How did you leave your FC property? (cleanliness, contents?)

[PoorNow]

We were trying to sell our house still when we vacated it, so we cleaned it all up and got all of our stuff out. We didnt leave anything behind. We had a bunch of friends in the neighborhood. I would have been embarassed if someone had come by and see trash and crap left behind. It was clean when we bought it, we left it clean. I think it sucks when people leave trash and crap behind, especially anything that can spoil and stink.

[StartingOver08]

it is a matter of pride and character. I would leave it broom clean at least as it reflects upon me. Consideration and respect for the use you had for the item. I would also take pictures of the whole place as you left it, as if it gets broken into and trashed you need no more trouble. 'hub

+1.

[AngelinaCat]

I will add this to 'Hub's advice: having something like the front page of the current newspaper in the photos when you take them. This gives a date and time stamp to the photos that is difficult to dispute.

[AngelinaCatHub]

It is a matter of pride and character. I would leave it broom clean at least as it reflects upon me. Consideration and respect for the use you had for the item. I would also take pictures of the whole place as you left it, as if it gets broken into and trashed you need no more trouble. 'Hub

[HHM]

There is no legal requirement for any level of cleanliness, certainly don't rip the place apart. But from a Karma perspective, clean it out, remove perishables, have a couple of garage sales, etc.

[chad9162]

Clean the fridge?? I'm selling the fridge or giving it away!

[justbroke]

Yes, at least clean the refrig!

[BROKEDED]

It doesn't matter how you leave it or what you leave behind. Someone is going to do a trash out/clean out anyway and get paid to do it. If you want to be nice, empty the fridge if you're leaving the fridge and haul off stuff that might spoil or have it picked up but as for stuff you don't want to keep or just miscellanous trash, leave it.

I used to get some work doing trash outs. Most things I found were trash but sometimes they'd throw me a bone. The best things were a steel truck tool box and a RC car ($200) and some PS/2 Games. Most things were like toys and clothes. If they were in good condition I'd take them to Goodwill and use them as a deduction.

The worst one I ever had was a fridge that had been sitting full of food for a month, power off, and in the middle of summer. I was warned by the realtor not to open the door. You ever heard the saying, "Curiousity killed the cat."? Well, that was as close to a near death experience as I'd come to in a long time. Once I had aired the house out for an hour, I took the sliding glass doors off and dragged the fridge outside to wash it out with a water hose...from a distance. There was a two inch thick layer of green and black mold and scum covering the entire inside of the fridge. I left it outside and had to make a special trip two days later to drag it back in the house. Uuuuggghhh!!!

Another person that I knew who also did trash outs was sent to a house one time and found the house with everything still in it, including a car in the garage. They said they found a whole set of suitcases, packed, and sitting at the door as if the family was getting ready to leave. They left the house and went through this whole process of reverifying that the tenants were given ample time to vacate and they got reordered to the house. They still ended up putting everything in storage for 6 months but the family never came forward to claim anything. Apparently, they were from India and had "supposedly" left the country with nothing. The person I knew said they were really scared that they were gonna end up popping the trunk and finding dead bodies but nothing SO everything was auctioned off and the trash out guy got most of the money. I think the car sold for $6000.

[justbroke]

I left my rental property pretty clean. Actually, it was "rent ready" as I had it prepared for a new tenant. Most will say that "broom clean" is just fine.

Broom clean means that everything should be emptied and then you at least sweep after everything is gone.

• It doesn't mean scouring the refrigerator, although cleaning it out, turning it off, and leaving the doors open helps. It doesn't mean cleaning your oven or stove top. However, I would make sure there's no food lying around in the cabinets or any crumbs for critters to feast on upon your departure.
• It doesn't even mean vacuuming, but sweeping the non-carpeted areas is a nice thing.
• Take out the trash, especially trash containing food products.
• Flush the contents of the toilets, just in case something was left behind. (Also, turn off water to all sinks and toilets!)
• Do not stack trash in garage, basement or kitchen, actually bring it to the curb
• Actually sweep the floors.

[goblue]

Thank you....that's what he was hoping to do and the more I think about it -- it makes sense. He has a bunch of stuff to be thrown out left in the middle of the garage - the house itself is empty. We have 2 more garbage pick ups at the old house -- I'm sure we'll get as much out as possible.

[Tifosi]

We cleaned out any perishables and normal trash.

We left lots of boxes, bags of junk and such in the garage and basement. I certainly wasn't going to pay for an extra trash pickup. That being said the house was not left with junk all over the floors throughout the house like you see on many tv shows.

[goblue]

We are giving up our home in our Ch7. We've moved to a rental property, but haven't fully cleaned out our old home yet.

I certainly don't want to do any major cleaning when we officially walk away from our old home. My husband and I have different views on how much work we should do (cleaning mostly) in this house.

I'm just wondering -- when you gave up your house -- how did you leave it? We have a bunch of junk we are tossing - should we work hard to get it picked up by garbage service or do people generally just leave it and let whomever deal with it during/after the foreclosure?

Any thoughts???