Foreclosures and stripping items from house article

[ohio]

I came across this article this morning that tells you what is legal and not legal to take from your house if you are in a foreclosure. Thought some might be interested in reading it. It's short and to the point, but I was surprised to see they recommend not taking any appliances such as stoves, with you. I was planning on taking mine as I paid for it! How can that be an issue? What if I had to sell it just to pay my bills? Anyway, here is the article if you are interested:

http://homebuying.about.com/od/4clos...7_Fixtures.htm

[hnhlvr]

There is a huge difference between taking your stove and stripping the house down to its bare bones. I don't think it's any big deal as long as you leave it to that!

We took two appliances 1) our washer, which we had purchased before we moved into the home, and 2) our hot tub because we bought that after we moved in and we needed the money so we sold it.

We were not about to take out all the lighting fixtures, etc., and leave the house in ruins. There are photos of the house up online as the bank is trying to sell it now and it looks just as we left it, except one of the walls had been painted white (it had been a bright decor color).

(Oh, and it's interesting the refridgerator is listed as something you can take! Oh, and house plants too - how thoughtful of the bank!)

[Vanda]

I took the fridge and the stove, since I also had to buy a stove when I moved in. I left everything else, but have since thought I should have taken all the hurricane shutters, they cost thousands of dollars and I actually paid cash for them! Not sure what the protocol on accordian shutters is.

[HakunaMatata]

Very interesting. Thanks Ohio!

I have no intentions of destroying this house. I do have extensive landscaping and intend to split plants before I leave. I would also like to switch out some of my light fixtures (I absolutely love some of the ones I purchased). Is this terrible?

I pity the next homeowner. I wish I could detail the major flaws with this house and leave "Warning: Don't buy if you can't afford costly repairs" notes throughout! The sewer will require $3-6k in work and this will involve removing the two-tiered wood front porch and destroying the front landscaping. Ironically, this is exactly what I had to do when I purchased the house nearly 10 years ago (although, I didn't remove the porch). My seller neglected to mention the faulty sewer line. I thought I fixed the problem with $5k. Unforunately, the three-foot section under the porch wasn't replaced and this is where the current problem exists. Gosh, I hope a builder levels this 1922 sucker and gives someone the opportunity to begin anew. If not, someone will be sinking hard-earned cash into this house. Did I forget to mention the house is literally sinking as well?

Gosh, destroying the house should be considered altruistic as I may be able to spare someone from foreclosure/bk.

[hnhlvr]

I have no intentions of destroying this house. I do have extensive landscaping and intend to split plants before I leave. I would also like to switch out some of my light fixtures (I absolutely love some of the ones I purchased). Is this terrible?.

Well as long as the next homeowner gets an inspection, they'll know what they're in for!

Re: the light fixtures. Just get some cheap ones to put in place so the house has some sort of light fixtures. They don't even have to be matching ones. Really, when someone buys a foreclosure, they're looking for a deal. They're making out on someone else's misfortune! (A relative of mine loves to go on and on about how his goal is to find a deal on a foreclosure - yes, he says this right in front of me!

If you spent (for example) $100 on two light fixtures, it's okay to take those and stick some cheapo ones from Home Depot in their place. This is not comparable to trashing.

[IBroke]

We have some expensive fixtures from Europe we brought with us when we moved here. You can be sure that they wouldn't stay in a foreclosure-home. We never received anything for them in return, so they wouldn't stay..

[HakunaMatata]

"Well as long as the next homeowner gets an inspection, they'll know what they're in for!"

That's what I thought. It never dawned on me to hire a plumber to inspect the sewer line. Standard inspections don't include this and there is no evidence of flawed plumbing inside or outside the house.

Note: If you ever ponder purchasing a property that is obscured by trees on Google Earth, do yourself a favor and run a camera through the sewer line!

[ohio]

Replacing light fixtures

I definitely will be replacing a couple of light fixtures myself with some cheapos from goodwill or big lots. I certainly wouldn't trash this house, just taking things I bought to improve it. I kept some of the old stuff and put it in the garage, so, I will just bring them back in.

My fiance bought this really nice 2 headed shower faucet with long arms that bend and extend and we are DEFINITELY taking that! That was a special order item he bought as a present. We'll just put the original shower head back in.

It still bothers me though that the one bedroom looks like a wreck. It's only been me in this house for years and I pulled the original 1950's wallpaper off and it left alot of chipped painted walls behind or glue. You can see the drywall, but it needs sanded and repainted and it looks like crap. Just hope insurance company doesn't try to rheem me for not finishing my remodel project. Been like that since a few days after I moved in 4 years ago. Didn't know it was going to end up being a nightmare I would have to pay someone else to fix. Now, I hope they don't try to make me pay for it still! I am afraid it could appear that I damaged it intentionally, when I certainly didn't.

This house needs ALOT of repairs. It did when I bought it and didn't realize how much money it would cost to actually repair it. Probably needs about
$20k minimum for repairs and bringing it up to date. $30k would be more like it though. Oh well! Not going to be my doing now.

[Tom_Mi]

I surrendered 3 apartment buildings in CH7.

My TRUSTEE is taking the washers/dryers/refrigerators/Stoves (maybe dishwashers) and selling them to pay "the estate".
("the estate" is of course code for the trustee's extra legal fees).

If they have legal authority to deem freestanding appliances as not part of the building, then why can't we?

[ohio]

Tom_Mi,
Yikes! Wow, that seems pretty harsh! 3 apartment buildings full of all those appliances? That sounds down right crazy and as you said, how can the Trustee take those and sell them when we could be fined if we took them??? Somehow this doesn't make sense.

[goingcrzy]

in my area the trustees ask about the appliances also. We had to list everything. Our lawyer said he has seen people with subzero fridges and viking/wolf ranges have the trustee take them -even if they were walking away from the house! I'm glad we never did they kitchen upgrade