Interesting timing

I've complained here before about the two properties on either side of us that are in the foreclosure process.  I've mentioned that we would love to have the smaller of the two places, the one northeast of us.  We'd like it mainly because of the fine pole barn, the door of which practically opens up on our property.  That's how close it is.

We likely don't have the funds to buy the place, and we have been quite ignorant of the foreclosure process.  Yesterday a surprise tutor came to our front door and explained to us how it works.  


The guy who is going to be fixing all the damage in the other neighboring house, the one on the west, came here looking for information about that property.  He has the option of either doing the repairs for the bank (to the tune of many thousands of dollars) so they can sell it, or buying it himself, to fix and resell.  He buys foreclosed properties all the time, does repair, and "turns them around" as he calls it.  This is a man we've known for years.  In fact, fifty years ago my mother was his mother's Avon lady.  
Charlie told us step-by-step exactly what we needed to know about buying such a property, and who we need to talk to.  The first step, he said, is to wait for it to sell on the courthouse steps.  
"How do you know when that's going to happen?"  
"You watch the Odessan," he answered.  "There will be a notice in the paper that has to run for three or four weeks."  
I mentioned in yesterdays ramble that I had made out a check to subscribe to the Odessan after three years of doing without it.  In fact, the addressed, stamped envelope containing the check was at Charlie's elbow as he spoke with us.  
We do not intend to borrow money to buy a place we don't need.  If you knew the total amount we have in various savings accounts, you would laugh at us for even thinking of purchasing any sort of property for that pitiful amount.  I don't look for it to happen.  
But if it does, it wouldn't be the first time we've been surprised by circumstances.  

Won't you be my neighbor?

Remember how we have a vacated property on either side of us?  And that I've been wondering what banks owned them?
I found out yesterday, and it was actually pretty simple.  I walked over to each of the two properties and read the notices on the doors of each.  A local bank owns the big house on the west; Bank of America has the one on the southeast.  
So you'd think one could simply call the banks and ask how much they want for the properties.
Oh no.  They have to get a realtor involved, and who knows when they'll get that done.  When that happens, though, maybe you'd like to move next door.  Here's the one on the west:   

The house

The garage

This is where the original house was, the one that burned.

The view from the old house location

The local bank has been doing some cleanup to the house.  It needs a lot more than cleanup, however; it needs extensive repair.  "Somebody" tore up both air conditioners to get to the copper inside them.  Most of the interior doors have been taken out and sold.  Lighting fixtures have been removed.  It's only a five-year-old house, but it's been vandalized.  Add to that the fact that the guy did a lot of the work himself, with questionable hired help, and you realize nobody is going to want to pay much.  It does sit on seventeen acres, which may be the main selling point when it goes on the market.  The acreage is rough, though, and only growing weeds.
We have no desire to own that place.  Now let's move on to the other one:

I guess it qualifies as an earth home.

back yard, with pool

   

On the southeast is a house that is basically an above-ground basement.  The floors are concrete.  There's no working furnace, and the whole inside is pretty trashed.  The roof needs to be replaced, since half the shingles have blown off.  The back yard is mostly taken up by an abandoned swimming pool that hasn't been touched in at least five years and hasn't held water for two; and around that, little trees have planted themselves and grown into a young forest.  Water for the house is provided by a well.  Bank of America owns this one, so I don't think anybody will be doing any cleanup. 

The one good thing on the property is the pole barn.  This is the sole reason we wouldn't mind having it, if it sells cheap enough.  We'd probably just level the house, because by the time we bought the property we wouldn't have enough funds to fix everything that's wrong with it.


Or maybe you'd like to be my neighbor, fix up the house, and rent the barn to us?      

Foreclosed homes

We got 'em here.  One on either side of our property.  There are parties interested in purchasing each place, but under Missouri law, 365 days have to pass before the property can be sold.  
Now, wouldn't you hate to be the lending institution stuck with these homes?  
Both are surrounded by weeds.  One of the homes is in need of a lot of repair.  I'm not sure about the other one; it's only about five years old, but it wasn't ever really finished; some of the siding was never put on it, and some of the siding has blown off.  It sits on several very weedy acres.  

Built only four or five years ago, you can see where siding has blow off.  The horses are gone now.

The weeds were like this when the house was occupied, so we're used to that.

You can imagine what these two properties are doing to the value of our place.  
One of the former owners of the property in the pictures still holes up in the vacant house at night, even though there's no electricity or water.  
You gotta love our neighborhood.  Our trailer house looks pretty darned fancy in comparison to these eyesores!
Anyway, these two places will sit there for a year (I don't know when their year-long waiting periods began) an open invitation to vandals, taking severe blows from the ravages of nature.  
The older of the two homes has already been broken into twice.  
This winter, if there's water in the pipes and hot water heaters, they will undoubtedly freeze and burst.  
And there's really nobody who cares.  


The mother cat I adopted is very happy with the situation; she goes mousing next door often, and brings her catch home to the youngsters.