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Buying a home is a huge milestone and an even bigger financial responsibility. If you’re lucky enough to make that purchase, you’ll usually do everything possible to ensure it’s in good condition—checking every corner, floorboard, and fixture before you sign on the dotted line.
But even the most thorough inspections don’t always reveal everything. And sometimes, that’s not such a bad thing.
One Redditor asked people to share the hidden gems they discovered after moving into their homes, and the replies turned into a truly fascinating thread. Scroll down to see some of the best stories and let us know which ones surprised you the most!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
The area behind our house was just brush and not very impressive. But the city ended up buying it and re-wilding it. For the first five years, they just let it grow and then they did a controlled burn and now we have a forest with walking path behind our house 10 years later. And every June for the whole month, it’s full of fresh wild raspberries. We have a herd of deer, a fox, ground squirrels, squirrels, hawks, eagles, wild pheasants, and hundreds of rabbits. It was like winning the lottery.
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#2
The former owners were moving across the country. They wound up leaving me most of their furniture and their cat(with my consent, of course) Nice furniture and the best cat ever!
Edit: The former owners would have taken her if I declined to keep her. They were driving across country with a large dog and toddler to their new home. They thought it would be a lot to put a ten year old cat through. They were good people thinking of what would be best for her and I think we all made the right decision.
#3
All the doors in my condo were white flat/slab doors, that you might get from Menards or Home Depot, with basic modern door handles. Or so I thought. They ended up being solid wood doors, put together like butcher block, with a mahogany veneer and a beautiful inlay. I’ve been stripping and sanding each one down and staining. They are gorgeous!
#4
Two huge aboriginal art paintings in the roof discovered when having solar panels installed. We had to smash the garage ceiling to get them out but worth it.
#5
I found the original owners wedding rings... the mother died in childbirth in 1928. The dad died in an accident in 1932. We bought the house from the daughter, who was in a nursing home, in 2001. She had been raised by an aunt and had never been back to the house. I sent her the rings and a bunch of photos. She was ecstatic to receive them. She died and left me as her sole heir... it was only like 10k, but super nice. Plus, I got the rings back...
#6
Not so much a hidden “gem”, but in college, I rented an off-campus house. On move in day I was walking around with my landlord when we opened a closet door to see a bunch of my dad’s friends names scratched into the wall - It had been their house about 30 years prior!
Was awesome having them come visit and tell us all their old college stories, more of a fun coincidence than a gem, but it was so crazy to find.
#7
Found a secret room behind a bookshelf, like something outta a spy movie. Turns out, it's a perfect hideaway for all my junk.
#8
The hidden gem was our neighbours.
2 other young families bought just after us and we are all great friends. Our other neighbour is an elderly lady.
It makes such a difference having nice neighbours. They are in for the long run too, not flippers.
#9
The ad and the owners did not mention that the back yard contained botanical garden-level flowering trees and a waterfall/ frog pond. When the snow melted we were delighted. It has been fun seeing perennials pop up everywhere too.
nomnomborkbork 2 months ago
I love getting a great garden, and what a surprise it all is the first year.
#10
We purchased a house that had fabulous views of the Chesapeake Bay...water view wasn't mentioned in the listing. We were the only people who toured the house and bought it.
#11
Basement wall folded down into a tabletop train setup.
#12
My brother found a few $50s in a light fixture shortly after he moved in after the bulb blew. He decided to look at the other fixtures… found $750 or so hidden around.
#13
In-floor heating. The previous owner didn't know it existed. Worked great.
Blue Bunny of Happiness 2 months ago
PSA - Never leave your box of chocolates on the floor overnight if you have underfloor heating unless you like melted gloop. Yes, I did exactly that.
#14
We just bought a house a bit outside of a small city. It's on a wooded 2 acre lot, so sizable but not huge. When we came for the inspection, I walked around the property to take stock of everything. The listing noted a chicken coop and hot tub, but didn't talk much about the rest of the site.
As I walked around, I found that a little stream crossed near the edge of our land, complete with a flat clearing beside it perfect for camping or having a firepit! That was something I always wanted but figured it was way too niche to make a requirement while house hunting. Looking forward to many years of enjoying it with my son.
