Selling Poinciana One Property at a Time.

Reserved Parking For "The Lovely Wife"...TLW...ROAR! 

Blog Boy...

Every time I start thinking I've seen it all...

Someone does something like rip out the HVAC.

Damn...I guess I do have a little shock value left in me :)

TLW...ROAR!

Bryant - Wow, that doesn't look purdy at all.  I've had mixed feedback on the conditions of foreclosures here in Pennsylvania, seems it tends to depend on the neighborhood and is block by block dependent.  I guess finding a foreclosure in pristine condition would be a great find, if not a somewhat rare one.

Yikes!  No HVAC at all?  I had a listing years ago that had a boarded over pool with a trap door (!) for some reason.  Needless to say, the pool had to be drained and "de-snaked", then completely resurfaced before we could put it on the market.  I still remember speaking with the seller, and I asked, "So, the water must be brackish, right?"  "Brackish?  NO, IT'S BLACK!"  It still makes me a little uncomfortable just thinking about it.

Ahem...

I think I know where Spike the Gator has been hangin' :)

TLW...ROAR!

Broker Bryant, that's pretty bad condition.  I've seen some bad stuff in foreclosures and saw some with tons and tons of cockroaches last week -- not fun and we ran the other way pretty quickly.  I can't even imagine someone lugging away the HVAC.  That pool certainly has me wondering.

This is what we used to see with foreclosures, the old HUD owned homes. 

We are now seeing foreclosures that are on a par with regular listings.  We've got two under contract now.  These are good buyers and they are in all neighborhoods. 

In terms of percentages of listings, it's very low.

I remembers this photo from before.  This thing has been on the market forever.

I heard copper was going for a premium value, guess they took advantage of the price. I honestly HATE to deal in forclosures'.Yes we have to but it with gritted teeth. Many of the foreclosed homes in Ann Arbor area are in similiar condition.

This is happening more and more often.  In January, we joked that someone will end up opening up a business buying appliances from distressed homeowners to warehouse and sell to the new buyers that need them.

Usually the banks won't go that low below asking price, but you never know.  There are a lot of foreclosures out there right now and most lenders don't want to fool with doing any repairs and they won't be renting any of them out.  So all they can with them is try and sell them as junkers.  And that means cheeeeeap in this market.

This is funny. I showed an REO yesterday where all the kitchen equipments were gone. Now after reading your post I think we should have looked for the HVAC system too!! :0)

I had one similar to that!  Not only had they taken the furnace, appliances, and fixtures out, they also took the garden tub from the master bathroom!  The tub!  How they got that out I'll never know....I guess they were pretty upset.  Just when you think you've seen it all.....lol

Back in the early 90's I saw a house where all the door knobs and electrical plates and kitchen cabinet knobs were taken off. Plus the sprinkler heads were gone too.

Not much more different up here as we are seeing a lot of problems with heating systems and poor winterizations on properties. What a mess.

Bryant- I showed a short sale listing, not even foreclosed on yet, where they removed all of the appliances and the counter tops, and then tried to remove the built in jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom and cracked it trying to remove it so they just left it there on the floor all cracked! Some people! Desperate people do desperate things. 

Yikes! It is crazy when people will go to the lengths you describe here. I can't imagine ripping duct work out of a home - absolutely crazy!

Now here's the difference between how you and I would have handled the pool. I usually just find tadpoles and frogs in covered pools. And I LOVE frogs! (Can you tell I'm a home-grown Florida girl?) So I would have done everything within my power to try to get a peak under that covering! 

Froggies! =D

Wow, I can't believe they yanked out the HVAC system!!  There are a few bank owned properties in this town that are in good condition but I would say most of them look pretty bad that I have shown! 

BB - I have run across some pretty nasty looking foreclosures and REOs, but none that seem to be missing as much as you described. Yep, walls missing, half the backyard missing...just a big hole; appliances, sinks, all fixtures missing. One has to laugh when you see "sold as is."

Jeff 

We have a range of looks ok to nasty, scary.  I've not seen a covered pool, lots of empty and/or green.  Some of the houses are trashed beyond belief, some are not very bad.  We have an issue with copper theft, so that is one problem that affects vacant homes.  

Bryan, we're seeing alot of that here.  In fact, I now schedule the final walk throughs on bank owned homes an hour before closing and not the night or day before.  One bad experience with missing plumbing was all it took for this gal to learn!

Bryant, WOW... My parents neighbors got foreclosed on and they did the same thing. They had trucks pull up all day picking up everything from the stove to bathroom sinks.  My parents where in shock.

That sounds like an As-Is...where IS...who is and what is house. I guess the upgrade gremlins showed up one night and resold them to Home Depot:)

I have shown a few...yuk is the only word I can think of. I've heard of one instance (not my own personal experience) where the owners of the home took everything...cabinets, counters, sinks, faucets, light fixtures, appliances, etc...they had an "open house" before they left and encouraged people to come and take whatever they wanted out of the house. Just gutted it. It's just plain stealing and shocking that people would act that way.

Broker Bryant- we are seeing more and more stripped to the shell foreclosures.  I am shocked he was even willing to offer that much!  You are a good REALTOR®...and oh so good looking!

The greenish/black pools are my favorite. We have many of those here as well. And yeah, even some of my short sale listings have had the appliances stolen. Really sad what people do.

This is not all the unusual here. I have seen homes with no kitchens, baths, hot water heaters, walls, pipes. Homes completely gutted. Last one had no kitchen at all, priced at market value with homes with kitchens, lender was offering $7k credit. Needless to say, listing expired.

I looked at several foreclosures yesterday and I must say folks sure ain't happy about losing their properties!!! I can certainly understand their position but have some respect for yourself. It's not the lenders fault you can't make the payments.

As always I appreciate you guys stopping by.

Bryant - it is sometimes amazing to see how bad foreclosures can be - I saw one where they had filled the pool in with dirt! they then put boards over the top!

Now this sounds like a candidate for that TV show, "Flip This House".  That sounds sad, actually.  I'm sitting here feeling sorry for the house!

Foreclosures are not the bargains people think they are!  Buyers are better off looking for a well maintained house with a motivated seller.  The foreclosure/short-sale market is battering some areas worse than others in DC....and the best areas are really not affected at all.

I have really found in our area that the foreclosures are not all as ugly as they used to be.  You could almost guarantee, a few years back, that they were going to be UGLY but that is not longer the case in Northern Illinois.

Ive never seen that type of garage door before.  It must be one of those special order ones they put on those real fancy custom built jobs? 

The foreclosure market in my area is out of control. I'm a Realtor from Rhode Island and I've seen some of the worst conditions imaginable. It's very common for the homes here to be missing all of the copper throughout the house. Thieves will even go so far as to tear open walls to remove the copper as well as removing all furnaces, water heaters, gas and water meters from the basements. As you can imagine basements usually get flooded from the removal of these things. It's not a pretty sight.

It's very typical for the rest of the property to be missing things such as light fixtures, sinks, radiators, appliances, kitchen cabinets and windows. Pretty much anything that would have value on the secondary market. I'm never surprised when I walk into one of these properties. It's usually a shock for someone who's not used to being in these types of homes.

The last thing we have to look out for are squaters or drug addicts who have broken in to get out of the cold or to hide out. It can be very scary to stumble upon a desperate drug addict who feels cornered. I always walk the exterior of the homes to make sure it hasn't been broken into. Ahhh the glory of being a Realtor!

Be safe.

Bob