Posted by Anne-ND on June 28, 2001 at 07:36:45:
Excellent post, Sandy, thanks for the reminder.
In cleaning out a similarly stinky junker, we were
overwhelmingly concerned about Hanta virus due
to the wildlife living there. I forgot about Hep B.
Anne
PS- to follow the original thread- this house had two
non-functional toilets (someone was living there) and
also bags and bags and bags of used kitty litter. She
just collected it and kept it inside.
ye gods and little fishes!
Don’t ever open a refrigerator… - Posted by Mark CO
Posted by Mark CO on June 25, 2001 at 22:24:11:
Thanks JoeKaiser, but I read your post too late! Walked through a 4-plex we’re looking to buy and broke the #1 rule of yours. I opened the refrigerator. This place was vacant for a while mind you. Unfortunately the refrigerator light came on. There in front of me and my wife was a football sized mound of mold that had several inches of tentacles hanging down. A bunch of small flies raced out. My wife screemed and ran to the next room brushing her hair vigerously! She told me several times afterwords that she felt like taking a bath. It’s hard to convince her to look beyond this stuff!!
p.s. The place really does have potential.
Mark
People live like that??? - Posted by Fran CA
Posted by Fran CA on June 28, 2001 at 15:19:21:
It amazes me that people really will live in the filth that has been described below.
Another investor I know was looking for partners and took me by this property that he has. He warned me not to open the refrigerator (which I didn’t) and I was just shocked at the rest of the place. It is a two store building that is both commercial and residential (apartments upstairs and in back). The building had been condemned and with good reason. The upstairs apartment was bad. The tenants decided that throwing food all over the house and on the walls, carpets, you named it, it was covered. Needless to say the food dried (place was closed up for at least 3 months before he bought it) on all the walls, stove, floors.
When he went to show me the downstairs apartment, opens the door and a rat as big as Texas (I have never seen one bigger) comes running out of the kitchen and down the hall. Needless to say I screamed (yes I’m a wimpy female) and didn’t even go inside.
How do I get rid of a FULL toilet??? - Posted by Kim (FL)
Posted by Kim (FL) on June 27, 2001 at 14:31:34:
A toilet that is full is much worse than a full refrigerator, right? 
I feel like our current rehab project is the most discusting home EVER - but I guess we all feel that way! We JUST closed on a rehab this week. There are 2 bathrooms and both are COVERED with pee/poop (I have a two year old so I can use those silly words!) The toilets are overflowing and it’s on the walls and the floors!!! I literally gagged when I saw it (yes I’m a wimpy female). We called the water company to find out when the water was turned on last – the answer was January. They have been going to the bathroom for 6 months without flushing the toilet once – needless to say we still haven’t quite figured out how we’re going to remove those toilets!! Any suggestions!? My husband won’t let me help with this project(thank God for my sweet husband!)I can’t believe people LIVE like this – I just decided to be thankful that they didn’t have children living in that house!!!
Don’t open the Fridge! - Posted by John Wade
Posted by John Wade on June 26, 2001 at 11:51:53:
The Mouldy Football with Tentacles takes the cake!
Re: Don’t ever open a refrigerator… - Posted by Sherry W
Posted by Sherry W on June 26, 2001 at 11:23:58:
Just closed on a house 2 wks. ago. When we went to look at it over a month ago - every floor was covered in palmetto bugs - everytime we walked there was crunching. The realtor made it to the front door and had to go outside.
Well, when we closed 2 wks. ago - something has been eating the bugs. They are almost gone.
I ran out with the Realtor and let hubby inspect house.
Re: Don’t ever open a refrigerator… - Posted by Matt B
Posted by Matt B on June 26, 2001 at 10:58:30:
I did a lease option on a property that had section 8 tenants in it. I only did the deal because the owner had grounds to evict them. He was constantly getting calls from the police, telling him that all the neighbors were complaining about the noise from these tenants and they kept the outside of the house filthy. There was always tons of trash all around the exterior of the house. Interestingly enough, the inside was kept spotless!
When I went to take a look at the house, it was indeed in very good shape and very clean inside. The tenant (a woman with 5 different children to 5 different men and a different boyfriend every week living with her) agreed to leave rather than be evicted.
Well the day came when she was to be gone, so I went over to the house with the owner. As we opened the door, a smell smacked us in the face. It was late June and temperatures had been in the 90s. The smell that hit us smelled like a dumpster that had been sitting in back of a diner in the hot summer sun for a couple of weeks.
