This $599K Utah House Has Redditors Wondering What’s Hiding in the Basement

There’s a mysterious house for sale in Salt Lake City, and the listing has Reddit users clamoring to know what’s being hidden in the basement. 

The four-bedroom home features more than 2,600 square feet of living space, but the listing details are otherwise sparse, save for a stern warning about prospective buyers stopping in to peek at the bedroom in the basement.

Listed as part of an estate sale, the 1952 build is hitting the market for the very first time via the original owners just shy of $600K. But the listing only includes a handful of photos from the home’s exterior, and the description raises more questions than it answers. While it boasts a “newer” roof and HVAC, there’s also a strong directive: “DO NOT ENTER BASEMENT BEDROOM — viewing of that room only with approved offer,” it reads.

Naturally, Reddit users on r/zillowgonewild have ample curiosity — and many theories about what this elusive basement bedroom is hiding. “The seller is in the cellar,” joked one commenter. Another guessed that the room has a “sex dungeon, venomous snake room, or Elvis.” Yet another joked, “Probably a tenant, or a meth lab, or a little bit of both. Possibly a hostage situation.”

Others had more plausible theories, with one person writing the following: “With no pics of the inside of the house and being sold ‘as-is’ with ‘solid bones’ and a pretty cluttered front porch, I’m wondering if the house is a hoarder home with the hoard still intact. I also imagine the basement has a very obvious structural issue or other dealbreaker that would stop any buyer — or inspector — in their tracks. If it’s a hoarder, it could be an issue like animal waste or severe infestation as well. Maybe the home seller is trying to see an offer and get that sweet, sweet (and probably non-refundable) Earnest money before the homebuyer is made aware of the extremely expensive repairs needed to make the home livable. Or … it’s the home of a squatter they’ve tried to evict for years that absolutely refuses to leave.”

Of course, some had horror movie jokes, comparing it to Barbarian and Silence of the Lambs. One person said, “Freshly signed contract in hand I followed the Realtor down into the basement. “Okay, here it is,” he said, opening the door. That was when I began to scream uncontrollably … ” Another joked, “No red flags here!!!”

While the likeliest answer is either a lot of stuff in storage or a tenant that would prefer not to be bothered, it didn’t stop commenters from expressing their need to see what’s going on in there. “Now I wanna go see it just because of that dire warning,” wrote one person.