No two clients are the same—which can keep your job interesting. Texas REALTOR® magazine asked members to share the strangest requests they received from prospects and clients and how they handled them.

Answers have been edited for space and clarity.

I was asked to sell my client’s burial plots.

I told them they should try and sell them back to the cemetery or try and list them in the local paper and/or Thrifty Nickel. However, we had fun in our office coming up with descriptions of how we would sell it, if we could have listed it on the MLS.

Meredith Kelley, Waco

 

After purchasing 110 acres with a little fixer-upper, the buyers were in the process of moving from the Houston area to Blanco to start renovations. I received a phone call asking me to pick up and take care of the chicks they had ordered. I learned they are shipped just after hatching and must be cared for.

I took it on! I picked up a big box of chicks—along with the waterer and feeder. They cheeped all the way to my office.

For about two weeks I raised the baby chicks. I named each one and wrote his or her identifying marks on a legal pad to pass on to my client.

Candy Cargill, Blanco

 

I was instructed to spin around in circles in each room of the home to help cleanse the energy from the home for the new buyer.

I happily spun around in circles in every room of the home along with my happy client!

Katie Daniel, Austin

 

Weeks after the option period was over, my buyer requested to renegotiate the sale price and ask the seller to drop the price.

The listing agent thought I had lost my mind. I asked her to just think it over for one day. I also sent an email clearly outlining the points I was trying to make over the phone.

Once the listing agent presented this request to her seller, we were able to get a significant price drop. We then successfully sold my client’s property for less than we had desired and proceeded to close on the purchase.

Amani Wang, Austin

 

After I showed my buyer clients a few houses, they went to lunch to make a final decision on one of the houses they viewed. They went to a local diner, asked the waitress if she knew anything about the area where their favored home was located. She told them that she heard the neighborhood was haunted. They called to have me investigate if the neighborhood was haunted.

I agreed to give a quick call to the listing agent to see if there were any rumors of the “neighborhood haunting.” (I felt like an idiot even asking, but told them I would, so I did!) Her response was, “Absolutely not!” She was a bit offended.

Cathy West, Fort Worth

 

I was invited to visit a small ranch for a possible listing. On arrival, I was shocked to be greeted by the naked owners who forgot to warn me they were nudists! They wanted the deed to be changed to stipulate the property had to remain a naturalist camp.

I advised them to consult a real estate attorney. I would have accepted them as clients, but I never saw them again.

Larry Stewart, San Antonio

 

My buyer asked why the seller didn’t disclose that there was bamboo growing in the backyard.

I explained that they don’t have to disclose all the plants in the yard. She got the house but paid landscapers to remove the bamboo and put a concrete border between the house and where it was.

Helen Hackworth, Fort Worth

 

I was asked to go talk to a client’s son to move out of the house and to refer an attorney to help to get him out.

I declined. I am always willing to assist, but I never want to get in the middle of family problems.

Cynthia Larussa, Arlington