#15
I bought 18 acres of land in Maine. When I had it surveyed, I found that I owned 4 extra acres.
#16
A strawberry patch in the back yard. We bought the house in the winter so we didn’t discover it until the spring. We have enjoyed it ever since. We also found a bunch of old fashioned skeleton keys in a cupboard. All the doors had been replaced in the house so they didn’t fit anything but they are a novelty. We have them displayed on a shadow box.
Uncle Panda 2 months ago
My sister bought a house in late summer, weird tall woody weeds in the backyard and all. The next spring, she discovered she had a massive plot of asparagus.
#17
A working sauna-- like a walk-in two bench dry sauna with a spray-rock setup. Somehow during the three walk-throughs, we assumed it was a linen closet. TBF we were 1st time homebuyers.
#18
I don't know if I would call it a Hidden Gem but the previous owners left a perfectly good John Deere riding lawn mower, a newer washer and dryer and a stand-up freezer. That was in 2018 and they all still work.
#19
I had to do some work on the upstairs plumbing that required cutting into my ceiling downstairs. I was shocked to find that the ceilings had been dropped by almost 2.5’. I have 12’ ceilings!
#21
An 80s childhood for my kids. We bought in a townhouse complex where the kids ride bikes, climb trees and play in the creek until the street-lamps come on. It's a pretty charmed existence.
#22
The home was a gorgeous mid-century perched high on a hill. We walked inside and thick heavy curtains blocked a wall of windows that lined the rear of the home. We opened the curtains and realized the home had panoramic views from the mountains to the ocean. Absolutely ZERO mention of the views at all (I even saved the listing because we were so shocked). We made an offer immediately. Terrible agent for the seller but luckily I represented myself (I'm a licensed agent). I will never sell this house.
#23
A biiiiiiiiiiiig wild rose bush growing at the far end of the property. It's so beautiful and fragrant in the spring.
#24
When we first toured the house, the walls were full of paintings - the seller's late husband was a prolific amateur artist.
A few months after we moved in, we discovered a rolled-up canvas in our bedroom closet, which, upon unrolling we also discovered ... a topless portrait of the seller.
#25
When my wife and I bought our forever home, I kept finding railway spikes ( a few) everytime I would drag the gravel driveway. My great-grandfather on my dad's side (died before I was born) used to own a logging business just a few miles from here. Did some digging into it and found that all of the logs in my log home came from his business in the 60's. Its kind of nice to think that this home was meant to be mine.
#26
Lots of wetlands currently owned by the town behind our house/yard- they're far enough from my property that it hasn't impeded anything we've wanted to do on our own property nor do we have water issues as we are on high ground, but it's stopped anyone doing anything at all with the town-owned property (including the town). Years back, the town wanted to build an additional access road to a town building located behind my property. The EPA shut that down FAST and permanently.
So, the back of my house looks out on wooded land and always will and our yard is very private. :-) YAY wetlands!
Sarah Bailey 2 months ago
Sounds like a dream come true! I envy your backyard and the many nights of star gazing and storm watching to come!
#27
I was taking apart one of the old out buildings to turn it into a little studio. On the back side of the wall panel there was a huge hand painted sign for some old timey snake oil cure all remedy. I’m going to see if I can get it restored and put it in the studio as art.
#28
Not me, but my aunt. There was a ‘world radio’ built into the wall in the basement. Quite big - like the size of a large microwave. Many dials, a map of the world and you could tune into stations from anywhere, though it took quite a bit of patience. I thought it was both weird and wonderful!
#29
New construction build so no previous owners. Apparently the land used to be next to a known wild blueberry picking area. So we inherited something like 20+ wild blueberry bushes along the perimeter of our land. .
#30
Two tortoises were hibernating in the front yard in a hidden burrow that we did not know about until it was time for them to come out.
#31
A large mason jar filled with a bunch of old silver coins. This was back in 2016. The previous home owners were retiring to Florida. When the offer was accepted below asking price (they did buy it around 1965 in San Diego and it sold for 10x more) the old man showed everything about the home, what he did, the odds and ends and what to watch out for. Ended up contacting the selling realtor and shipping it to him. Months later I got a check for the shipping price and 1940 mercury dime that I’ve been using as a golf ball marker ever since.
