“This Exists And It Is Awful”: 50 Zillow Listings So Bad, They Look Fake

The Nightmare On Zillow Street Facebook group has only been around since 2020, but it has seen immense success. The community has amassed a whopping 214K members, and it continues to grow every single week. According to the administrators of the group, it’s meant to be a place to collect home photo listings that make you think, “WTF?” And clearly, there’s no shortage of those kinds of homes on Zillow.

Some homes appear terrifying from the outside, whether they look like severe hazards or feature extremely questionable taste. And other houses appear relatively normal at first glance, but once you get a peek of the inside, you realize there’s a good reason why they haven’t sold yet. No home is perfect, but very few of these have enough potential to entice buyers.  

Growing up, I used to accompany my mom to countless open houses. Even if my parents had no real interest in moving at the time, she just wanted to know what was out there. Plus, it’s fun to be nosy and take advantage of the rare opportunity to get a glimpse inside someone else’s house. And it can be a great way to get inspiration for how to decorate your own home.

As an adult, I have to admit that I never attend open houses. But nowadays, there’s no need to leave your couch! No matter where you are, you can pull up Zillow on your phone or laptop and have a field day critiquing other people’s homes. And apparently, this is such a common pastime that HuffPost published an article breaking down “Why Browsing Zillow Feels So Good.”  

According to psychiatrist Lea Lis, scrolling through home listings became a way for young singles to fill the void when they couldn't use dating apps during the pandemic. Instead of swiping through potential matches, they decided that they could instead peruse gorgeous (or ugly) homes.

Many also enjoy romanticizing the idea of moving outside of the expensive cities that they currently reside in, where they’ll likely never be able to afford homes. “They are wanting to escape from cities to a simpler, more green life. This has become more appealing for many, creating the mass exodus that cities like New York and Boston have experienced,” Lis told HuffPost.

Scrolling through Zillow can also be a great form of escapism and daydreaming. Most of us have imagined our dream homes since we were kids playing MASH during recess. But very few of us will ever have the opportunity to build a home; we might not even be able to purchase one!

So the next best thing is seeing what’s out there and critiquing them from the comfort of our own homes (or more likely, our own apartments). Plus, we can get an idea of what the housing market is like in other cities or states that we might not have ever considered moving to. As Dan Levy stated in the “Zillow” SNL skit, “I’d never live in North Carolina, but if I did, I could buy a big, gross mansion.”

While you probably wouldn’t actually be interested in purchasing any of the homes on this list, it is true that there’s something out there for everyone. And according to Michelle Mastro at Business Insider, wacky homes have become increasingly popular in recent years. Zillow Gone Wild communities on social media have even inspired an HGTV show by the same name! Nowadays, real estate agents “actively try to juice up the bizarre elements of their homes” to try to attract the attention of quirky buyers, Mastro explains.

If you’re actually using Zillow to find a home that you love and want to purchase, the platform has some tips on how to find the perfect match. First, they recommend customizing your notifications. Houses tend to sell quickly, so you’ll want to know immediately when something that fits your criteria is uploaded. You can also make sure that you’re informed as soon as a house you’re interested in is updated.  

Utilizing Zillow’s feature that allows you to save homes can also be helpful. You can see all of the listings you’re interested in in one place, and you can even compare your saved homes side-by-side. Meanwhile, when you’re searching for new homes, Zillow recommends searching for exactly what you would say out loud if you were describing your dream home. Their “natural language search tool” allows you to type in precisely what you want, without the hassle of toggling a bunch of filters.

Are you enjoying your scroll through all of these interesting homes, pandas? Keep upvoting the ones that you find particularly shocking, and let us know in the comments below if you’ve ever come across any nightmare listing on Zillow. Then, if you’re interested in checking out another Bored Panda list featuring real estate listings, we recommend visiting this article next!