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Posted on 01/28/2026 2:43:21 AM PST by where's_the_Outrage?
A homebuyer’s relief at landing a house turned to hesitation after an impromptu pre-closing visit revealed the property was still cluttered with the seller’s belongings.
In a post on Reddit, the buyer shared how, the day before their scheduled closing, they stopped by the yard only to find old equipment, tools and what looked like junk still strewn around.
The original poster (OP) described a quiet drive-by that turned into an unplanned walk-through once the buyer’s realtor granted early access.
They found the property in a far-from-ready state, with one Reddit user responding: “You should do an official walk through of the house with your realtor on the morning of closing.
“If all that stuff is still there, then I’d tell them they need it removed, or do not close on the house.”
That advice rapidly became the most upvoted comment in the thread out of more than 300 remarks.
The OP, user Fiestyfinance6969, appreciated the forum feedback, sharing, “I didn’t even realize I had the leverage to not close/delay closing on such an issue.
“My realtor is allowing me to do a preliminary walk-through right now, so I’m going back to the house to see what the rest of the condition is before official walk thru in the AM.”
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
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However, I closed in Michigan and found out the sellers can continue to stay in the home for several months after closing paying rent while they move out.
A Newsweak article about reddit chat about a junk yard in the back.
I expect to complete my move to my new house by late summer.
My old house will be offered for sale ‘as-is’.
I’m a Realtor. This happens. Obviously you don’t close until the sellers crap is gone but the problem is that some buyers have a moving truck waiting. They’ve laid out money and could lose that money. That Realtor should write up an addendum that the seller will have buyers expenses deducted from proceeds. This is why you hire a real estate atty and not a title co to close you.
Excellent guidance. TNX for posting.
Yeah. Exactly.
I expected it to be a story of something very valuable that would be of great benefit to the buyer after settlement.
It’s been my experience that the buyer conducts a pre-closing inspection to determine if anything is wrong with the home and then depending on the results negotiates the final price with the seller or the seller fixes all the issues before closing.
If the selling agent refuses to grant access for the inspection, then the deal is off, in fact I would include in the sales contract, the right to conduct an inspection before closing or the deal is off or I would not sign a contract to begin with.
We looked for 3 years. We found the perfect house through a friend and settled on a price. We put our house on the market and I got a full price offer immediately which we accepted. The seller contacted us and told us one of the parties in the sale (3 siblings on behalf of their living mother) rejected the sale. We had to rent our old house for several months, move and then rent the new house until the sibling could be drug into court.
Oddly, the rent on the new house (6000 sq ft, 12 acres in town) was $800 a month. They were using part of the unfinished basement and attic for storage.
When we sold our first house, also in Michigan we had a horrible experience. This was the real estate agent’s first deal and she was anxious to appear really important and arrogant.
The city at the time required a pre-sale inspection and found a few minor things, like a handful of loose tiles in the basement. The agent required us to fix them rather than the norm of the buyer saying they’d take care of it and never doing anything.
So we did. I couldn’t find matching tiles as I told her I wouldn’t be able to. I replaced a few red ones with green tiles.
The inspector never went downstairs and simply listed the tiles as not complete.
The buyer and agent did a walk through the night before and saw they were replaced yet she came to the closing loaded for bear with an affidavit that I was expected to sign that I gave a $1000 retainer until the work was completed.
I said that I would give the retainer albeit with an affidavit that it would be repaid when the work was inspected.
It turned into a shouting match. The idiot agent literally began humming while I was talking.
I finally said “Do you want to lose your entire commission over $10.28 worth of tile?”
She adopted her best real estate agent voice and said “DO you want to lose YOUR NEW HOUSE over $10.28 worth of tile.”
I replied “Sorry Babe, we already closed.”
They walked. Wow was that satisfying.
We had borrowed the money for the down payment for what was supposed to be a few hours. Turned out to be a month before we finally sold the house.
I’m about to sell a house fully furnished and equipped. I’ve bought a couple houses with a lot of furniture (and other stuff) in the deal, sold a house with a lot of furniture. But there wasn’t random junk involved such that I’d need to hire movers and/or a construction dumpster to get rid of it. That would be a deal killer.
Based on the headline, I was expecting the “something odd” to turn out to be a severed head...or similar.
In the last 7 years I bought 3 houses and sold 2, only one did I use a realtor, on that purchase I ended up with 2 title companies because my realtor snuck in her boss’s title company instead of using the existing seller company, what a cluster at closing, almost twice the paperwork.
Another time using a realtor I ended up getting sued because her lawyer screwed up the title.
So I have little use for realtors.
Have you considered posting on Marketplace “Free Furniture”? I did that with several things, 1 was picked up in 2 hours after posting.
Too bad you ran into dishonest, shady and unethical Realtors. There are plenty out there but I like to sleep at night so you’re not describing me.
It will sell furnished just fine. It’s in a place where it’s likely to be a 2nd home.
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I was thinking a dead body.
Throughout the incident, the attorney never asked my opinion and even stopped my wife from speaking at one point. So we just sat there and listened. After I thanked the attorney, he said he was glad my wife and I kept our mouths shut and let him argue for us. He said that is what we hired him for. His job was to protect our interests, not the Realtor's. He said that too often clients want to get involved in the argument and can create problems for themselves. Our case was only $500; at other closings, the problems discovered amounted to thousands of dollars.
A very long and meandering article that provided unrelated information, but not the center-piece of the story after three links.
Similar thing just happened to me. I helped a buyer get a house from a fsbo seller. The seller took the attached garage entry combo box off saying it was given to her as a present. I told her she had 24 hours to return or we would not be closing as she breached contract. My buyer was actually ready to walk because this kind of thing was happening a lot. It was replaced in about 30 minutes. Anything attached to the house, stays.
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