When I went in, I saw garbage knee deep throughout the entire house. It was wall to wall and this was a very large 5 bedroom house. I seriously thought that they would have had to bring 5 or 6 garbage trucks full off garbage to fill the house as much as they did. It was the most garbage I had ever seen outside of a landfill. They had to have put serious effort into trucking in all the trash. Not only that, but it was rotting food, old diapers, you name it. Basically everything you would find at a landfill.
Well, I went into the kitchen and found a mound of very happy roaches in the sink pigging out on the last few meals that had been left in the sink and on the floor. There was an old pan of grease on the stove that really added something as far as the overall aroma of the house. Bear in mind that the tenants had been gone for a little over a week and closed the house up tightly in the 90 degree heat.
I then went up to the second floor and happened to look in the bathroom. The toilet was “full” and since I guess they tired of using it, they decided to use the bathtub in place of the toilet. I tried to flush the toilet and found that the water had been turned off.
I went down into the basement to find out why the water was off. I turned on the main valve and water came spraying out of the pipes a little further down. I turned it off and inspected the pipes. The tenant or her kids had torn into the pipes with a pair of pliers. I could even see the little teeth marks from the pliers on the pipes all over the place. They had ripped the pipes open in several spots.
Later, after repairing the pipes, I turned the water back on and tried to flush the toilet again. It would not drain. After plunging it and running a snake down it, I eventually dug out a doll’s head that had been stuffed down the drain.
The third floor smelled even worse than the bathroom. It seems that the carpet was SOAKED with urine. What struck me as odd was that I didn’t remember the tenant having any pets when I had inspected the property!
Re: Don’t ever open a refrigerator… - Posted by Sally
Posted by Sally on June 26, 2001 at 10:54:48:
Last year I bought a half million dollar house that has all the bells and whistles. The owners were living in their new home out of state, but their 19 year old daughter was living in the property. The real estate agent and I were looking around and had already discovered a huge ‘floater’ in the toilet (I will let you use your imagination). While we were in the kitchen I decided to open the sub-zero to see how much room was inside. Well to say that I gagged was an understatement. I don’t know what was in there because I closed the door very fast, but the smell was enough to make you want to vomit. I swear that things had been flying out of the fridge. The real estate agent (who was also the listing agent) was standing next to me and we both ran out of the kitchen and started opening up all the doors and windows. It took half an hour before we could go back in the kitchen. Well, I decided to buy the house anyway and everything else was in order and the real estate agent had a not so quiet word with the owner and her daughter that she had never before been so repulsed and ashamed. Needless to say, when we did our pre-closing walkthough, I again ventured to open the fridge (as a built in it stayed) and they had done a mighty job of cleaning it up. What I don’t understand is that the fridge had been on the whole time, so how could bugs, etc… get so bad?
Re: Don’t ever open a refrigerator… - Posted by Rob FL
Posted by Rob FL on June 26, 2001 at 08:37:49:
I bought a pre-foreclosure once where the house was knee-high deep in trash, mold inside the refrigerator, and roaches,rats, and spiders having a huge party in every room. The really bad part is that the owner was still living in the property up until the time I bought it from him. It gives me the creeps just to think of what was crawling on his body during the night when he slept. Yuck!
Re: Don’t ever open a refrigerator… - Posted by JT - IN
Posted by JT - IN on June 26, 2001 at 06:36:39:
Last August, (very hot), had a particularly disgusting house, with a fridge full of rotted food. Had to empty it so we could begin to get rid of this problem. The fridge was sooo bad that the rotted food had broken down to a liquid and saturated through the liner in the box to the insulation and was dripping out the bottom. Well, after emptied, (YUK), I called a used appliance company and they were to remove 2 refirgerators and a stove for $ 80 bucks. I warned them how nasty they were; NO problem. Upon arrival, the scrapping crew of two, was telling me this would be NO problem, that they had been around forever and seen it all; tough guys. Welllllll, one of them got behind this box to move it, they began lifting, and the guy in the rear, pinned up against the wall, with no air ventilation, began gagging and heaving, and came bounding out there like a kangeroo. Only then, did they admit that this was the nastiest thing that they had ever seen, in their many years of appliance removal.
They did get all 3 appliances loaded, all on a little Toyota truck, and I stuck $ 10 bucks in their hands, for something to wash this experience down with.
