My youngest daughter is looking for a house to rent and she had me look at a home here in Ney that is $21,900 cash or $1,200 down and $434 a month. Less than ten years ago, the house sold for $77,910. The people who last owned it proceeded to trash the place and defaulted on their loan after they divorced. Last month, a distressed property company in New York bought the house for $13,050. The house has sat empty for four years.
The Ohio housing market is still in the toilet, so I thought maybe this house would be a good opportunity for my daughter and her boyfriend. Well, this house gives new meaning to the word fixer-upper. The inside of the house looks like monkeys on crack went through the house defecating and urinating as they beat holes in the walls with a hammer. Seeing such things makes me wonder if some of my fellow Homo sapiens have evolved. In fact, I suspect cave men treated their caves better than the people who last lived in this house.
That said, the foundation is pretty good, and the house has a new roof, gutters, and recent siding. For the right price, the house could be restored to its former glory. Evidently, the older gentleman who lived there years ago kept the house up. Replace all the carpet, fix the walls, paint everything, and the house would at least be livable.
While looking at the house, I noticed the following written on the living room wall:
According to one neighbor, the family had four children who pretty much did what they wanted. I doubt this message caused the children to pick up their stuff. Why should they? Their parents had them living in dump and showed no care for their own property. You can’t expect kids to care if you don’t. I’ve lived in a lot of old, junky houses over the years. My parents were poor and our housing reflected it. But, every house we lived in was kept clean. Mom taught us that there is no shame in being poor and just because you don’t have anything doesn’t mean you have to live like a pig. Polly and I passed on this ethic to our children and that is why they have a hard time fathoming how someone could destroy their home and turn their yard into a landfill.
Such ashame. It’s like this here, as well. I know of a case where a family literally was throwing their own shit out the back door when their water got turned off. Unreal
When I was growing up, two houses across the street came up for sale. One was a big old Victorian that had been converted to apartments, and the other was a smallish single-family house. My parents had some investment money, and first bought one, and then a few years later the other. The old Victorian turned out to be a really easy rental; the tenants were long-timers who considered the place their own, and treated it well. The smaller house was cursed. One tenant had violent fights with her boyfriend, where things got thrown and dents/holes made in the walls. The tenants who followed were amazing pigs; when they moved out there was dog crap everywhere in the house, and what wasn’t, er, fertilized was filthy. The place had to be stripped, completely repainted, and all carpeting replaced. The third set of tenants were actually very good, but they were an unmarried couple and my staunchly Catholic mother was distressed about renting to them. She lay awake at night worrying about their souls.
Humans are unpredictable creatures.