The Worst Real Estate Deals in History

It’s a nightmare scenario: you buy a piece of property, a house, or an apartment, only to find out that the deal you thought you were getting wasn’t actually what you got. Secret mold, foundation problems, and weird property boundaries are the most common ways that people can duped in real estate deals. But, for an unfortunate selection of folks they got some pretty bad shakes in the deal- including not even getting to live there in some cases. Here are some of the worst real estate deals we’ve come across. Brace yourself- they ain’t pretty.

Idaho Snake House

Imagine buying a house and not realizing that a huge, vast, never-ending community of snakes have been making their home under your house for generations and have no intention of stopping. That’s what happened in Idaho when a young couple, Ben and Amber Sessions, with a child on the way bought a house for what they thought was a good deal. They did not fully understand when they signed an acknowledgment that there were some snakes on the property what that truly meant. The house was apparently built on a hibernaculum, a community snake den where snakes gather each season in huge numbers as the temperatures fall. The snakes use the space as a refuge, but also as a breeding ground.

This meant the couple found snakes in every part of their home: in the siding, in the yard, in the laundry room, in the walls. They moved out after only 3 months of living in the nightmare house and suffered mental trauma in the process. It’s hard to imagine and yet this is not the only house where this has occurred! Garter snake bites do not pack much of a punch, but in these numbers it would be impossible to ignore such a throng of snakes. The Sessions eventually filed for bankruptcy and the house went up for sale again.

The Oldest Lady’s Apartment

Jeanne Louise Calment died in 1997 at a whopping 122-years-old, the oldest person to have ever lived at the time of this writing. She was from Arles, France, and outlived everyone in her family, as well as a man who tried to buy her apartment. Well he did buy it but the story is more complex.

Having no living heirs, this buyer thought he was making a shrewd real estate decision. In France there exists a type of home sale known as “viager occupé”. This is an arrangement where the owner who is selling – often someone who is older – sells the home while remaining its sole resident. Then when the seller passes on the home is finally occupied by the buyer. In this way older folks can ensure they both have a place to live until they die, but also have the funds (usually around 30% of the property value) to handle any financial issues that might arise in their final years.

But, Calment did not pass away during the man’s lifetime despite the fact that he was 40 years her junior. Instead she outlived him and his family ended up having to pay her money as part of the deal. So he never got to live in the apartment he paid for!

Wicked Witch House

In 2021 Taralyn Romero bought a house in a small town in Colorado. The backyard to the house was far below the home, and included part of a creek that abuts a park. Romero saw the house in the winter and had no idea what she was in for when the weather turned warm.

Unbeknownst to her, the community played and swam in the creek every year, viewing it as part of the park. When she protested people began to turn against her and she began referring to herself as the Wicked Witch as she felt so hated for trying to take away what they saw as “their” park.

The county later sued her and a settlement was reached where the sandy “beach” part her backyard was sold to become part of the park, while she kept a small portion of the creek for her personal use and enjoyment. However, while the details were being hashed out, the townspeople called for her home to be burned down or for her to be driven from town. Talk about a nightmare scenario!