What things have you found in foreclosed/abandoned houses?

What things have you found in foreclosed/abandoned houses?

Mechanicsburg, PA · Member since 2013 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes

In the thread about the TV show Property Wars, it was brought up about things found in and on foreclosed property.

1. In a recent one there was the last occupant's ashes. I called the relative to come get the ashes. I've found lots of dead or live bodies but all were critters, mice, squirrels, rats, snakes, all kinds of insects, ground hog, possum, skunk, and even found a dead cat. I never found any dogs but one person told me they found a dog chained in the yard and another told me that they found a live dog locked in the house. I didn't see that dog but did see all the evidence that the dog left.

2. I found major parts of cars and cycles, and a few whole cars but nothing of any value or nothing even running.

3. The most of the money that I ever found was change, some coins and there always seems to be lots of pennies on the floors for some reason.

4. A friend of mine says that there are always tires at these properties, and for the most part that seems to be true. This last one with the person's ashes did have the obligatory 1 car tire on a wheel, which the trash company won't take if it has the wheel attached.

5. I've never found any gold or silver, and very few currency, usually some cash in an envelope, or stuck in cards or books. I do lots of reading but I never use currency as a bookmark.

6. Often times there are some tools, but they usually are incomplete, inoperable, or abused. Recently I've found some cordless power tools but strangely enough they almost always are missing the batteries.

7. I friend recently bought a foreclosure and took out three 30 yard dumpsters of trash from the house. They only thing that he took home with him was one extension cord. He say that was lightest haul he ever had from a foreclosed house and he remarked at the irony of this house having so much tonnage, but so little usable stuff.

8. One house that I got was vacant for 15 years, and have everything still there, clothes, furniture, shoes, and all personal items and even a car in the garage. There was even food in the frig that had been there for 15 years with the electric turned off. There were pots in the frig with leftovers and all the food was black, unrecognizable blobs. The odor was one I'll never forget, I almost gag just thinking about it.

9. Usually the stuff left behind is mostly junk and trash, things that are broken, or missing parts.

10. Several house were so over grown with trees and shrubs that you could not see the house from the street. One house I couldn't find because the house was overgrown as well as the dirt driveway.

11. Another place was owned by an alcoholic who hadn't cut his grass in 5 years. The grass was about 4 feet high and looked like a hay field. The people mowing the grass kept hitting whiskey bottles and beer cans scattered all over the yard and hidden in the tall grass.

What kind of treasures have you found in foreclosed/abandoned houses?

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Wholesaler · Salt Lake City, UT · Member since 2009 · 1k+ posts · 401 votes
13y

Man are you guys making me relive past problems. My greatest find was in a foreclosure we bought to rehab and when we removed one wall we found it full of old time big bills, gold and silver coins, jewelry and other goodies. Now I had found out about California's treasure trove law years before, and finds like this were considered the property of the previous owner.

The age of the money made me think the previous owner was not the true owner so we started to research it and found out the owner had been born in that house and lived in it here whole life. She had no living relatives and had be dumped in a county contracted dying home that should have been condemned. Well it was a fortune and we handled everything after getting a guardianship, and she was able to be located into a fine convalescent home for her final years and to create a will to leave her estate to charity.

I felt very good about that but I have to confess my first thoughts were to hell with the previous owner, and how was I going to spend all that money but I could hear my mother's voice saying I will never be ashamed of you if you do what is right, advice given to me when I did something wrong and developed a ton of quilt and wanted to fix it.

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  • Investor · Reston, VA · Member since 2011 · 683 posts · 191 votes
    13y

    Usually junk. But I have one good story. The locked garage contained spanking brand new, upper-end stainless appliances for the whole kitchen. It also contained a "new in the boxes", upscale bedroom furniture set.

    Another had a bunch of kids bikes and toys. I knew a relative of the guy who was foreclosed on. I talked to him and left the garage open for the grandmother to come and get that stuff.

  • Chillicothe, OH · Member since 2013 · 8 posts · 0 votes
    13y

    I was helping out a friend of mine cleaning out an 800 square foot house, he ended up using two 30 yard dumpters to get the crap out and i mean crap and trash out but we did find two top of the line chain saws in the basement.