JT - IN
Re: Don’t ever open a refrigerator… - Posted by DanT
Posted by DanT on June 26, 2001 at 06:20:11:
About 10 years ago I was looking at a house that had a little neighborhood grocery store that went with it. While touring the store, which had a lot of junk in it I opened the cooler, or warmer as the power was turned off. Inside were loaves of cheese and lunch meat. Great place for a penecillin factory. DanT
Re: Don’t ever open a refrigerator… - Posted by SandyFL
Posted by SandyFL on June 26, 2001 at 04:17:52:
haha! Well LeGrand used to say that if your wife doesn’t run from the property screaming then it’s not a bargain! Good job
sandyFL
P.S. This seems like a good place to get a thread going where everyone tries to out-do each other. On what gross things ugly houses have had in them when we bought them. I had bowls of dried spagetti (with meat sauce) left on the floor … unidentifiable mold-encased – I dunno - glasses of milkshakes? Not sure …drug paraphanalia,… condoms… never a moldy football with tentacles though… lol …
Re: How do I get rid of a FULL toilet??? - Posted by SandyFL
Posted by SandyFL on June 27, 2001 at 21:33:43:
I have a two lady associates in the Ft Laud area who bought a house for ~ 35k and the people had not had water service for YEARS. Only somewhere along the way they figured out they’d store it in jugs, milk cartons, anything. There was also the problem of four foot high piles of garbage that you had to crawl over to get from room to room. The way they tell it, they went through about four work crews before they found one team that could complete the clean-out job. [They made about 25k just flipping it once the stuff was cleaned out.] And by the way I don’t think gender has a thing to do with your situation (“yes I’m a wimpy female”).
Ahhhh… isn’t this real estate investing a glamorous thing?
where do you live anyway, Kim?
Sandy in FtLaud/Miami FL
p.s. sorry I don’t know the answer to your question about the full toilets, but I would bet it has something to do with galoshes, and alot of cash
I would also post the question higher up on the discussion forum, if I were you.
Re: Don’t ever open a refrigerator… - Posted by Chicago Chris
Posted by Chicago Chris on June 27, 2001 at 13:38:55:
ROFL!
I am in the process of cleaning a house that is so nasty, filled with clothes and abandoned furniture and cabinets half-full of decaying food that–and I am not making this up, the rats have come–and gone!!
They have clearly had all they could take and just don’t go into the house! I’ve been there 10 times at all times of day and never seen one. You’d have to know where this house is located to understand my surprise.
I’ve got a crew coming to clean it up this week. Can’t wait to hear their stories!
Re: Don’t ever open a refrigerator… - Posted by SandyFL
Posted by SandyFL on June 26, 2001 at 20:38:25:
I had one of those too. The guy who just got out of jail from a DUI and was several months behind on his mtg. Seemed REAL hesitant to let me in to see the bathroom. Same deal. No water, and been using the bathtub for a toilet. I mean dang. I would hope if I ever got in that situation at least I’d use the backyard. ewww.
Hey yeah this is a great thread to read if you are trying to diet…
Sandy
p.s. it was beyond help - bad numbers - I didn’t buy the house.
At least they turned off the water (nt) - Posted by Scot - SoCal
Posted by Scot - SoCal on June 26, 2001 at 11:28:49:
Re: Don’t ever open a refrigerator… - Posted by eric-fl
Posted by eric-fl on June 26, 2001 at 11:22:08:
So much for reading this forum during my lunch hour…
Re: Don’t ever open a refrigerator… - Posted by Jay (TN)
Posted by Jay (TN) on June 26, 2001 at 20:36:24:
I bought a HUD home last June. It had been vandalized. Most problems were easy to fix, but one I abhorred was the tobacco spit that someone had spread on the walls. They took their spittoon (sp?) and slung it sideways so that the tobacco would cover the walls. The HUD contractor tried to paint over it. Comon!!!
Every time I’m fixing up a rough property, neighbors come over to thank me for cleaning the place up. I tell them that walking on two legs and having opposable digits does not necessarily imply one lives like a human. I’ve seen straw shacks in Vietnam in better condition than some of the pig trough/houses here in the States.
Jay
Re: How do I get rid of a FULL toilet??? - Posted by SandyFL
Posted by SandyFL on June 27, 2001 at 21:42:07:
P.S. PUBLIC SERVUCE ANNOUNCEMENT! I would be remiss if I let this opportunity as a future former RN to remind everyone that Hepatitis B is just one of the lovely diseases you can get from exposure to um - fecal matter. I have been immunized, as an RN, and probably alot of your children have been immunized to go to school in the USA. But what about you? It’s a series of three injections but it’s way better than blowing up into a yellow jaundiced balloon, or getting a liver transplant… and also if anyone out there ever gets an accidental exposure to these substances, either from a real estate rehab related thing, or you went snorkeling in contaminated water - or whatever! Tell your doctor and get a immune booster to help you resist getting ill. Get the injection within 12 hours of exposure!
Ok I am done. I just realized that someone somewhere might actually benefit from this little nursey blurb of mine.