Spooky Halloween Series - Spooky Showings, Episode 2

In this episode of the spooky series, the hosts share personal anecdotes and experiences related to spooky homes and showings. They discuss the eerie feelings associated with certain houses, recounting stories of clients who sensed spirits and their own encounters with unsettling energies. The conversation flows from light-hearted banter to serious reflections on the nature of homes and the energies they hold, culminating in a discussion about the unique experiences realtors face in their profession.

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Transcript

Spooky 2 Spooky Homes (00:00)
And then I hear a ding.

And I was like, what is that? You know, we've been in this house for 20 minutes at this point. So was it like a bell? It was like metal hitting glass. Oh, like tinking. Yes. OK. You know, like every horror movie.

Then I walk in and they have a sectional sofa and on one of the cushions is a puppet. Oh, dear Lord.

But they have it sitting on the sofa. They have a blanket around its lap. And it's just staring right at the front door. OK, that is terrifying. That is terrifying. What the heck?

welcome

back to the house next door. Yes, and it's part of our spooky series. And this is spooky episode number two, where we're talking about spooky homes and spooky showings. But before that.

I always like to catch up with Anthony because he's got such great stories about what he's doing in his life because He's you know young and single and out in the world and I'm 50 and married and home and I have no dogs No responsibilities. I have my dogs on my farmhouse. So I don't go anywhere except for work So yeah, so last night or yesterday I went to Where did we go 54th Street? Okay with one of my title reps and it was more of a friend

Like, yeah, not professional, not business, just friends. ⁓ And so we went to 54th and I hadn't eaten all day. I for happy hour. I went after showing. You know, it was a good showing. Well, and that's very typical for realtor life that you go all day and realize that you have not eaten. exactly. then you start drinking. Same today. Well, we haven't started drinking, but it's.

Five o'clock and then we had some snacks and I think that's first time I've ate all day. my gosh. I had coffee. Does that count? I see. So Anthony is not eating daily. You need to eat. Okay, go on. So you sound like my mother. ⁓ So we went and had some drinks and I had two margaritas. And I got a little tipsy. Not drunk.

Yeah. I felt like I needed to go sober up before I drove home. You were feeling fuzzy. So I went got some food. So I went to a Starbucks. ⁓ In South Park Meadows. And I got a black coffee. I sat there, got some food, got some water. So you're sobering up at the Starbucks. Yes. And it's not my first time at that Starbucks sobering up. my God.

I used to work over in that area when I worked at HEB and I would go out with ⁓ some of my managers and we would go to, was it Trudy's? Trudy's, yeah. they have some strong drinks there. And so there's been a few times that I've had to sober up at that Starbucks. But I know my limit. you know, I'm not driving dangerously or anything like that. ⁓ I just, you know, need a...

Hey, you took the time, took a couple hours and hydrate and ate and you were safe to go on the road again. Good for you. And I usually what gets me in that situation is not eating. Yeah. And so getting food and getting water and black coffee is essential. That does wonders. So what have you been up to? Well, nothing like that. No, pozole. I had a couple of glasses of wine and watched the Charlie Sheen documentary.

Oh, that sounds so exciting. So riveting. last night when I got home, I opened up, well, I already had a bottle of wine open. I left it on the counter because I was too tired to even pour it. Oh my gosh. And then I got no sleep. Oh. I stayed up. I went Because you drank coffee. It doesn't do anything to It doesn't do anything to you? OK. I run on caffeine and water.

Okay, well evidently that's what you do. You run on caffeine, water, and alcohol and some crackers. Yeah, yeah, occasionally, occasionally. It's the anorexia, uh, osempic, uh, uh, realtor diet. Right?

All right, let's get to our spooky showings. ⁓ I'll let you go first this time. Spooky houses. So I feel weird because again, I'm talking about myself. These are houses that I personally was looking at and I swear I have clients. But you like the historic homes, which are going to be spooky. Well, and these actually weren't these two houses are not historic. And this was years and years ago.

actually before I was in real estate, um, one was before I was in real estate and one was right when I got my real estate license. that's the spooky thing. Is that you're in real estate? Yeah. and it's just my own experience. And I think it's because when I'm showing houses with clients, I'm so objective and I'm not emotional about it. And I'm just looking at, you know, is this layout going to work? Are there any major issues we need to see?