  • Investor · Central Valley, CA · Member since 2012 · 6k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    13y

    With few exceptions hauling and demo are my main costs for my non-rehab resales. I usually clean them out asap. I don't buy REOs or foreclosures, so the stuff has usually been abandoned by family or former tenants. SO MUCH JUNK, so many abandoned cars. I cleaned out hoarder houses years before I knew they were called that.

    I have some really good German chef's knives in my kitchen I found years ago during a cleanout. Some beautiful antique linens that I use regularly. Vintage garden tools. Tons of useable craft supplies. ALWAYS a box of Miracle-Gro in the garage or under the sink. A very old, but working, mini Kenmore electric dryer. I was living in a rental at the time with no hook ups and a mini portable washer. I hooked it up in my garage and thought that thing was a miracle. Like David, I find lots of pennies, sometimes in bags or jars.

    The biggest issue isn't value, but the vibe. Even when there is stuff that has re-sale value it gets tossed because the properties are disgusting. My hauling guy gets to keep anything he wants as part of the job, and his side business is reselling stuff. We did one 3/2 filled with junk from floor to ceiling. There was some great mid-century collectibles in there and he started setting them aside. Unfortunately for him, he had brought his wife along on this job (4 people, 2 full days, 6 trips to the dump). The house was so gross she took his pile and threw it in the dumpster and declared that nothing was coming home with them, or he was going home by himself. That was a rough weekend. The property was 150 miles away from our house and I had to go to Target to buy all new clothes for the ride home. I also had to throw away my shoes and went home barefoot.

  • Real Estate Lender · Pt Hueneme, CA · Member since 2012 · 110 posts · 47 votes
    13y

    Booze, lots of booze. Rented to two young military stationed at the local SeeBee base and they moved out to deploy. Pretty much left the place a wreck, but since they were going to be in a dangerous place I cut them a lot of slack. The day before our scheduled walk through they had new orders and left RIGHT THEN. The garage had at least three cases of beer, various makers, even some nice micro brews. And many bottles of hard liqueur too, most unopened.

    I doubt they were leaving them for me, probably had arranged for a friend to come over and since they had there orders changed I ended up with it. I won over a lot of neighbors when I met them in the parking lot and handed out full bottles.

  • Real Estate Investor · the villages, FL · Member since 2008 · 5k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    13y

    The best thing I ever found, I'm not going to share here on bigger pockets!!!!

    Now for the worst thing I ever found, and I may have already posted this on bigger pockets years ago. I and a friend of mine purchased a home in South Texas at foreclosure sale. When we finally got in to see it, one-bedroom had cages left over from fighting cocks! There were mounds of poop at least 12 inches high underneath the pens. Another bedroom had the door literally scratched away in the lower corner of the door. Approximately a six-inch square of door was gone. We were later told by neighbors that the residents had Pitbull dogs. I guess they were for protection. Rich

  • Gene HackerPro Member
    Flipper/Rehabber · Lake Isabella, CA · Member since 2011 · 969 posts · 488 votes
    13y

    Hoarders trip me out.

    I bought a rental with a hoarder as a tenant. The seller could no longer handle the hoarder so they wanted out...bad. I let the hoarder and all her craziness stay as long as she paid the rent. A few months later she quit paying the rent. I was pretty nervous about getting the place back because of all the stuff. Huge mounds of boxes and furniture in the yard covered with tarps. The garage and carport were both filled to capacity, same with the house itself. It all looked like worthless junk. Most of it was broken or in bad condition. I figured it would take me several days of full time work with my dump trailer to clean the property out.

    I went by the day before the court date and it was all gone. She took every last thing with her. I have no idea how. I was amazed.

  • Lexington, KY · Member since 2009 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    13y

    Gene Hacker, wow...that is dedication! Most of the stuff I have come across has been junk, although we did buy a property with a bunch of really valuable tools inside. We found a wedding dress in the attic of one house and made sure we tracked down who it belonged to...she was very happy to get it back.

