New year, New Shitters

 It's been quite a while since I've updated the Showing the Shitter Blog and today had too many good stories to not.  

I picked my client up and we had high hopes for the new year.  We arrive exactly on time at 11:15 for the 1st showing despite the roads still being icy and snow packed with huge ruts.  This lends more to my fantastic driving skills but I digress. We start walking up to the house and can hear barking so I know we are already dealing with some big dogs.  I am hoping that they are just in a kennel but alas as I open the door, 2 German Shepard's noses poke out as they bark what I can only assume was "get the f out of my house".  So we close the door and call the agent so I don't start off the new year with a dog bite.  

The second house we are headed to is overpriced and doesn't have good curb appeal but the interior was enticing enough we put it on the list.  As we turn into the cul-de-sac there is a huge burned out RV halfway into the street.  I assume this just happened as I doubt you can keep a burned out RV on the street for long.  We pull into the drive and sure enough this house has a very good view of this and into the neighbors yard.  The inside was very nice but the privacy was not desirable and when you price a house too high to start, you better hope a fire in an RV doesn't also ruin the sale.  

The 3rd house had no drama but we pull up to the 4th house and this is where it gets good.  This house was in Applewood which is a very good neighborhood on the west side of town and across from a church.  Since it was Sunday the neighborhood was hopping with activity.  We park on the curb and immediately see a garage door window broken.  This isn't super unusual but obviously puts our antenna up.  I walk to the front door and there is a big picture window looking into the kitchen but the window is original and in terrible condition so I am remarking on how you'd need to get new windows when I look into the house and see stuff everywhere.  I thought to myself that maybe I accidently put a fix up on the list to see but then I remembered that I am a good agent and wouldn't make this kind of mistake so I lean into the window to look deeper.  The house WAS beautifully staged but has been completely trashed and there are plates broken, holes in walls, popcorn everywhere, and staging items tossed all over.  I look over to the front door and realize it was completely open so grabbed my client and backed off realizing this was a break in.  We then notice the Ring Doorbell is broken off and thrown in the yard.  As I am calling the cops my client is pointing out more broken windows and staging materials thrown out in the yard.  I also called the listing agent to let her know to call the owner.  The Police showed up and because we didn't go in and didn't know if anyone was still in there, they had to clear the house.  So, guns drawn, they go in.  Meanwhile, they had us wait in the car but as we are there, 2 more showings show up and we have to tell them to back away and get back in their car so they don't go surprise the cops inside.  The neighbor also started walking up and we told him to go back too.  All was clear and the cops said that whoever broke in really trashed the house and it was in bad condition. You never want to see that when you are showing houses and now the owner and stager have a huge headache on their hands so our hearts go out to them.

At that point we were late to the 5th showing but also a little let down that there was no good excitement there so called it a day after that.