Weird Negotiations: When Buying a Home Comes with Barnyard Animals, Statues & a No-Cap Koi Clause

Buying a house? Sure, you’ll negotiate price, closing costs, maybe even a home warranty. But what about the poker table? The wine cellar? The dog?

In real estate, everything is technically negotiable—until your clients start taking that literally. 

We combed through a Reddit thread where agents shared the strangest things buyers and sellers have tried to work into their contracts. Spoiler: it’s weirder than you think.

And to be fair, the outlandish demands aren’t all on the buyer’s side. 

Let’s dive in. 

Weirdest Real Estate Negotiations

Three days ago, a real estate agent on Reddit posted a lighthearted comment about the dangers of telling your clients, “with real estate, everything is negotiable.” 

Because some folks will take that literally and start looking for ways to sweeten the deal. 

For example, the original poster (OP) pointed out they were “currently negotiating a poker table set and a home office desk and bookshelf.” But it gets way weirder than that when they add the question: 

“What’s the strangest/weirdest item your buyers/sellers negotiated?”

20 Weirdest Negotiations: 

1. Cat 
2. Deceased husband’s wine stash
3. Bottle of Pappy in basement bar
4. Pink Paw Patrol table (belonging to seller’s grandkids)
5. Bearded dragon
6. Print of dogs playing poker 
7. Dolly Parton pinball machine
8. Foosball table
9. Broken golf cart
10. Window shades
11. Reforestation of a clear cut area
12. Chickens
13. Koi fish
14. Powerwheels Barbie Jeep
15. Rocks (from the garden)
16. Cement statue of “David” 
17. Life-size chess set
18. 1980s jukebox
19. Barnyard animals and the harvest from the seller’s crops
20. Seller’s first-born son 

For more details, scroll through the comments below: 

Would you agree to take responsibility for a seller’s koi fish?

What do you do when a seller won’t remove their koi fish—and then insist (with an addendum to the contract) that the buyers take full financial responsibility for the well-being of those fish until they can be safely removed months later? 

Another Redditor posted, “Sellers want us to be financially responsible for their koi fish after closing.” 

Here are the details: 

“We are set to close on a home in three days. There is a Koi pond on the property. The fish are currently hibernating for the wintertime and can’t be removed. We were told the sellers will come back to retrieve their fish “when the weather warms up”. (They are digging a new pond at their new home). 

In the Purchase Agreement, we added verbiage that we are not responsible for the fish after closing. Yesterday, we receive an addendum from them that takes it even further. If they find any of the fish to be ill or dead, we are financially responsible for a minimum of $1000 with NO CAP on damages!!! They also detail that the pond must not have electric turned off to the pump (what if the electricity goes out?), no animals messing with the fish (I’m not manning this thing to keep raccoons out lol) and no additives/chemicals to the water (fine, not touching it). 

We are long-time agents representing ourselves. This is the craziest thing we’ve had come up on a deal! How can we control if the fish died because of age or illness?!!!” 

“What would you do in this situation?!’

Commenters were not having it. Asked to provide an update, the OP pointed out they were not signing the contract with the sellers’ addendum and were consulting with an attorney. 

Have you ever negotiated an unusual item–or term—as part of a real estate deal? And how do you usually handle it?