#32
Newspapers from 1928 underneath the tile/vinyl/rubber floors. They have advertisements for coal and ice and Vaudville shows with blackface characters, Calvin Coolidge shooting a shotgun on the front page, and the big sports story was 2 completed forward passes in a football game.
#33
A 200 year old wheelchair, a Victorian ladies side saddle and complete bridal set, a hand sewn straw stuffed teddy bear from the Roosevelt era, a regulation sized carom table from 1850 and an organ built by a famous Detroit music instrument manufacturer from the 19'aughts.
#34
Bought a nice sized piece of property with a rickety cabin on it. Well turns out the previous owner was schizophrenic and hand dug a secret bunker underneath the cabin. I discovered the access door when I went to throw out the dilapidated couch and filthy rug in the living room. The bunker walls were covered in maps and firearms (not to mention the wooden box of dynamite in the corner), and there was a large workbench with a bunch of electrical equipment on it along with several older model computers that all looked like they’d been taken apart and modified numerous times. Inside an open safe welded to a steel plate bolted to the floor and framed with cement was about 50 ounces of gold and approximately $30,000 in cash.
Each gold bar and round had a 💛 stamped in it. .
#35
An incredibly friendly 'outdoor cat' who is now the cuddliest laundry-buddy ever when I go downstairs. (because he's not an outdoor cat anymore). Ancient old tomcat (desexed at some point at least) who wants nothing more than to make painful biscuits on your lap with quite-sharp claws.
Edit to Add: And we are very sure we didn't just.. Steal somebody's cat. Vet has a file for him under previous owners name and everything from his last rabies thing. Asked the previous owner about him and they were like 'oh, yeah, that's [cats name], he won't bite you or nothing.' His inoculations and preventatives have all been updated, and tested for various issues. Can't mingle with the current upstairs cat, because she's FIV pos, and I'm told he's pretty aggressive to other cats, but he's more than happy to cuddle in the basement any time either of us go down.
Lila Allen 2 months ago
Aww giving an elder cat a safe indoor life is the best possible treasure
#36
My first house had a bunch of closets that had pull-down light switches. An old dog tag was connected to one of them. It was the tag of a dog named Penny. I bet she was good girl.
#37
My house came with a room designed for growing d***s.
#38
There was a whole room not pictured in the listing. Nice view of the front yard plus two spacious closets. My son and I now share it as a home office.
Also a *giant* apple tree in the back yard. We knew about it when we bought the house, but we had no idea how *productive* it would be. I bought a fruit press, and I put away up to 10 gallons of cider every summer.
S Bow 2 months ago
When I was in school we moved into a house in an apple orchard. Every autumn the Mennonite women from the neighboring farm came and picked the apples, pressed them into cider and left several gallons as payment. Win/win. They didn't take all the apples though, there were plenty left for us to make pies etc.
#39
Massive maternal bat colony. Protected by the state. Guy had sealed the attic off and refused access during inspection.
#40
A cupboard that wasn’t packed. Had a fry daddy, various teas, a French press and $50 in an envelope. .
#41
A secret room behind a bookcase and a mature peach tree.
#42
Not necessarily a gem....but we've found close to about 50 pairs of scissors randomly in our backyard. All different types and sizes. Very odd .
WayoftheStarPrincess 2 months ago
This gives me the creeps. Idk about other countries but in Sweden we have stories about "mylingar". They are the ghosts of unbaptised children killed by their family (mostly by the mother right after birth) and buried outside hallowed ground. To prevent their ghosts from rising to haunt you/take their revenge you place an iron scissor on their chest in the grave, it'll keep the spirit inside the body. The only way to get rid of a myling is to call it by it's name or to find the grave and move the remains to a churchyard. These stories freaked me out like hell as a kid.
#44
A laundry chute. A door in the bathroom and another in the kitchen, it ends up next to the washing machine in the basement.
#45
Just found $2500 in a bag underneath my bathtub when I removed it! Elderly ex-owners are great.
#46
A bag of some pretty rare US coins in the bottom drawer of the first floor bathroom vanity. Showed them to my former coworker who is a coin collector and he about died and wanted to buy them all off me.
#47
A Walmart employee of the month award. Go Janice!
