Creepy old man trying to rent out house
Last year I was trying to find a place for me and my boyfriend to rent. I was in my second year of university and I was trying to find a place close to my school. My mum sends me a private house listing and we both enquire about it. It was an old house but pretty large and was cheap for the size and it was a 10 minute walk from my university. The owner of the house reaches out to both me and my mum (My parents lived 2 hours away and they wanted me to rent a place big enough for them to stay in if they decided to visit). He asks some questions and mostly just seemed very awkward, there wasn't really any warning signs initially. He organized for me to come see the house as part of a group house tour with the other applicants. It all seemed pretty legit, even the cheaper price of the house wasn't a red flag because it was quite old and needed some work.
Over the weekend that I was meant to view the house there was a massive storm, the man called to cancel and we rescheduled for the following week. So when the day came I finished my last class of the day and headed to the house. I got there 15 minutes early and there were no cars around the house. I didn't want to go inside so early so I decided to wait , sitting on the wall of a church that was across the street. The house just creeped me out for some reason. The front door was wide open but it was really dark inside so I couldn't see into the house at all and I felt like I was being watched. It was enough of a weird feeling for me to call my aunt who lived close by to come and look at the house with me. I just felt so uncomfortable, kind of sick, like there this anxious pit in my stomach and I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched from the front doorway which was shut when I looked back. While I waited for my aunt I decided that when the other potential tenants arrived I would walk over to the house.
They never arrived. I was the only one meant to be viewing the house that day.
No one else pulled up to the house until my aunt got there. There wasn't even any sign of the owner. She arrives parking on the front lawn and we go up to the house. My aunt didn't knock she walked right in and we run into the owner of the house. He seemed extremely surprised to see my aunt and he looked kind of annoyed. But I assumed it was because she just walked in and didn't knock. He proceeded to give us the tour of the house. It was much more run down than it looked in the pictures and they had put up walls and blocked off doorways very haphazardly. The house smelt kind of weird, a bit damp and gross but it could've just been old house smells. The house was very windy and complex and it was very easy to get turned around. The man would either follow us extremely closely, seemingly without any idea of personal space and when he wasn't following us he would just vanish, only to appear in front or behind us without warning.
We tried to make small talk but he would just stand close to us, not say anything and just smile. It was very uncomfortable. He would occasionally ask questions about my boyfriend as I had mentioned him in the initial phone call and he asked if I would be living with any other girls. I said no, just me and my boyfriend and occasionally my parents and siblings when they came to visit. The listing had mentioned that it was pet friendly so I decide to ask if when my parents visited if it would be okay for them to bring our golden retriever and if the yard was safe for a large dog. He suddenly became extremely annoyed and snapped at me for even asking about pets, especially a dog. He went on a rant about how he had spent YEARS on his garden and he wouldn't have a dog ruining it. The garden consisted of a single tree, some weeds and dirt. There was no plants, no garden bed, nothing.
I got an awful feeling from him that I just couldn't explain and looking at him was very strange. It felt as though I was looking at someone who was trying to appear older and more frail than he actually was. He was dressed like he was in his 70s and he would hunch over, but occasionally I would see him standing up straight, I remember he had extremely clean white sneakers that were kind of chunky and in fashion especially among guys around my dad's age. He also had really yellow teeth which i remember thinking was strange because he was apparently a dentist. We ended up leaving the house very quickly and we never enquired about it again or heard anything from him.
But I did look him up and I was right, he was younger than he appeared, he was in his late 50s, maybe early 60s and he ran a dental practice nearby. I don't know if this counts as creepy because nothing really happened aside from me feeling uncomfortable but I just hope that he didn't end up renting that place out to any young girls.