Hoarder House in Houston - How to handle the value of the hoard?

Question

We are closing on a hoarder house within the next week or two and are looking for recommendations on how to handle all of the "junk".  At first glance, there seems to a decent amount of value in several of the items... everything from 3 old Cadillacs that are in bad shape to old computer hardware, music equipment, power tools, hand tools, likely some antiques, etc.  The house is in awful condition and most likely a hazard, but the condition of many of the items seems to be OK (assuming the stench doesn't stick)...

We are flipping the house and want to get started on the complete rehab ASAP, so we're trying to decide if we should just discard everything with the demo and get going, or look into hoarding services, estate liquidators, pickers, etc.  Does anyone have any experience or recommendations on the best way to proceed? Or perhaps any suggestions on specific companies/individuals that may offer revenue splits on the items?

Bruce Lynn · Answer

A friend of mine had a house like that and what she did is allow people to come and take whatever items they wanted for free but they had to take two bags of trash with them.   She said it saved her a ton of money on dumpsters otherwise it would have been five or six dumpsters worth of stuff that she would have to pay to have hauled off.    I thought that was pretty genius

Mindy Jensen · Answer

@Bryan Charles, if they're leaving the vehicles there, ask if they have title to them. IDK the issues with that, and maybe the vehicle guys will just take them and deal with title themselves.

I have an eye on a property that would probably yield as much in sales of the junk in and around the home as it would cost me to buy the house - but the weeds and overgrowth and all the broken glass and the time involved in selling the stuff... Sigh.

Shahriar Khan · Answer

@Bryan Charles   ...for clean up depending on amount of work + stuff + current contract in place with seller, we will first try to keep some money in Escrow for seller to haul off stuff . If we cant (which is ok as well ) then we after closing ,we will give notice seller/folks to remove cars with 1 week and after that we call "We Buy Junk Cars" people and they will tow the car away. For other stuff, rent a container and send all to trash .. We found its more headache to go through them compare to treating all stuff inside as 100% throwaway ...

Seems like it will be a fun project. Best wishes

Dutch Langley · Answer

We just bought a house like that to rehab and flip.  We went through and kept some stuff to sell (leather harley goods, brand new Motocross helmets/goggles, a great trunk I refinished for our primary).  The rest we had someone who owned their own 30 - 35 yard dumpsters and hired them to trash the house out. It took 8 of those dumpsters to clear out the house!  But since they own their own dumpsters I got a great price.  Their labor was about the same price as if I rented the dumpsters myself....and no way were we going to take the time to do that ourselves.

Turner Wright · Answer

Hey Bryan,

I don't know if you took care of your problem, yet, but depending on the neighborhood, you could just post signs around the house and at each corner of the street that basically says "UP FOR GRABS!  ALL ITEMS FREE at this address".  In some neighborhoods, they just might clean you out!  That's what I would do before paying more in dumpster fees.

Jesus Garcia · Answer

What about contacting an estate sale company?  Maybe they will be it all or know of a person or company that can handle it. Another one could be those that buy storage units.  This is kind of like that.

Ronald Rohde · Answer

I'd trash it all. I saw the new Hoarders on Netflix, nothing but 2001 Mountain Dew and old shoeboxes with rat nests.

Mindy Jensen · Answer

I've lost titles when I was selling vehicles and simply ordered a duplicate title from the state.

Bryan Charles · Answer

@Mindy Jensen, They are having an "issue" finding titles/keys, so we'll see how that all plays out... I'm sure its at the bottom of one of those piles, which will literally be like finding a needle in a haystack.  Oh ya, if I had the time it would be worth selling all of the items, but I'm really just looking for a quick an easy way to sell it all since trashing it seems like such a waste.  You would think there's someone out there who would take it on and split the profits, but not having much luck finding anyone.

Bryan Charles · Answer

Thanks @Bruce Lynn and @Shahriar Khan - I appreciate the comments.

Hoarder House in Houston - How to handle the value of the hoard?

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