I'd be willing to bet that the house you went to look at was being occupied by a squatter.
When we came to look at the house where we live now it was listed by a realtor, and had supposedly been vacant for a few weeks. We arranged an appointment to see the house (since it's quite remote), and when we drove up there was smoke coming from the chimney. At first we thought "how nice of the realtor", only to find a couple of young kids (early 20s) happily living in the house while they made drugs. Turns out that the listing agent had told them the house was empty, and would be for some time. She was fired that day.
Wow! That's just amazing.
We thought of that later, because there were just clothes on the floor and no furniture or any other obvious signs of life,,but we were so worried about doing something wrong at the time that we just couldn't get out of there fast enough! It was an old, run-down house, right on the Banana River. It was probably from the 50's or 60's. I love the history of the Space Coast during the 50's and I was just getting into the idea of fixing it up (maybe),,,
I don't think I've even been on that street since!