Is this meeting their criteria? And I'm watching their reactions and taking them through the home. I feel like if there are spirits and stuff in the house, you're going to fill them, even when you're focused on other things. You would think that. But I have been in houses with my clients where one in particular, we were talking. And she's like, can we just leave? And I said, OK, yeah. Yeah, we probably should get going to the next house. And she's like, no, no, it's not that. I cannot be in this house anymore.

And I said, oh gosh, does it smell? Because I'm like, I can't smell anything. And she's like, no, there are so many spirits in this house. And I was like, wow, I mean, I could probably walk into the dungeons of hell and not even know it. You've probably been there. I was so out of touch with it. But then when it's, so I think sometimes it's hard for me to pick up on that stuff. Did you just hear the crows? I did just hear a crow. That's kind of creepy. For a spooky episode. I wonder if that's going to be in the.

⁓ But anyway, let's get back to my story. this was happening to me and this was before I was a realtor and Craig and I had been married just a few years and ⁓ he was maybe gonna have to get a new job or he wasn't getting a new job. He was getting transferred potentially to Houston. And so we were looking at homes in like this old country club. I think it's.

I think it was spring Texas or something, because that was close to the office. And was these homes and these older, like 1970s country club vibe, which Craig and I love that vibe. We were all about it. Wood There's so much potential. Yes. I mean, we love a wood paneling moment. We love a bar in the living room. And the exposed stone. Yes. We love it.

We were looking at all these different houses and then we got to one in particular and it was a thunderstorm. So that added to the creepiness. And we got to this one and it was beautiful. mean, Craig and I really loved it. And the realtor would not go in the house. So she unlocked the door and it's raining and it's thunderstorm. It's raining and it's a thunderstorm and she did not come in. And it was vacant and she just stood in the doorway.

We started walking in and immediately I felt like this heaviness, especially in the primary bedroom. And it wasn't a good heaviness. I felt almost like there was evil. It was dark and it scared me. And then I wanted to go upstairs because I was like, okay, is this just me being weird? But I'm telling you that realtor, she went through every house with us. She's standing out in the rain, not coming in this house.

Had she been there before? She didn't say. But she may have because, you know, she's trying not to... to the door and said, I'm not going in there. Yeah. She was being a good realtor in the sense that she wasn't trying to... Persuade you not Yeah. She wasn't putting any of her stuff. and we go upstairs.

Oh my gosh, upstairs was even worse. Is that where the primary was? No, the primary was downstairs off to the side and upstairs was such a cool floor plan too. It felt like this is where my kids would be staying. Because at that time all of our kids were little or younger, middle school age. And they were all with us. it felt like something evil, like a demon. I don't want to get all weird, but it felt like bad energy.

And it was so sad because it had the best wood paneling. And it had these awesome like leaded diamond like window panes that was so cool. And it had this built-in bar in the living room. And I'm like, well, can we exercise the demons? So did the kids feel? No, the kids weren't with us. And so we really liked it. But at the same time, Craig said, did you feel that?

gosh, how could you not feel it? And so he ended up not getting transferred to Houston and we stayed put. And then my second house, very similar, same thing that happened to us. This time it was in Buttercup Creek. Are you familiar with that area? So Cedar Park. I just got my realtor license and I was practicing, you know how I talked about how I would practice opening doors and kind of touring homes when they were vacant. And so we were thinking about, okay,

We wanted to buy a house together because the house, we're a blended family, second marriage, and the house that he lived in was one that he got when he was divorced with his kids. And it never really felt like my home. It always felt like I was in their home. And we really needed a home together. Because if anybody knows anything about blended families and raising stepchildren and all that, it's hard. mean, the failure rate of blended marriages is...

the blended rate of marriage. Yeah, it's like 90%. I mean, it's really hard. we had all those struggles that we can talk about at another time. getting our own home together was really important to next stepping stone. Yeah, it was our next stepping stone. So again, this was like an old, I like weird houses. And so this was an old kind of quirky house, but it wasn't like vintage. It was probably 80s, 90s. And then redone.

and had all these weird quirks about it. I loved it. Like upstairs, all the bedrooms were upstairs and one of the bedrooms had like these weird octagon windows that I was just all about. I was like so about it. Craig was horrified and he hated this house and I was just all in, like all in. I love it, it's cool, it's great, it's in our budget, it's in the school district. Why are you being such a Debbie Downer? And he wouldn't really tell me and he's like, well, I don't know.

