Naked men and really should be locked doors

It was a beautiful day and the idea of spending one more summer day locked inside, staring at my computer screen, was making me more than a little unhappy, so we got in the car and started to drive. While the weather is nice, you’ll see tons of open house signs on every street corner, so I pulled out my trusty iPhone and Realtor.ca app, and mapped out a plan of houses to check out.

Not that we’re looking to buy a new house any time soon – first, our house is definitely not in a place where we could even think about selling, and second, I still need that lottery win to get my lake-view manor with indoor pool.

But I always love poking around other people’s houses for decorating ideas and to get a feel for the market in our area in case we do decide to sell.

So, following the map, we popped into a few houses. (I’m kind of astounded that a newer house that’s smaller than ours, with about a quarter of the backyard, but with a garage, which we don’t have, is going for a good $200K more than what I paid two years ago. ouch.)

Until we got to the one I was really looking forward to seeing. We pull up, check that there’s a for sale sign out front, and walk in. Yep, lock box on the door, ubiquitous ‘please remove your shows’ sign in the front hall, we’re good. Until we stepped inside. And an almost completely naked man comes running down the stairs.

(Sadly, this was not our first encounter with a naked man while house hunting – the last time the guy went into the room beside the room we were in and started stripping, knowing we were about to walk in. But he was a renter trying to discourage people from buying the house and evicting him from his home…)

But this time, they’d cancelled the open house, but hadn’t updated the website, so they were still showing as an active open house… which is why we were there. But seriously, if you’re going to be sitting around in your tightey whiteys at the time you’re supposed to be having an open house, maybe you want to lock your doors?

So, we apologized about a thousand times and booted the heck out of there, but I’m still embarrassed about the whole thing…. though we can’t completely be held to blame. I mean… this is the Toronto area, you don’t exactly expect people to leave their doors unlocked.

In the end, I really didn’t see anything I was in love with. We really like the neighbourhood we’re in,  and the house works for us – despite all the problems we’re having (hey, at least we have electricity again… ). But I did get my chance to see what’s out there, which is always fun.

So, am I the only one who wanders open houses for no other reason than curiosity?

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