look at. He said, “No one’s been to the house yet and I have no idea what it looks like but if you want to come over here this afternoon and pick up the key, you can go look at it and tell me what you think.”
I ran by the bank about 4:45 PM to get the key from him and got to the home a little after 5 PM just as it was starting to get dark (winter time). The house was vacant but there was quite a bit of junk still laying around here and there that the homeowner just left in the house. It was strangely quiet in the home and every now and then I could hear the floor creak under my feet. I just had a weird feeling and was in a hurry to get out of there before it got completely dark outside.
As I went down the stairs into the basement I realized there were no windows and for some reason, the lights wouldn’t turn on. It was very dark and spooky, but I did, however, see one weird red light clear across the other side of the basement. It seemed to be coming from a small room and the door was just barely cracked open. I was thinking to myself, “That’s weird. Someone put a red light in there?“
As I slowly walked across the basement floor looking at the sliver of red light emanating from that room, my mind started racing to all kinds of thoughts from various horror movies I’d watched as a kid.
As I slowly opened the door it gave a loud creeeeeeak. I cautiously peeked into the room and found a nasty basement bathroom bathed in red light. The bathroom was disgustingly filthy and I was wondering, “Why in the world would someone put a red light bulb in this bathroom?” About that time I heard a soft “thump” upstairs! (Insert scary movie music here.)
I literally ran out of that house. I’m sure it was just my mind playing tricks on me, but something about that red bathroom from hell, scared the crap out of me. I did end up selling that house, but I never went back down into that basement again.