And then we kind of got into it about it. We started to get into a fight about it. And I was like, you just don't want to like it because I like it. You know, like I was getting a little petty. And we were at dinner and he said, no, let's go back. Let's go back. I'll give it another try. And I said, okay. And so we go back, it's dark now, which it's always kind of weird to see a house at night, but we had seen it during the day.

whatever, and so we pull up and there's this black cat just staring at us. And I love black cats, but this was a creepy, this was a creepy moment. Not a normal black cat. Not a normal black cat. And then I get in and we're walking around and it feels different. The energy has totally shifted. And we went towards the primary and we were in the bathroom in the primary and all of a sudden it just felt like a vice went.

on my arms or something. I just felt cold, ice, and very uncomfortable. And I felt, again, this heaviness that was not a good heaviness. It was a darkness. And so I just kind of got real glip and I was, okay, well, that's enough. Let's just go. And Craig thought, because I was being a little glip and short, that I was mad at him. And like...

No, he's like, no, we can stay longer and kind of get a feel for it. continues. We can go upstairs. I'm like, I'm not going upstairs. And he's like, let's go upstairs. I'm trying to be fair and open. I'm like, no, we're going. he's like, Barb, honestly, I'm open minded to this house. I'm like, no, we are leaving now. And he's like, I'm really not trying to be difficult. So he thought this whole time I was just mad because I the house. retaliating against Yes, and now I'm just being big brat about it or something. ⁓

and we get in the car and that cat is still there in the same place just staring at us. And I'm like, just go, right, go. And he's like, Okay, Barb. And I said, it wasn't that I was mad. That house has gotta be haunted. And he's like, you felt it. He's like, I felt that the first time we went in and I didn't wanna say anything to you. And I said, we should have. I didn't feel it the first time, but the second time, that house was horrible.

He said, I know there's no way we could have lived there. He's like, I'm so glad you found me. He's like, I thought you were mad at me the whole time. I'm like, no. And I later ran into that agent, the listing agent. I was doing an open house for one of my clients in Circle C. And he came in and I recognized his name because I had that experience in the house and he was no longer on the listing. He had been since let go. And I asked him about it and he's like, oh yeah, that was a sad story.

And I said, what happened? I said, because to be honest, I liked the house, but it had this heaviness and this darkness. And he said, it was a really bad situation. The couple was going through a divorce and he said, I can't get into details, but it was very bad. And it's like, I think that energy was still lingering behind. Yeah, it was crazy. So those were, those were my two spooky houses for myself.

So tell us about yours. I've had two that I can think of. Well, three ⁓ for different reasons. Right. ⁓ I had one recently. It was in Smithville. That makes sense. Smithville's old. It was an old house. I don't remember. I think it was the early 1900s, but it had the old carpet from the 70s that like.

yellow mustard. Well, and that's just spooky in itself. Putting that carpet. It's a crime. In a 1900s. And I like the 70s, but that is the carpet. I do not appreciate the 70s carpet. And it was a big two story. I don't remember. It was big. 2700 square feet. That is big for that time. Yeah. Yeah. And so it had been vacant and you could tell it was vacant for a while.

and we walked in, none of the electricity's on, you know, I had trouble with the door, which I think we had an episode on that. But I always feel like that's kind of a sign of a haunted home. Yeah, when you can't get access in. When you it was one of those old locks. Yeah. And with the iron doorknob. ⁓ so cool. Yeah. And so I had issues with that to start with. And then we get in and you just feel that heaviness.

I don't know how to explain it besides I didn't want to be there. And my clients felt the same way. they felt it too. They felt that too, but they wanted to go upstairs. ⁓ god. And I didn't want to go upstairs because one, there's no let's choice deon. I'm paranoid already in this house. Yeah. I don't know the backstory of it, but I don't think it's good. And there's an ⁓ old car that's parked in the carport.

that's been there for, I think someone died in it. And I think that was their car and it's in state. I don't know for sure. I should probably look it up. But we go upstairs and I just feel when we are going in the upstairs stairwell, I just feel that. Closing in on you. Yeah. And.

