OK-

I told you about the guy across the street that has his siding blown off and had a hole in the gable end near the roof.

I don't really know these people, but since I've been out and about doing what I can while I recover from this damned pnuemonia, I have been given the "skinny" on this household by other neighbors.

Allright- It turns out that the guy that I thought owned the house wasn't the owner. He was (I'll get to the "was" part) the son of the owner. It turns out that he was somehow negligent last year when Irene hit. Apparently his stupidity as regards the electricity (and water combo) caused the electrical fire that burned his dad's house up.

So it wasn't the father or the son that moved back in recently. It is the daughter. No one has seen her since Sandy hit, and that hole remains untouched, and further, not even looked at by anyone except us nosey neighbors.

I just saw the sun for the first time in God knows how long. I have to wonder just how fucked up that house is now.

Can't you just see what a clusterfuck this is going to be? Dad is probably going to try and go to the crappy construction company that took over a year to rebuild the joint, only to have it come partially apart during this event. The construction company is going to say "go to your insurance company, not our fault about Sandy" . The insurance company is going to say "shit box craftsmanship" to the construction company, and "You idiot fucking homeowner did nothing to mitigate these damages by leaving a fucking hole in the side of your house for DAYS after the initial damage".

I should get sick more often. This is going to be entertaining. 🤣


Edit---

Upon further review, this could be even better than I initially thought.

Take a wild-assed-guess what looks to be one floor down from where the hole is, just a few feet from directly below...?

Give up?


The fucking service entrance for the electricity ! I shit you not, lol lol lol

In my neighborhood the father got Alzheimers and had to be put into a nursing home. The "responsible son" was in charge of the house. Only problem is that he lives in NC or some place out East. The "less "responsible son" moved in without the rest of the family knowing about it. He gutted the place copper pipes and all. Got caught somewhere doing the same thing and is now "a full time guest of the county". He was living in the house with his wife? 2 kids and another guy. They all left obviously. The roof is 30 years old or more. The house is in miserable shape. Lawn was not mowed all this past summer. Leaves are all over the yard.

There is a noticed on the front door that the back taxes will be sold off. If someone gets the house for back taxes (I think it takes 3 years doesn't it?) they will have paid way too much for this property.

In the mean time I am sure the house is a nice nesting place for the mice and other rodents in the area. The house on either side of it has also had the owner pass away. All 3 of them have been on and off the market for 2 years or so. All 3 need some kind of work on them. One of the houses now has a tenant at least. (The one that I insure.) The only houses being sold in my town these days are the ones that going for about half of their value. So it seems the families are willing to sit on the houses and wait for the market to rebound.

---

A different construction company came out and repaired the aforementioned external damage yesterday. Something else has come up, far more serious, so I'm going to hijack my own thread and put it here.

I've been contemplating this all morning.

My two neighbors/ buds (Tim & ED) came to me the day before yesterday and told me my (opposite side) next door neighbor's home is going to Sheriff's sale.

They want me to go in 1/3 to buy it. This is going to be a long story.

Edit-- Probably a million of them forthcoming--

We have all 3 tried to help her over the years- e.g. Ed gave her a hot water heater, washer & dryer, fixed her heat, we have all mowed and maintained her property outside off & on, I maintained her pool one year, I gave her a riding mower so her lazy kids could sit on their asses... I could go on and on.... Her husband took off a decade ago for some ho- I love her boys and her, she raised 'em with good discipline while I watched, mowing thing notwithstanding.

I might be able to keep her in that house, don't trust her in the financial sense, my two buds are acting like buzzards, I could control the impact of my own property value here... like I said, contemplating...

This house was formely owned by a guy by the name of John Vartan. From a $$$ / listing / flip standpoint, (If I were the bank I'd make damn sure to have the Sheriff mention THAT at auction- google the name, you'll get a small idea, especially at the prices we are talking here)

I am CONTEMPLATING going to her and seeing if I can help. This has the potential of really pissing off Ed, Tim and her. It may also piss off my wife.

I only know the raw facts via public records. I've started drinking early. I wish those two dick-lickers just kept this shit to themselves and told me about if after-the-fact. Adding insult to injury, Tim took off on a cruise 5 minutes after he told me, and I think Ed & his wife did the same friggin' thing this AM. Assholes.

travel time on the rehab < 10 seconds, Ed extraordinarily skilled in all trades, his travel time < 15 seconds, Tim knows everyone in the friggin' state... (materials-- 21 a bundle for my 36 a bundle architectural shingles, put on my roof 1 minute phone call to a bud of his) shit, shit shit.

OK foster, I'll bite on this fine Sunday morning.

Are you soliciting opinions, thoughtful input, recommendations, or is this just another prime example of your inane rambling punctuated by irrelevant babble?

Or perhaps you are just looking for a sounding board, since no one in real life will listen to you? [grin1]

No Nick, this one is serious. Go forward to December in your mind.

Her name is Renee'. Her home went for Sheriff's auction Oct. 28. It was kicked to early December (forgot the date at this moment)

That is typical, ONCE. (Lawyer may or may not have got that for her- I don't know, but typical)

Next time, she'll be gone.

