The whole "trash your house after it's been foreclosed" thing is something I don't understand. When we were in the market right after the 2000 tech slide, we saw lots of places that had been gutted or trashed... though not as bad as this one. Eeeeek.

I can only imagine being in a situation where you are facing bankruptcy/foreclosure. I don't understand why you would trash your house as you leave. OK, I guess a part of me understands taking the appliances so you could sell them--I don't agree but I understand it. But vandalizing the place? Hmmmm....

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Originally posted by Steve Miller:

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Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

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The guy who owns that house is an idiot.

Why? (IOW, what am I missing?)

Tear out the carpet, paint the place, haul everything in it to the dump, including the appliances. Pay some kid to scrape paint off of the windows. $5K, maybe.

As is he is looking at a reduction in sales price of $20K or more.

Indeed. Buying a house that needs some work or updating is one thing. Buying what looks like a crack house is quite another.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
I continue to wonder why people underprice their properties.

It is a strategy of sorts, to create a bidding war and emotional over bidding to get higher than market.

Right now, it doesn't seem to matter as everything is going for insane prices. We have long lines down the block for homes here at open houses...nuts.

We have neighbors who admittedly didn't maintain their house well over the past 11 years, but from what I could tell (I've been in there several times) the house needs a new deck and a new roof (big roof, probably $5-$6K or more), and some issues with older dual-pane windows and a sauna. The rest is cosmetic... carpet, paint, probably a new kitchen and bathroom(s). It has a good view of the mountains, city lights, a peek at the Willamette, which is really the selling point for the house.

Anyhow.... they sold it "as is" for almost $300K below market, and $40K less than what they paid in 2010. They just didn't want to deal with the repairs/renovation. Someone got a steal. I asked if they sold it to people planning to live there, or do a flipper, and they didn't know. Still, even putting in $150K in fixer-upper activity nets you a huge profit.

Shoot, if I knew that was their intention I might have considered flipping it! I have all of WTF to help me.

Nina,

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I have all of WTF to help me.

True

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Buying what looks like a crack house is quite another.

Indeed! That alone would scare me off of the "hell house" in this thread because I would worry that the disgruntled tenant would come back for more vandalism once the house was all fixed up.

I recently saw a reddit post about someone who has a disgruntled neighbor. The poster is trying to sell their house but whenever people come to look at the house, the neighbor tells them lies about the house and the neighborhood. Sounded like a nightmare for the seller!

Sold for over asking

https://www.housebeautiful.com...tm_content=algorithm

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Originally posted by Lisa:
Sold for over asking

https://www.housebeautiful.com...tm_content=algorithm

Not surprised.

Look at it this way. Suppose that house was in nice shape but you didn't like the colors. You'd figure to repaint the whole house, just like the new owner will, with a bit more primer to cover the graffiti. The little holes in the drywall are not a big deal.

The floors are the same way. Even if the carpet was nice a lot of people would replace it with something else. Same cost either way.

The 6" tile in the kitchen tells me it's at least 20 years old and buyers in that neighborhood are going to want something else. No one will want the appliances, even if they are in good shape. Ditto the light fixtures.

I see $50 - 75K in refurbishment, tops. You can spend more if you start getting in to real hardwoods and marble, but the $200K quoted in the article is ridiculous.

Someone is going to make a lot of $.

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:
The whole "trash your house after it's been foreclosed" thing is something I don't understand. When we were in the market right after the 2000 tech slide, we saw lots of places that had been gutted or trashed... though not as bad as this one. Eeeeek.

I can only imagine being in a situation where you are facing bankruptcy/foreclosure. I don't understand why you would trash your house as you leave. OK, I guess a part of me understands taking the appliances so you could sell them--I don't agree but I understand it. But vandalizing the place? Hmmmm....

It's very common to see foreclosed-on houses trashed. I think it's the owner saying "fvck you" to the bank.

Overheard some guys that were indignant because the landlord wanted the rent that was overdue.
WTF? Don't doubt that is a common attitude.

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Overheard some guys that were indignant because the landlord wanted the rent that was overdue.

I think people who have never been homeowners really have no idea about the financial responsibilities that landlords have. That doesn't excuse it, but it just shows how complicated things are, and how hard it can be to "put yourself in someone else's shoes," despite how often that phrase is thrown around.

Some tenants have an adversarial stance towards all landlords, no matter who they are. They don't see landlords as fellow human beings. This is a pretty common attitude among young people, I've discovered.

LL#2 has this attitude. I think it is prominent on reddit and such places. I have tried to probe exactly why he thinks that and as far as I can tell, his generation is bitter about the price of housing (fair point - over the last 40 years the cost of housing has risen exponentially faster than wages) and thinks that people should not own multiple properties while others go homeless. For LL#2, it's part of his larger crusade against the wealth disparity in this country (which again, is a fair and valid point - he's written several papers and given speeches on it and the points he makes has really opened my pampered-middle-class-suburban-mom eyes to just how ridiculously rich the top dogs are and how many people in this country are really really truly struggling. I mean I feel like I knew all that in a theoretical way, but I didn't really grasp the full extent until he hammered it home with really specific examples that made me say "holy crap! really??")

I'm not sure he's thought the landlord hate all the way through though - where would people who need temporary housing (students, young people who want to move around to chase opportunities) get that if there weren't landlords to rent from, etc. But I guess his generation sees landlords as just another way that rich people are putting the screws to people who are barely getting by.

Most of my tenants have been far better off economically than I am. Of course, that's a pretty low bar.

The Facebook page Summit County Sweet Rants and Bitches has many posts about high rent from those with not understanding of a landlord's position.

Low wages and $1200 a month for a bedroom and shared bath is common here.