An eviction then a nasty surprise…..
The neighbors expressed relieve when we arrived to begin negotiations with the people who had taken over a once nicely maintained home, turning it into a derelict house filled with ne’er-do-wells. The behavior of former owners or tenants occupying post-auction homes can be so unpredictable. Will they negotiate the keys for some cash? Or will the sheriff come on judgement day, along with our small army of curbside movers, to remove them and their belongings once and for all. It soon became clear that there was an indeterminate number of related and unrelated people living in the house. Working with our attorney, we determined that they had no legal standing and proceeded with a court judgement and then scheduled an eviction date with the sheriff.
Anything can happen on eviction day and we have the greatest respect for those law officers who take on this challenge day in and day out. It can be a risky job. One former home owner we evicted took a shot at the sheriff and then, with the SWAT team battering in the door, shot himself in the head. He had lived in the home for 30 years, had become unemployed and with no family had lost all hope. Fortunately this tragic story was not repeated and when the sheriff arrived, the house was empty - except for enough junk to fill several dumpsters.
View of house taken shortly after auction, with a rarely unoccupied driveway free of barely operational cars
The road to redemption
While the legal wheels shifted into high gear, we moved forward with installing a new roof. We considered the squatters as defacto tenants and, with an actively leaking roof, initiated emergency repairs. This gave us a head start on one of the larger scale projects we would need to accomplish. Once they were gone, we repainted the house both inside & out and repaired the lawn sprinkler system, giving the home the greenest lawn in all of Mason County.
The kitchen was in reasonably good condition. We again dogged a bullet by keeping the existing cabinets and granite counter tops - a legacy of a former home owners who truly cared about their property.
The living room wall was covered in dark plastic faux stone which directly adjoined the wood burning fireplace opening. This bizarre (and flammable) material would require a new properly separated gas insert (after removing the television) and gas supply line as well as the replacement of the derelict gas insert in the family room downstairs.
A week from being ready to list and….. down comes the entire chimney. A local guy with a 5-ton dump truck and backhoe came to the rescue. The heavy duty equipment made fast work of demolishing and hauling away tons of brick. We really hate these last minute, expensive surprises but lesson learned: analyze masonry (or any specialized discipline) early in the project and schedule long lead time repairs accordingly.
The silver lining in this cracked masonry cloud was the opportunity to add a view window upstairs and downstairs, looking out over the Shelton valley and east toward the Cascades. The north facing living room with its dark, faux stone wall would become a bright, light filled space. Interior spaces feel refuge-like when blinding summer light penetrates the house seemingly everywhere. But come the winter dark of late December, they need every bit of natural daylight they can get. The adjacent kitchen / dining room areas are sorely needing this morning light which will flood this end of the house.
The one story house with its wider side yard separation was a fortunate coincidence. Even the downstairs family room window would have a view. The infill cedar siding was sourced locally and was a near exact match to the original 1964 siding. The existing 50-year old material proved to be durable and without any rot whatsoever. We were reminded of the Morton project, where beneath a hideously peeled & colored paint job lay a magnificent resilient material, just needing a new makeover of quality paint.
The stainless steel gas wall oven & cook top cost a small fortune but really gave the kitchen a newly renovated look. The microwave was toast and mounted too low so we replaced it with a stainless steel fan with decorative accent tile on the wall behind. New LED replacement recessed lighting give the kitchen a bright glow - highlighting the warmth of the wood cabinets & keeping the granite from feeling too dark.
We consulted with a local masonry company who just happened to have worked on the home’s chimney over the years. He gave us some honest advice that the chimney was beyond repair and would either require a complete rebuild or some other, perhaps more cost effective solution.
The new carpet had already been installed downstairs adjacent to which we needed to cast a new concrete foundation wall. The 1964 chimney had been leaking water into the house through its cracked mortar joints for years.
Inexpensive slider vinyl windows would add more cross ventilation to the rooms.
View of new window with kitchen beyond. Perhaps we should have added another window in the east wall of the kitchen as well.
Analyze, Analyze, then Analyze again….
A typical foreclosure project will have its share of blessings and curses.. If you have more of the former, you should come out ahead. We were so fortunate to not have to remodel the kitchen, bathrooms or face any major electrical issues. The 10 acre, partially forested Julian project provided the ferns for landscaping accents at no cost other than the labor to transport them. We were, however, unfortunate with the expensive chimney demolition and resultant wall & window rebuild.
Luck plays a role in this business, but it would be foolish to rely on it. A home toured prior to auction with added input from other knowledgeable pros is still no guarantee you’ll know fully what you’re getting into. Inspect the home before auction, getting inside if possible. Some homes, regardless of what professional advice says, will give you all the information you need to walk away. Never buy a house sight unseen. Include a careful post auction analysis, critical for scheduling more complex repairs, tracking overall expenses and maintaining the project schedule. Your profits are eroded day by day by unforeseen “curses”, the resultant extended completion date and interest payments that won’t end until the day you close.