Last Updated on October 21, 2020

Since we’re in the middle of the Spoooooky Season, I thought I’d share some of the best Real Estate Horror Stories that I’ve heard over the years. Trust me, these are some of the wildest tales… you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and hopefully – we’ll all learn some lessons along the way.

First, let’s start with a few short stories submitted by AIC Members over the years. 

Stories From the Blog

Stories From Friends

With the amount of time I spend helping agents, I get to hear a lot of both good and bad stories about their businesses, but a few have stuck with me over the years as true “Horror Stories” that I hope you’ll never have to encounter.

The first story I’ve dubbed “When Good Intentions Go Wrong”, and it was shared with me by a friend in North Carolina right as I was getting off stage after speaking at an event. 

When Good Intentions Go Wrong

Document storage and protection have changed dramatically over the last decade and many agents and brokerages have needed to update their procedures in order to maintain documents for a minimum of 7 years. 

One particularly large brokerage in North Carolina decided to continue storing records as paper documents, but wanted to ensure the utmost safety for them so, they rented the entire floor of a commercial building that had been setup as a document storage facility. They moved everything into the new space and slept soundly. However, that peace of mind was short-lived before calamity struck!

Unknown to anyone at the brokerage, piping for the offices upstairs from the storage facility ran directly above the main record room. Late one night, the sewage line burst and flooded the whole place, immediately turning all of the files into a biohazard that had to be incinerated. Just like that, all of the hard work, planning, and most importantly the client records, went up in smoke… literally. 

Makes you think twice about how safe all of your physical documents are!

The next story I have to frighten you with.. bwahaha!… was shared with me just this week in our Agent Inner Circle group, by my friend Chris Kelly.

You Don’t Have to Go Home, But You Can’t Stay Here

Chris flips houses as a big part of his business. He had just completed renovations on a home and moved a new tenant in, however as it turns out, the previous owner’s son had been breaking in to sleep in the basement every night, and leaving before they continued renovations the next day. 

Sadly, the new tenants got a big surprise on their first night in the home when the uninvited guest broke in at 11:00 pm and found somebody living there. Luckily, he immediately ran out and no one was hurt. 

Of course, Chris got a call in the middle of the night when it happened… but what’s really spooky is for the next 3 years he’s been told constantly that the house is in fact haunted. He believes that first experience with the break in is what has his tenants spooked, but who knows… maybe the house really is haunted. 👻👻👻

Horror-ible Marketing

Aside from the stories, real estate can be downright frightening in other ways. Take agent marketing and advertising for example… apparently there’s a fine line between making a good pun and ending up as the butt of yet another Real Estate joke… and with stuff like this floating around, it’s hard not to be a little terrified!

So, we wanted to share some of the most terrifying marketing we’ve come across over the years. 

Do you have a horror story of your own? Maybe you’ve seen some terrifying marketing? We’d love to hear from you below!!