I'm getting like goosebumps right now. know. If you guys keep, well you're watching, you can visibly see that Anthony is getting uncomfortable. was very uncomfortable. so the listing agent asked me for feedback. Did you tell the listing agent? No. Well, you know who this listing agent is. I do? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I had a deal with her. Okay. So wasn't somebody that you could be honest with about this.

but it was gonna take way too much money to make it livable. And it was next to the railroad tracks too. That's always such a shame. Yeah. And I was not filling the house. My clients did not. And I even had a hard time locking the door when we were leaving. Like the key was getting stuck. It wasn't letting me take the key out. Interesting. And it was not, and honestly, I don't even know if it locked because.

because it might not have wanted to be locked. Is it still for sale? It probably is. Oh my gosh. We'll have to look it up. Yeah, because there are some of these older houses that need a lot of work in Smithville and LaGrange areas where sometimes they're on the markets for a couple of years. Yeah, this one was on for, I want to say over 200. And if the home is just so much work, it's going to take the right

buyer who's gonna come in and do that. Yeah, and I felt like it would take over a hundred thousand and you couldn't get it that bad. And there's nothing you can do about those railroad tracks. I mean, I looked at, you know, the one I fell in love with in La Grange only had had two owners and it was built in the late 18, like I think it was 1890s. Wow. So we would have been the third owner and ⁓ it was a stone's throw from the railroad tracks.

It's just a deal breaker. you got used to the noise, all your plumbing is shaking and your window and your foundation. that's another issue. And then, that one, so I think my most terrifying one was in Martindale, Texas, which is outside of San Marcos. I was gonna say, where is Martindale? It's about 10 minutes east of San Marcos.

It's a little itty bitty town, but we go, and it was actually rental. And I was showing one of my friends and it's an old farmhouse, probably early 1900s. We unlock it. You I don't feel bad when we're in there. We unlock it. turn on, so I go in, I turn on all the lights and whatever. ⁓ So they're looking around and then we go upstairs. We're up there for probably about 10 minutes looking at the floor plan, opening doors, you know, all that good stuff. And then I hear a ding.

And I was like, what is that? You know, we've been in this house for 20 minutes at this point. So was it like a bell? It was like metal hitting glass. Oh, like tinking. Yes. OK. You know, like every horror movie. So and it's on like an acre and it's in town, but it's off. You know, it's not close to anything. You back up to a ranch and it's a small Martindale.

I've never been there. So I'm assuming it's really really small. Yes. Okay. And so we're upstairs and I hear that the metal hitting the glass and I looked at my clients they looked at me and I was like I don't know what that is. they're like I don't either and the husband's like well I'll go downstairs and so me and the wife are upstairs and he

I think he goes down there and he's down there for a few minutes so then we go downstairs and he's like, it's the ceiling fan, ⁓ like metal hitting, but it's been on for 20 minutes by this point. There's nothing different. So it was on, doing When we first got in the house I turned it on. Yeah. And it's downstairs in the little dining room. Okay. And it doesn't start tinking until we're upstairs. And there was nothing different about it? It wasn't wobbling, it wasn't hitting something new? No. It just started making noise.

The only other thing that I can think of is maybe when we walked on that certain spot of the floor. Right, that it loosened something. But it was not a pleasurable sound. I'm sure like we people could debunk this for us. But at the same time when you're in an old farmhouse, it's scary. So the weird thing is right after that I went into the backyard and you know before before all of this I didn't feel any weirdness about this house. I was sitting in or standing in the back far left corner.

And I just felt that, like caving in. And so I feel like something happened in that little area. In that area? That's where some trauma was? And so that's probably my worst one. And then this one's kind of off topic. OK. It was a little mobile home, double wide, over in Buda. And it was near 35. And I was meeting a lead that I've never met before.

I got out of the car and I just didn't feel right in the house, like at the house. And it was nothing, you know, it's not an old house or anything. a mobile home. Yeah. Yeah. And, and actually called my mom because we have a, we have a code where- really? Yeah. If we don't feel safe, then- You call each other? And we tell them each other the code word and then we'll call back in 20 minutes to make sure, you know, we're good.