    Recently we came across something in a very odd spot...upon removing the door-hinges from the old bedroom doors we found WWII food ration cards folded up. The neat thing is they were actually from that exact house (although the street numbers were different back then).

  • Investor · Southeast, MI · Member since 2012 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    13y

    I've never purchased a garbage can, extension cord, stepladder, or garden hose. People always leave them for some reason.

    One of my friends bought a house and the previous owner left everything. He found some guns and $800 in cash. I have never been so lucky.

    I did find a $5 bill once. Other than that, it is always change. What puzzles me is what others have said about the pennies. I can't believe how many pennies I find. It's especially frustrating when you evict someone and see how lazy they are. I had one house that had about $20 in change and another $40 in returnable cans and bottles. (10 cents each in Michigan.)

    I always pick up all the change and give it to my kids. I told my eight year old daughter about how pre-1982 pennies are made of copper and worth 3.2 cents each. I told her that she should save those so that when they stop making pennies, she will be able to legally sell them for the copper value. She now checks the date on every coin and has found some old ones.

  • Real Estate Investor · Audubon, PA · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 8k+ votes
    13y

    Found some gold jewelry in one - got over $100 from cash-for-gold dealer.

    The refrigerator is best just removed without even opening the doors, due to the science experiments contained therein.

    Funniest one is the one where they were reading a book called "A Day Late and a Dollar Short" - considering that their mortgage was WAAAAYYYY more than a day late, and WAAAAYYYY more than a dollar short :) ....

  • Houston, TX · Member since 2011 · 673 posts · 360 votes
    13y

    I didnt buy it, but put an offer on a $700k ARV $4500 SF weed grow house in a $1M neighborhood.

    Entire second story was water damaged from the watering system, all windows boarded up, AC vents torn up from them doing their own routing into various rooms. At some point the first floor flooded at the front of the house. built in 91, and had never been touched/updated since.

    Some hot shot wholesaler has overpaid for it AND now trying to make a $50k wholesale fee...because it "only needs $60k in repairs!!!!" I'm waiting in the bushes for it to fall out of escrow.

  • Investor · Central Valley, CA · Member since 2012 · 6k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    13y
    Originally posted by James Vermillion:

    Recently we came across something in a very odd spot...upon removing the door-hinges from the old bedroom doors we found WWII food ration cards folded up. The neat thing is they were actually from that exact house (although the street numbers were different back then).

    James: putting folded cardstock or cardboard behind door hinges is an old school repair for adjusting doors that aren't swinging properly. The old hardware store in my neighborhood still sells a "new and improved" thin plastic version .

  • Lexington, KY · Member since 2009 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    13y
    Originally posted by K. Marie Poe:
    Originally posted by James Vermillion:

    Recently we came across something in a very odd spot...upon removing the door-hinges from the old bedroom doors we found WWII food ration cards folded up. The neat thing is they were actually from that exact house (although the street numbers were different back then).

    James: putting folded cardstock or cardboard behind door hinges is an old school repair for adjusting doors that aren't swinging properly. The old hardware store in my neighborhood still sells a "new and improved" thin plastic version .

    I was not surprised to see something behind there, as I have seen card-stock behind hinges in several properties. I meant it was an odd spot to find old war ration cards. I enjoy history though, so I enjoyed finding them. I should also add that I kept this specific property and now live there, so it is an interesting little memento.

  • Investor · Central Valley, CA · Member since 2012 · 6k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    13y

    Oh my. I forgot about the pit bull puppy. In my farms if you have a vacant property, it's a target for dumping. So along with usual old mattresses and couches, there was a pit bull puppy that had been left in a box by the garage. We brought it home, spent a fortune on deworming and vet bills. We found a home for it a week later. He's must be 7 or 8 by now and lives on a VERY nice ranch in the Santa Ynez hills.

  • David NilesBusiness Member
    Property Manager · DeLand FL · Member since 2012 · 860 posts · 243 votes
    13y
    Originally posted by James Vermillion:

    Recently we came across something in a very odd spot...upon removing the door-hinges from the old bedroom doors we found WWII food ration cards folded up. The neat thing is they were actually from that exact house (although the street numbers were different back then).

