I feel like I scammed this house flipper. My positive story for today.

I inherited a ruined house. It was not ideal and I had repeatedly told the person who owned it that they needed to clean their house out. That it would cost me more to clean it and make it habitable than the house was worth, but they still acted like it was the greatest gift ever. I offered them help getting their living conditions improved and cleaning in order to improve their quality of life, but that was met with anger and physical threats, one time they pulled a gun on me when suggesting that they were hoarders so I just watched from the sidelines

After I took possession of the house it was worse than my wildest dreams. Floor to ceiling, front porch to back porch and everywhere in between. All very heavy stuff, all very useless yet useful stuff. Initially I thought I could do it, but 6 40 yard dumpsters in, we had barely cleaned up half of the driveway and front yard and cleared out the front porch to be able to access the front door. The ceiling and a lot of insulation came down in the laundry room, the roof was over 20 years old, the house had wood shake siding that was over 35 years old, the furnace hadn't been ran in over 40 years because they instead used the wood stove, which once the house got hoarded (it took about 17 years to completely hoard themselves out of their home) they could no longer use and as a result it got too cold in the house and pipes burst connecting to the washing machine so they just turned the water off to the house instead of repairing it. But still wanted no help. The kitchen sink was full of rotten food and clogged and inoperable. The toilet was clogged so bad there was about 3 inches of excrement and toilet paper sticking up over the rim of the bowl. Bathroom sink ripped out along with half of the walls in the bathroom, revealing the wood studs covered in mildew and mold. Bathtub obviously inoperable and also 50 years old full of random tools and a pile of clothing as tall as me.

Of course since the toilet didn't work, you can imagine there were bottles of urine everywhere and obvious rodent infestation. And when I say floor to ceiling hoard that is exactly what I mean. So full that if you were standing in the living room, you really couldn't tell there were any other rooms because the pile was higher than the doorframes of the other connecting rooms. And that was the entire house, front yard, back yard.

So I knew I can't do this kind of investment on this thing. Especially when I am seeing that even in this market that supposedly is so hot, the neighborhood this house is in and location is so terrible the median home price is around 49k and that is for turnkey move in houses and they still sit on the market for months.

So I found a rube. I found a cash buyer who fancies themselves a "real estate investor" and wow do I feel like I lucked out. I don't know why, but this person came and looked at it, walked around the little path I had made in the house and I was upfront about all the problems, she had no inspector or anyone else with her and asked me what I wanted so I said "what will you pay?" And she said 20,000 and I said sure thing. It was a pretty quick process to sell, the only hassle was the drive to the title place she used to sign it over and I walked away with a 20,000 check in hand.

I don't know if she will make a profit on the house. I doubt it. Even as a rental, the house next door is a rental in excellent shape and only rents for 770 a month for a 2 bedroom house because of the terrible unsafe neighborhood. (No lie, the house I inherited was broken into about 6 times in the few months I "owned" it because no one could stay there to guard it, it had no electricity and the stench was UNBELIEVABLE. Like the house smells from the street of dead bodies and excrement.

I feel like I won and dodged the bullet of paying the back property taxes (purchaser paid them) new roof, complete gut bathroom, kitchen, new walls, new floors, new HVAC (house had furnace which hadn't been turned on in 40 years but no central air conditioning, just a window unit) fixing the burst pipes and any other unknown plumbing and mold issues from leaking water, the knob and tube wiring and most of all cleaning it out which is not only very time consuming but those 40 yard dumpsters aren't exactly cheap either.

So here is my positive story for the day. 20k toward my mortgage principal for my nice clean house, and absolutely NO regrets about unloading what I assume will be a money pit.

It’s truly shocking how some people live. I was in foreclosures when the 08’ crash happened. I saw over 100 houses in this same type of condition. I would stand there stunned staring at them. Wondering how anyone could have possibly lived in those conditions. A few times I saw the owners and their appearance matched the houses they lived in. The worst was when I had to clean the houses out. Under all the debris was typically boat loads of black mold and dead rodents.

originally posted by: KKLOCO
It’s truly shocking how some people live. I was in foreclosures when the 08’ crash happened. I saw over 100 houses in this same type of condition. I would stand there stunned staring at them. Wondering how anyone could have possibly lived in those conditions. A few times I saw the owners and their appearance matched the houses they lived in. The worst was when I had to clean the houses out. Under all the debris was typically boat loads of black mold and dead rodents.

Yeah it's really sad when it's your family and all you can do is watch because they are so volatile and threatening when you offer to help. I am so adverse to this lifestyle I am almost a compulsive cleaner because I grew up in this I don't understand the mindset at all.

a reply to: Antimony

I actually do think you go the better end of the deal.

The investor will pay illegals to clean it, and probably rent it out and recoup some cash, but we both know they won’t do the substantial fixes the house needs. Some of those kinds of smells never leave either, they are soaked into the core of the house..🤢

a reply to: Antimony

Not a bad deal, i bought a "haunted house" last summer, got it cheap, there were more problems than i thought, nothing major tho, but since i did everything myself and with the help of a few friends, the repairs only costed about 7k, i think it will bring some profit once i decide to sell.

But i learned that i wont do this again, lots of work and stress that i dont need in my life.

Well, maybe they'll insure the place and a few days later it burns down. Oh, look bums! They started a fire.

a reply to: XipeTotex

i bought a "haunted house" last summer

I don’t recall seeing a thread reporting this.

Care to give is some good reading on this Saturday?

a reply to: KKLOCO

Haha just an expression,

But there has been a little devil running around the house with all sorts of pens and markers and for some reason a knife, had to smooth out thousands of little triangle shaped holes, obviously left by the tip of a knife, from the floors and walls.

The house had been empty for some years, found many mouse skeletons too, so thats kinda creepy too i guess.