So, let's just say for example that I go with Ed and Tim and buy her house for a flip job.


The next step would be to evict her. I'd say that's serious, wouldn't you?

Aren't there laws in the Quaker state about evicting people in the winter? That and throw in the DakotaT moral clause you'll be defecating on, and your beaurocratic ass gets another thumbs down.

---

OK, I'll go serious.

What are the intentions of you and / or your friends buying the house?

To help her or to flip it?

I'm going with you wanting to help her and your friends wanting to flip it.

The circumstances of her default may vary a great deal, especially if she purchased during the boom/bust.

That is a big leap my friend. Be very careful what you do.

If I thought she could maintain rent, I'd be very willing to work with an affordable negative cash flow as a long term investment.

I can't consult Ed and Tim right now as they went (literally) south on me.

I don't think my friends (my other two next door neighbors- corner property-hence so many "next door neighbors") are going to be anywhere near as benevolent as I with regards to helping her, based on Ed's bitching about him initially loaning her the $$ for aforementioned shit he ultimately just bagged and gave her, coupled with Tim thinking she could have done a better job of getting her two boys to do the work we wound up doing, plus with him being a dick and a bit racial-- She's black.

Boom/bust non- issue Market here stable, this property would flip lightning fast at any discount, there is significant equity to be had here- read "buzzards" in initial, many times edited post.

My intentions would be a way to keep her in that home and make long term money at the same time. My biggest quandry is how to do it while being between a rock and hard place == as greed of my two buds will enter the picture (at least I imagine that) unless I can make acompelling argument to the contrary, and I have a bad set of historical facts to work with, as regards her and her ability to pay.

Edit--- (told you there would be many)

The reason I'm drinkin' is because I am seriously considering taking them all out of the equation and calling her banker (I know them) and seeing what they'll do for me on a short sale. I'll hit her with the fact that I now own her house if she wants me to ( I suspect she would want me to- I told you I love her, she loves me too--not in the LITERAL sense, so STFU) --- And tell Tim and Ed to kma, you went on a cruise you assholes, it's MY next door neighbor, YOU were greedy, YOU should be ashamed of yourselves., etc etc etc

The problem with that is if she starts to completely default on any kind of rent. Now I got real trouble with the wife, and if I have to ultimately evict Renee', I'm going to make a shit load of $$$ and Tim and Ed are going to perceive me as cutting their balls on the whole $$$ thing. If I let her live there rent free, my wife would flip the fuck out.

Rock and hard place.

Dave,

This is the kind of situation where I'm lucky to be a financial ne'er-to-well. No one would ever come to me for money, I'd never be able to be in a position to do anything. :)

Seriously, though, FWIW, my feeling is that:

(a) You don't flip on the person next door. That just seems scummy to me. Maybe if they were a scumbag politician, but scumbag politicians would never want to live next door to me in the first place. So my first reaction is that your vacationing neighbors should screw themselves.
(b) And if they can't be bothered to go to the sheriff's sale themselves, they got nothing to bitch about if you turn around and make a deal with Renee to screw them out of their scummy deal. Did they ask Renee before they approached you about a deal?
and, most importantly,
(c) don't do anything until you have a long talk with the wife unit.
(c1) You didn't say anything about what the wife unit thinks of Renee? Are her objections those of money, or does she have problems with Renee?

Of course advice is cheap when you're hundreds of miles away. And free advice is usually worth what you pay for it, especially from a lifelong bachelor and ne'er-to-well.

Wade

---

Good questions, you are so smart.

a-- You flip POSSIBLY if it is a done deal anyway. One of the biggest reasons is that you now control that property and the implications upon your own, especially when faced with the huge variable of who DOES buy it at that Sheriff's sale and the appurtenant commitment THEY might have or not have. Obviously, as a next door neighbor, I have an interest in maximizing it's future worth, both for me and mine.
I believe I have already answered the part about, "you don't flip on your neighbors" I agree. I do not like this situation. One door down, there is a disagreement. Ed, for example, can go empty one day's worth of proceeds from his fucking laundromats and pay the Sheriff in quarters.

b--- they are on their different respective cruises NOW, not in December. Fucking Tim had to go through the devastated NJ zone to get to his ship, his number one concern being that trees would block his ability to get on the boat itself. I wonder what it would be like to watch that dick boarding while I held a gas can waiting for fuel for my generator?

c-- That one is highly debatable. Not so much as regards Renee' -- Her ex -- my wife's - (RIP) let a (black) lady live in on of his apts rent free for a year or more, bought her an SUV, died, my wife got property, I HAD TO EVICT HER AFTER LIVING THERE FOR LIKE FOREVER, my son got hosed out of the whole SUV thing (35K) -- He was hosing her, blah blah blah Conversation probably would not go well, lol

c1-- Quite appropriate, being C1-- Wife likes / loves Renee' as much as I do. Seems to get a tad nervous when I do too many kind things for Renee'. Renee' is not physically attractive to me, she is heavyset, and that is not attractive to me, but she has big boobs, and my wife doesn't, so naturally, it has to be the boobs I'm after, at least that's my speculation of her perception.