What's the WIERDEST thing you've found in a flip?

Sierra Madre, CA · Member since 2017 · 1 post · 0 votes

I'm sure there are a million stories out there, thought I'd ask a fun question - what's the weirdest or most unexpected thing you've found when you were inspecting a house or starting a flip?

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Ryan MurdockPro Member

Rental Property Investor · Austin, TX · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes

I owned a project house for a couple weeks before I discovered a 2 hole privy behind a sealed up door - complete with a May 7, 1963 Saturday Evening Post laying on the floor - Pre-smart phone bathroom reading!

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Ryan MurdockPro Member
Rental Property Investor · Austin, TX · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
9y
I owned a project house for a couple weeks before I discovered a 2 hole privy behind a sealed up door - complete with a May 7, 1963 Saturday Evening Post laying on the floor - Pre-smart phone bathroom reading!
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Tony Gunter
Investor · Canton, GA · Member since 2014 · 727 posts · 500 votes
9y
Ryan Murdock That's a new twist on a "Time Capsule".
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Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
9y
Hoarder houses always have special items.. if you can think of it they hoard it.. !!! I just did one here in Oregon and on a 100 X 125 lot I took off over 300,000 lbs of misc.. JUNK.. this one had deceased cats.. a boa constrictor that was alive but must have been hibernating.. and like I said every manner of junk known to man.. these folks lived there according to the neighbors for 12 years.. they must have gone out daily and loaded up a truck load to bring home... its was something. Even made the evening news.. 2 times first time from the cops and the SPCA for the animals and second time for the boa on the loose.. SPCA was during our escrow period.. Boa was after I closed.. one of our workers knocked over a terrarium and out came a 6 foot snake.. scared the you know what out of him...
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Grady L.
Rental Property Investor · Albany, OR · Member since 2016 · 34 posts · 8 votes
9y
I found a letter from 1908 from the IOOF club to its member. Something about pay your dues... haha. It was interesting to see how formal it was and the perfect penmanship.
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Don Daniels
Spring, TX · Member since 2014 · 75 posts · 39 votes
9y
A stripper pole. Also, in the same (vacant house) found a sleeping bag and alarm clock. Needless to say, the current owner was quite surprised to see that! The house next door was painted bright pink!
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Manolo D.
Contractor · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2015 · 4k+ posts · 1k+ votes
9y
Jay Hinrichs I thought my 2 skeleton rat that seems to be preserved up in the attic was cool, a full shaped rat -- but, a snake, wooow. You don't see that everyday. I've seen 2' of snake skin though along with 2.5' rat feces across all framing.
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Brian Pulaski
Flipper/Rehabber · Montgomery, NY · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
9y
When removing the siding from my last flip my contractor found the original permit still stuck to the wall next to the front door. They sided right over it.
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Dawn P.
Rental Property Investor · Sumter, SC · Member since 2015 · 334 posts · 531 votes
9y
Found a couple of diaries dated from 1938 to '42. Interesting reading! And a really large, old matchbook from King Arthur's Pub in Chicago. Also a few vintage Japanese tea cups thrown in an attic.
Some clown left their crack pipe in an outdoor electrical box once.
Just found about 20 rakes, shovels, and assorted yard tools in the crawl space of the house I'm rehabbing now. Why they threw them under there, I have no idea. They certainly didn't use them in the yard by the looks of it.
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Jered Collins
Johnson City, TN · Member since 2017 · 49 posts · 27 votes
9y
Found a 4 foot water bong in one house I looked at.
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Anthony Dadlani
Investor · New York City, NY · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 269 votes
9y
We flip for our own portfolio as well. Once several years ago, upon taking over a rundown home we found a dead body. Obviously we called the police. Best of luck in all your endeavors.
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Shawn Ward
Real Estate Investor & Consultant · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2016 · 620 posts · 386 votes
9y
The timing of this thread could not have been better. During demo, our guys found a possum skull (without the rest of the body) and a suicide note.
Both, very scary.
All the best!
sjw
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Uriah D.Pro Member
Investor · Apex, NC · Member since 2014 · 340 posts · 188 votes
9y
We found a lawn chair, side table, Christmas lights, beer fridge and tv... in the crawl space. A 3' crawl space! Why someone would go under their house to watch tv and drink beer is beyond me, but hey that's the kind of people we buys houses from.
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Kristen R.
Investor/Attorney · Cheyenne, WY · Member since 2017 · 30 posts · 13 votes
9y
my grandpa found an axe that had recently been used to murder someone... instead of calling the cops; he took it to the station himself and said "look, I found the murder weapon!" ---- grandpa had a talking to!
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Brian BurkePro Member
Investor · Santa Rosa, CA · Member since 2012 · 2k+ posts · 7k+ votes
9y
For me it would have to be the house I described in this thread: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/223/topics/13...
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Account Closed
Flipper/Rehabber · eastern, WA · Member since 2017 · 35 posts · 19 votes
9y
One time I was staring at a wall, pondering if I should should just fix the holes that were knocked in it, or just rip the Sheetrock out and put up new. I opted to to do the latter. Only to find a stack of dirty needles 2' tall between the 16" studs... it was awful. At the same house, went to dig ditches for UGS, only to find the people had literally buried their trash in the back yard... but, even after all that BS, we still made $40k in 3 months.
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Steve Babiak
Real Estate Investor · Audubon, PA · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 8k+ votes
9y
We already have a bunch of similar topics on BP for those who like these sorts of topics; seems every year or so somebody new to BP starts one of these topics, probably without first having searched for the existing ones. Here they are for your reading enjoyment:
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/41/topics/814...
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/159...
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/67/topics/228...
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/84/topics/101...
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/67/topics/205...
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/81/topics/139...
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/41/topics/757...
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/223/topics/13...

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