Michael Largey 2 months ago
Since she worked at Walmart, we now know why Janice couldn't keep up the house payments.
#48
Literally found a gem: a diamond stud earring that I heard clinking around inside our vacuum cleaner while I was cleaning our basement a few weeks after we moved in. It was bigger than the diamond engagement ring I originally gave my wife 2 years earlier. She added the new diamond to her existing ring.
#49
When repairing the garage, I found a tinbox wedged betweer the inside sheetrock and the outside shingles. First thing I saw when I opened it was a gaggle of ants. I left it opened on the ground in the yard, an hour later the ants were gone. Inside were 7 vintage fashion brand watches (like Gucci, Chanel, etc), three vintage heavy silver chains and two gold chains.
House was built in 1944 and changed owners 5 times before I bought it.
#50
An incredible mountain view- we toured and purchased our home in the winter in Oregon, so primarily overcast/grey weather that time of year. The first sunny, clear day, we look out our back window and BAM, clear shot of Mt. Saint Helens. Was an incredibly pleasant surprise considering there was no mention of the view in the listing.
#51
I owned a terraced house in Surrey, England in the 80s. It was quite old but had a long back garden. One summer I decided I'd dig a flowerbed along one fence. As I was nearing the end of the garden, I hit some metal so digging was taking a while. During that time, the old lady who lived next door wandered down and told me "there's a car under there". She had lived there all her life and told me that in the late 30s, prior owners had a car accident and wrote off their car. They dug a big pit at the end of the garden and rolled the car into it. I was digging up part of the chassis, the cables for the brakes and a bit of the floor. I stopped digging then. I have no clue if it has caved in since then.
#52
We have a smokehouse designed for smoking meats as big as whole pigs in our backyard. It looked like a normal toolshed on first glance and it wasn't mentioned in the listing. It's actually well set up and functional; we've smoked a lot of meats now and have made good use of it!
#53
The whole house is made of concrete. From the foundation, to the reinforced concrete walls up to the ceiling. Then if that wasn’t enough, there’s massive concrete pillars and railways metal beams reinforcing everything. This is for a bungalow home that is ~1400sq ft.
Inspector said we could take the roof off and add a whole level without requiring additional support.
Greet for noise, insulation, keeping bugs/critters out. Bad when you want to do a renovation and your only option is to start jackhammering.
#54
Our house, unknowingly, came with a turkey. . . who showed up the day after we moved in and would randomly poop on our deck.
We named him Levi, after our realtor who helped us buy the house.
#55
I bought a fixer upper from someone who had a pretty troubled life. They were supposed to clear out all the garbage but left a lot of stuff behind including a busted upright piano 😑.
The plus side though was a garden shed full of garden tools including 3 lawn mowers and a mantis tiller that just needed a little work to get running. And the best/most valuable thing was a box full of old silver/collectible coins and money. I sold it to a coin shop for around $900. I'm sure I could have gotten more for it if I had tried but it wasn't worth the hassle at the time and the cash was much needed to fund the renovations.
#56
A view of Mount Rainier!
Sara Frazer 2 months ago
I miss this, when we bought our house in 2018 we had a full view of Mt. Rainier from our front windows and front porch. Which is a rarity in the city we're in! Many evenings were spent sitting on the porch, watching the mountain turn pink and purple from the sunset... Then they built a tall building in the field across the street. Now we can only see about 1/3 of Mt. Rainier 🥲 but, the building across the street is our area's new 911 building, so there's constant security and usually police in the parking lot, so for being in the "sketchy" area of our city we have a very safe street! I miss the mountain but the security is a nice feature
#57
A huge, 300 lb concrete deer 🦌 statue inside of a huge hydrangea bush that was in the middle of our front grass.
We started whacking away at the bush to remove it and hit something hard. Spent a good two hours thinking it was a gravestone.
We posted it on Offer Up and you showed up in Prius and my husband and I loaded it into his backseat.
Edit: a GUY showed up - ha ha - not you.
#58
Hidden (probably for the showings) and forgotten, we found a 5lb bronze sculpture of two bears f*****g.
