two stories come to mind -none of them were actual horrors, more "disappointments". these were all for rentals.
first one - we used an agent (a now former friend). he was jsut starting out as an agent and we knew that they were in financial difficulties so we were more than happy to give him the business. however, he himself had never seen the apartment (we found out later). which wasn't even the worst thing - we got there, the apartment stank to high heaven of dog. not "dirty/poop" just a strong "dog smell". and there was a big dog bounding around the place. and that wasn't the worst. the wife opened the door, was on the phone and did not get off the phone the.entire.time we were there. we waited. after a few minutes the housekeeper/nurse (we found out later the wife was not well), offered to show us around but she couldn't answer any questions. the house was a mess. after about 20 minutes we left while wife was still on the phone. we met the husband as we were leaving. we started asking him questions about the hosue and he said "but it's not for rent". turned out that the wife decided she wass going to someplace for medical treatments, with the kids, and the husband decided that that was fine by him but he was staying put... totally weird.
then, when DS and I had to leave then-husband we had (a) very little time and (b) very little money. i had developed the knack of interviewing the owners over the phone so that we were all clear on what a "bedroom" was but this one was funny - it is advertised as two bedrooms, one bathroom. (in israel they count bedrooms and living room as rooms, with the assumption that there is a kitchen. so this was advertised as 3 rooms which should be "two bedrooms and a living room /living room-kitchen). fine. we go to a teeny tiny apartment, open the door and you are in a teeny kitchen. behind the kitchen is a "room", no window, the only "door" is the doorway from teh kitchen. on the other side of the kitchen was a nice-sized room and the only bathroom/shower was in that room, meaning that whoever had that room would have the other person going through there to shower/use the toilet. i looked around for another door (remember, this is advertised as two bedrooms) and there were none. i asked the owner and he said "well, the kitchen is really a kitchen/living room combo (trust me, there was no room to put a stool, much less to use it as a living room/kitchen). and the other bedroom? oh, that "room" behind the kitchen (remeber - no window and no real door) was a "bedroom". I asked him why he bothered to advertise this as three rooms - seriously, did he think i was going to fall in love with the place and forget that it was not suitable for my needs?