I just bid a trashout and there's blood throughout the tub and all over the floor where the it overflowed.

Wonder what happened there?

Most common things that they leave, besides unopened mail and general trash, are boxes of stuff they packed hap-hazardly and then didn't bother to take (or grocery bags or trash bags of stuff).


Ditto! Why do they take the lightbulbs and what are the odds the bulbs will survive the move? Another strange thing they take are the plastic covers to electric receptacles. They cost maybe 50 cents each!

I have a listing on a nice seven bedroom home on the golf course. House was left fairly clean but was left behind was an employee contract for a Northwest Airline Mechanic. I am guessing someone got 'down-sized' after 9-11. Then in the office I found course information on becoming a Realtor and an Appraiser.

I gues they thought if they were giong to lose thier home the next best option was to become a Realtor who sells REOs and sell it yourself.

Eric, about the Wolf Spiders. They migrated south to my apartment. They are very dangerous...when you see one coming at you, you could have a heart attack. Ha, ha.

A spray bottle filled with alcohol will kill spiders, roaches, ants, etc. And I mean...in their tracks. Alcohol is not as bad as the bug sprays if you are in the house for a while... although who could smell it, anyway, in some of these homes.

This thread needs to be renamed "REO info to read AFTER you have had breakfast."

Sad thing is...these people who leave these disgusting messes when they move were some agent's clients at one time. Now there is another reason not to drive clients around in your own car...just in case.

I'm amazed at how few of these houses were listed before the foreclosure. It's like the owners just gave up and used their energy trashing the place.

Oh! I thought of another common thing left behind in REOs--

A FOR SALE BY OWNER sign!

I wish I had a photo of every one I've ever seen.

Now THERE's a good thing to tell FSBOs when you're trying to sign them up!

I did forget one of the most common things- weights. I have had about 50 REO (active and those in pre-list now) and I think there were only 4 houses that did not have any weights inside or outside, and they were CFK properties....
I second that FSBO sign- I've seen several of those....

Someone forgot about PEOPLE! I didnt know if this was for after they had been evicted or not.Because before that I always find the old owner who is just waiting it out till they get evicted! Unless its a cfk situation there is always stuff they leave behind.I actually had a urn at one,how do you leave and forget grandma in the closet??

I hit the jackpot Friday.

My listings typically are missing every lightbulb.

Not a huge deal, but it's hard to get a buyer interested in a house in the dark.

We checked occupancy on 2 of my new listings Friday, one had almost an entire garage bay full of lightbulbs - all different kinds. (which was ironic, because there were no lightbulbs in any fixtures in the house).


I emailed my AM and he said, "hey, can you take them and put them in your listings with us?"

That was exactly what I wanted to do. My trashout guy will replace lightbulbs for free while he's there for the trashout so I'm going to start leaving them in the house for him on his jobs.

I opened the door yesterday on an active listing and there was blood all over the entry tile.

But as my buyer (with a good sense of humor) said, "only enough for a stab wound or a gunshot. It's not like anyone died there."

Needless to say, we didn't go in to leave our mark on the "crime scene."

I showed on this weekend that had what looked like bloody fingerprints on one of the doors. I'm sorry, but if that had been my listing, I would have at least cleaned that up. I'm sure that has freaked out more than one buyer.

I showed a REO today that was built in the 50's and had exstensive additions in '92. We found 8 sets of blueprints, each with about 10 drawings. I think this will be good info to pass along to the next owners.

Fingerprint powder on the doors....

So here's a new one (Hopefully a top 10)

About 500 BB's shot into the living room wall. Like they were sitting on the couch and just shooting into the wall.

The weird part I thought, was there was no Bullseye or target.. just 500 random shots... Then again, what am I thinking. Shooting bb's into a wall probably doesn't make much sense to start with.