Caffeinated Ape 2 months ago
I had to check the Reddit thread. They did, in fact, post a photo. https://imgur.com/a/raii4dE
#59
Back yard is shared with house behind us. Tree line made it look like a 60/40 split in their favor. When we got a survey done to put in a fence, we learned it was actually 90/10 in our favor. His back yard was more of just a walkway to the side of his house where his proper yard was supposed to be. Our back yard went from just being a decent yard to being a huge feature of the property. Fence ended up being a lot more expensive though >
highwaycrossingfrog 2 months ago
I'm a little confused by this. Are they saying they thought the boundary of the property was the tree line but it was legally further back? If there was no previous division between the gardens, did the neighbour also think he had more land, as implied by "supposed to be", or had he always just been using just the walkway?
#60
A concrete tetherball pad that had the word “boobies” etched into it.
#61
2 (count 'em TWO!) still in the boxes sets of yard jarts found in the shed of our new little vacation place!
#62
One house, $200 hidden in the freezer door. Cold hard cash! Another house, older widow sold the house and left behind most of her husbands tools. That was awesome!
#63
We had a two year old when we bought our house and when they started school, we learned the bus stops at the end of our driveway. School buses in our area do not stop at each child’s house.
#64
The neighborhood has been so welcoming and friendly. We were welcomed as part of the community immediately. It has been an amazing place to raise our children. .
#65
The previous owners left a portable crock pot for serving cheese dip at tailgates. So I got that going for me.
#66
The gem of an opportunity to level up my skills in woodworking, plumbing, HVAC, and vetting general/subcontractors.
My friends now take me to all properties they’re interested in renting or buying before they sign a lease or get them inspected.
#67
All the kitchen drawers had handles in the shape of a salamander. It was one of the first things we changed…until I got to the ones on the fake drawers where the sink is. Turns out because of the way the sink and knobs are structured they can’t come out. So we have like 20 matching pulls and knobs…and two salamanders.
#68
In no particular order: an apple & blueberry orchard completely occluded by 50+ years of blackberry brambles, a view of the Olympics mountain range, a really girthy d***o tucked away in a lazy susan, a terrifying well under a concrete slab in the master bedroom of a house connected to DB Cooper, a bunch of mint classic rock LP's.
highwaycrossingfrog 2 months ago
How can the house be connected to DB Cooper when no-one knows who he was?
#69
Bomb shelter. Didn’t find it for 2 years.
#70
An entire hidden room. It was an escape room above the garage. Not finished, but we had no idea it existed. The very thorough inspector didn’t even find it.
#71
The previous owner of our house was the daughter of a super high profile attorney, she was a high level exec of a bank, so they had eff you money. She left behind a mini fridge completely stuffed with brand new, unopened, high end cosmetics—serums, lotions, makeup, hair products, supplements, the works. That felt like a major score.
#72
Brand new beautiful furnace, way overpowered for the house. Spared no expense.
Except on the 3 inch ductwork which all
happened to be dryer venting. Took me a year of digging around to find out why it took so much energy to heat the house….
#73
We knew going in but love it way more then we expected, a separate tap at the sink with just straight cold water before the water softener. Instant cold delicious water even when someone is washing dishes or filling a pot.
Tim Douglass 2 months ago
Water from before the water softener in places I've lived would have been totally undrinkable. So full of minerals you could walk on it without being particularly righteous.
#74
There was a sword in the basement, that was pretty cool.
#75
A creepy as s**t mural painted on a front room wall that was invisible at first glance because it was painted in that UV fluorescent paint. It seriously creeped us out.
Edit: this was 20 years ago and there are no pics. It was a bunch of eyes, snakes, and triangles. Not sure if any significance. The eyes were the creepiest part.
#76
Purchased a home in prime location and an extra large lot crippled by city easement. Like 11k sq ft in hcol city. The seller agent told us I cannot do anything with 1/2 my lot, cannot build, cannot plant, nothing. The easement was extremely strict. So my yard was basically cut in half and sold for that price. Well, went with my lawyer see if we can chalenge the easement and now I can use 90% of my lot. My realtor came back to have a drink with me 1 month after moving in, told me we just added 400-500k$ value to our home. Basically made that 5000 sq ft section that was bought for 1$sq ft into 80-100$ sq ft. Overnight. Cost 2400$ of lawyer fees and about 10k$ of fences. No intention of selling it, but it always feel good to increase your NW a few $$.