    Wow, havent thought about that in awhile, actually its not that odd in the city with alot of older homes, yours were unique in what they were though, most are just cardboard scrap.

    Some of you are pretty lucky, most I ever end up with is junk and all sorts of nasty smells and stains.

  • Real Estate Investor · Audubon, PA · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 8k+ votes
    13y
    Originally posted by David Niles:
    ...
    Some of you are pretty lucky, most I ever end up with is junk and all sorts of nasty smells and stains.

    Well, I thought the theme of the thread was UNusual stuff - smells, stains and insects are the usual stuff they leave behind ... :)

  • Tucson, AZ · Member since 2013 · 116 posts · 22 votes
    13y

    tenant once left a ford van, I got an abandoned title, did a tune up and sold it for $1000.

  • Rehabber · Alexandria, VA · Member since 2011 · 446 posts · 171 votes
    13y

    Found a few little bags of the green stuff hidden in a closet. Didn't pay too much attention to it, some of my subcontractors did though...

  • Brian BurkePro Member
    Investor · Santa Rosa, CA · Member since 2012 · 2k+ posts · 7k+ votes
    13y

    In the strange stuff to leave behind category...drivers license, social security cards for the whole family, and original birth certificates for the kids. Sad. I found out from neighbors where the guy worked, so bagged it up and dropped it off.

    Aside from that, I could have bought my own landfill by now.

  • Rental Property Investor · Upstate, NY · Member since 2012 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    13y

    We took back a Duplex we sold Deed In Lieu of.
    We then had to evict the tenants who were on welfare & were quite nasty about leaving.
    They left some nice tools etc but one room was packed full of very nice electronics some with school ID's.
    We had the local sheriff drop by & the plan was to wait until the tenant called for 'his' property. They also had the place under surveillance in case he attempted to break in to retrieve the property.
    The reward we got paid for a new furnace.

  • Real Estate Agent · Virginia Beach, VA · Member since 2012 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    13y

    When helping my old boyfriend fix up his first rentals years ago, we found a human skull in the attic. That would be the weirdest thing. We found boxes of stored china, a fairly nice old set, in the crawlspace under one of our homes.

  • David NilesBusiness Member
    Property Manager · DeLand FL · Member since 2012 · 860 posts · 243 votes
    13y
    Originally posted by Steve Babiak:

    Well, I thought the theme of the thread was UNusual stuff - smells, stains and insects are the usual stuff they leave behind ... :)

    Ha, you got me there Steve. Indeed it was and yes their just the norm. Just wanted to cry that I never find anything good, guess I'll just have to make do with making my money then. :)

    Originally posted by Lynn M.:
    When helping my old boyfriend fix up his first rentals years ago, we found a human skull in the attic.

    Just did a bank BPO the other week and the house had a wall with skulls mixed in with stones all over it....pretty creepy.

  • Flipper/Rehabber · Bakersfield, CA · Member since 2008 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    13y

    I bought a home formerly used for streaming porn and i imagine postitution and found a few adult toys that a horse would be afraid of. The word gigantic isn't a fair description.

    Then there was the nice duplex which had exploded body parts on the walls from the double homicide.

    Never forget the house with drip lines from tobacco smoke.

    All smells like Money to me

  • Real Estate Agent · Milwaukee County, WI · Member since 2009 · 3k+ posts · 525 votes
    13y

    car tire jacks just sitting under the reo property
    foundation – crawl space

    previous owner must attempted to use for foundation
    issues – unsuccessfully -

    A ton of brand new ceramic tiles

    dangerous fury cat

  • David NilesBusiness Member
    Property Manager · DeLand FL · Member since 2012 · 860 posts · 243 votes
    13y
    Originally posted by Jenkins Ramon:

    dangerous fury cat

    Story with that? Jenkins Ramon

    lol

  • Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2008 · 257 posts · 58 votes
    13y

    Hot tubs, Blow up dolls, Sex toys, Drugs, You name it. A lot of good beer steins etc. I see a lot of these as I do evictions for the banks and regular investors like us.

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