Weirdest and/or Scariest Thing You've Seen in a House for Sale

[Jason V.]

For the sake of this thread not turning nasty, let's keep it to REOs or otherwise unoccupied dwellings. I'm not interested in the "OMG what a scumbag" pictures - just the fun stuff :-) 

Like this! 

This was in a 6 bed, 1 bath, 2800 sq. ft. farmhouse (originally built in 1865?) that had a 5 car attached garage (it was actually a converted barn, also built prior to 1900) and sat about 25' off a set of train tracks that were still fairly active. 

In case you can't quite figure out what's going on here: this is a "truncated" door that leads to a "second floor" in the attached "garage" in which someone put an old hot tub. If you look closely, you'll see the red Christmas Lights nailed (not stapled - nails, bent over to hold the wire) to the ceiling. 

So that's the weirdest, here's the scariest (same house, no less):

So if you don't recognize it: that's a ratcheting come-a-long (like you would use to pull a truck out of the mud) in the second floor, secured to a beam. The other end of the cable is the only thing supporting the floor underneath my feet at that moment, because the previous owner liked the "open floorplan" look, and took out the load-bearing walls in the first floor. 

When I realized just how bad this house was structurally, we staged a strategic withdrawal. 

And in case anyone is interested, I believe this house if still available for the low, low price of $28,000. 

Here's one of mine - let's see yours!