#77
In my last house I was in the attic space above the garage doing some work and lifted some of the boards and found a few dozen pill bottles full of prescription oxy, hydro and other pretty powerful prescription pills.
The labels had one of the previous owners name on them and were all dated from the late 80s to early 2000s.
Senjo Krane 2 months ago
Someone didn't want the family to know they weren't taking their meds.
#78
We bought our house from close our close friends a few years ago, so there were several hidden items we were supposed to find, my favorite was discovered around the 4th of July 2022 (we moved in February of 2022) my friends were very into fireworks so I remembered seeing what I thought were some form of fireworks in the garage. So a few weeks prior when people are testing out their new stuff sporadically in our area I decide to see what my find can do.
I'm not a complete moron, so I lit it in the street and the boom was by far the loudest thing I have ever heard, all sound stopped for a about 3 seconds but then car alarms started going off in the distance.
I found out later my friend had left quarter sticks of dynamite and forgot to tell me.
#79
We found a secret compartment in one of the rafters that contained a half smoked bowl.
#80
I know what you mean by gem, but I am choosing to provide an alternate sarcastic interpretation. My house was built in 1900, I recently discovered that my central load bearing wall, that is the main internal structure for my 2 story house, has a gap between the studs of 48 inches. 22 foot span of wall from doorway to doorway, holding an entire stone chimney in the middle. Five Studs. FIVE!
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highwaycrossingfrog 2 months ago (edited)
My parents' place has an aeroplane buried in their (fairly small) garden. During WWII, a (German I think) pilot bailed out about a mile away and the unmanned plane crash landed in the garden, destroying the Andersen shelter at the bottom. For whatever reason the plane was just left where it landed and became buried. Long before my parents moved in there was a partial excavation, and the pilot's shoe was discovered in the cockpit where it had fallen off during his escape. The plane was covered over again, and now you'd never know it was there.
Jay Cee 2 months ago (edited)
Interesting. Most enemy aircraft crashes were removed and the metal recycled - the aluminium being of a special type - dural - which would be melted down to make British aircraft. Much more suitable than the salvaged aluminium pots and pans which were melted down to make . . . more pots and pans!
Load More Replies...
iBlank 2 months ago
We found a big stack of wood boards under the front porch (2x4s up to 2x12s). Some were new, but most were reclaimed and had a lot of character. We used every board in the stack to create furniture around the house: dining table, patio table with benches, coat rack with bench, shelving, and a bar-height counter in the kitchen. We stained everything with the same dark walnut color.
shg stewart 2 months ago
I used to live in an apartment that had a fake fireplace surround made of gorgeous wood. The central panel of the part under the mantel opened downward on a hinge, revealing a fairly large hidden compartment. I used it for storing small seasonal/holiday items.
highwaycrossingfrog 2 months ago (edited)
My parents' place has an aeroplane buried in their (fairly small) garden. During WWII, a (German I think) pilot bailed out about a mile away and the unmanned plane crash landed in the garden, destroying the Andersen shelter at the bottom. For whatever reason the plane was just left where it landed and became buried. Long before my parents moved in there was a partial excavation, and the pilot's shoe was discovered in the cockpit where it had fallen off during his escape. The plane was covered over again, and now you'd never know it was there.
Jay Cee 2 months ago (edited)
Interesting. Most enemy aircraft crashes were removed and the metal recycled - the aluminium being of a special type - dural - which would be melted down to make British aircraft. Much more suitable than the salvaged aluminium pots and pans which were melted down to make . . . more pots and pans!
Load More Replies... iBlank 2 months ago
We found a big stack of wood boards under the front porch (2x4s up to 2x12s). Some were new, but most were reclaimed and had a lot of character. We used every board in the stack to create furniture around the house: dining table, patio table with benches, coat rack with bench, shelving, and a bar-height counter in the kitchen. We stained everything with the same dark walnut color.
shg stewart 2 months ago
I used to live in an apartment that had a fake fireplace surround made of gorgeous wood. The central panel of the part under the mantel opened downward on a hinge, revealing a fairly large hidden compartment. I used it for storing small seasonal/holiday items.
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