That's great. That's a very good policy. Yes. And so I go unlock. I usually go into the house before my clients get there. I want to look around, turn on the lights and stuff. I open up the front door. ⁓ I think there was a dog in there, which there wasn't supposed to be. Was it vacant? Uh-huh. No. No, someone lived there. OK. But there was nothing about a dog. And then

Right when I walked, so first of all, that scares me because I'm not expecting something there. Then I walk in and they have a sectional sofa and on one of the cushions is a puppet. Oh, dear Lord.

But they have it sitting on the sofa. They have a blanket around its lap. And it's just staring right at the front door. OK, that is terrifying. That is terrifying. What the heck? And I don't even think I went in the house. I just sat outside. And my client never showed up. I locked the door and left. Why did they have a little blanket over the puppet? It was creepy. That is

It was right when you walked into the door. It stared right at you. No, no ma'am. Like, put it in a closet. I know, put it in a closet. So, something funny too, this is a different house, ⁓ but there was a house that was shown it was vacant and the owner put a skeleton in the closet. That's kind of awesome. Yeah, not spooky, but. I have shown a couple where we got a few more minutes, so I'll just share a few little stories.

One was, I was showing some clients and we were trying to figure out, some clients just want to look at the house and other clients want to know the history. Like, why do you think these people move? What do you think? What do you think? And we're always just hypothetically. That's what I call it. We're just being hypothetical. So I made hypothetical a verb, hypothetically. And this one, the house was lived in pretty rough.

and you could see just, know, it was dirty, the floors were scratched. It looked like a house that was lived in very, very hard. And they really liked it because it had a pool, but when we got there, the pool was like a Barbie pool with plastic vinyl, it was awful. And the house photographed really well, but the wear We've all seen one of those. It terrible. And there was nothing in this house, right? Nothing, not a stitch of furniture.

And then we go upstairs and we open one of the closet and there's a lone wedding dress hanging in there. And I'm like, well, I think it's safe to say it's a divorce sale. We might be able to negotiate a little more on this one folks. And then another one. This is for my friends, my really good friends, like my best friends.

And this is before they bought the house in my old neighborhood that I lived in, Clearwater Ranch. They like unique, cool homes. She's super artistic designer. And so they wanted something with acreage. And we were looking at this house in Georgetown. And first of all, the pool was in the front yard. Oh, that's a statement. It's always interesting. Yeah, it's a statement.

⁓ it was an old house. It was a house from probably the 1900s, It was an older home. And they're not big on older homes. They like quirky homes and stuff and opportunities to do things. They would modernize it and do a project. But they are very sensitive to anything that might be haunted. ⁓ They're terrified. When I was looking at historic homes, they were terrified by every home I looked at.

They're like, it's great, except that it's haunted and old. And so we're going through this house, and we go upstairs, and her husband goes around the corner and opens one of the closets. And it's full of all these vintage dresses, but we didn't know that yet because we were in another room, but her husband had found it. And he grabbed one of the dresses and ran out at us going, woo! And we were like,

And they had staged the upstairs with dolls, porcelain dolls. Why? And weird little Is that staging? No. Weird antique tables with the dolls at the tables. And then this closet full, I mean, it was actually really cool, full of all these gorgeous vintage 1950s gowns. And it was like, it was kind of really cool. At the same time, it was, what the?

WTF, you know, like what the heck is going on here? And after that, was like my clients were like, they were turned off. They were turned off beforehand. The pool in the front yard really kind of got them. We knew that was in the picture. kind of thought because it was on property, we thought maybe that wasn't the front yard. You couldn't really tell per the pictures. It was. And then there was this old outbuilding. I think those are what's haunted. Well, and I had to go explore. I said, we're here.

Let's look at it. They just stood back like I was insane. And I had to pull and wrench the door open. It was full of spiders and things. And it was fine. But my client, he's like, yeah, no, this isn't going to happen. This isn't for us. This is not happening. And I'm like, it's fine. Let's go. So then you put an offer on it. So we let it go. So this was good. We had some good stories for our spooky home showing series. And I feel like.

this could also be an ongoing topic because there's so many, there's so many weird adventures in real estate. Like what happens behind the scenes, right?

Well, join us for our final spooky episode next week.

If we make it. Yeah. Well, thank you for joining us and we'll see you next week.

What is the next one?