Buying a house?

Question

We have decided to buy a house with 5 acres to basically knock it down and build a new one but the lady who owns it is in a nursing home and just basically walked out, all of her stuff is there and she doesn't want any of it...but to make matter worse someone came into the house and went through everything....it's a mess drawers have been dumped closets have been ramsacked and everything is on the floor so you can't even walk through the house. Also, she left all the food in the fridge and two freezers and they have been turned off for over a year. The house isn't worth anything but has some really old antiqie stuff in it and some nice woodwork. Were not sure if we should just bulldoze the house and burn everything or if we should take the time to clean out everything. It has a horrible spider problem and the weeds are huge outside. not to mention the 4 out building full of junk too in the same condition. I think it will be a mess but some nice things could be saved out of the house.

I thought about getting a dumpster and just start in one room and keep what is saveable and just haul the other stuff out...the fridge was only a few months old when she left but it has had food in it for over a year with out electric, EWW! The real estate company wouldn't even let us open it! The house isn't locked and you can kick through walls but I think we could gut it and fix what needs to be fixed and basically just re build in the same spot.

The question is if I should try to save what is worth anything or if we should just knock the place down with everything in it! It's such a mess that you can't walk through the rooms and spiders are every where and they JUMP on you....it has bees, mice, a dead snake lol. Just horrible condition!

Just walking through it the only things we saw that would be worth something is some old food cans and jugs that my mother in law collects and buys at auctions. She also had a lot of bowls that are worth a lot of money....the family was looking for a canister of money that the lady had hidden in the house but the lady can't talk so they can't find out where it is. LOL I don't know if someone already found it or just gave up.

The electric has been cut off literaly...it has a big orange sticker on the box saying that it's not safe lol. We would have to work during the day to clean it out but the spiders will run us out lol. Some of the furniture isn't too bad just needs to be cleaned and alot of the dressers and things like that are nice and could be fixed...I just don't think that it would be worth the time and spider bites to go through it and it has absteos in it so we would have to wear a mask.

Answer 1

I've faced some situations like this. here are some suggestions.

Hire a couple kids - college kids or high schoolers, to do the major trash hauling. You or someone you trust be there to organize and set aside the antique things that might have some value. It is a dirty job, but give the kids some decent money and buy them pizzas and they'll be happy. Then contact some collectors or several antique stores and ask for bids on taking the antique stuff. If you went through and checked reference books you might come across a $10,000 lamp, but probably not - that's a lot of work and you might miss it any way. Have several people bid on it. Having just one buyer they might lowball you but if they are competing against each other they are likely to give a decent price.

As far as the house, burning it might be a possibility, especially if you are in a smaller community. I've seen several owners get the fire department to burn their homes down for them. The fire department does it for training. You would have to clear stuff out of the house, and normally have the utilities removed (plumbing, electrical, etc,) I've even seen movie studios pay to burn or blow up your house as part of their filming. Check with your state, they should have a film promotion department - probably part of either the Tourism bureau or whoever tries to atract business for the state. Just ask if there are any TV shows or Feature films working in state - and if they need a house to destroy.

However, before you do that, if this is an old house, it may have some stuff in it that renovators like. There are many places that provide used renovation materials for period and historical property renovations. They are often willing to pay high fees for wood moldings, doors, claw foot bathtubs, ceiling copper plates and the like. Ask around and see if there are any such specialty reclaimers in your area. They are likely to come, bid on the parts of the house they want, then bring in a crew to remove those parts they want.

Sometimes things are just junk, and I remember hauling 22 truckloads of moldy magazines and clothes to the dump. But sometimes, especially in the oldest houses, there can be some diamonds in the rough that can end up paying for the entire demolition, and more.

Good luck.

Answer 2

My husband and I are doing the same thing. We purchased 46.5 acres that had an older home on the property. The current owner's son lived there until he died of a heart attack six years ago. When we purchased the property from him, we let him know we would be tearing the old house down and building a new one. He has came over three or four times since then and gotten things out that he wanted to keep. He took some windows, electrical panel..etc. In your situation, I would tell the family I will have the house demolished on such and such day, you have up until a day before then to get anything you want out. After they left on the last day, you could go thru and just see if there is anything left you might could incorporate in your new home, wood floors...etc. If not, have it bulldozed and carried off. We can't burn shingles were I live, so we are carrying them off, but the rest will burn. Permits and such are required.

Answer 3

You may be able to hire someone to come A} Clean the house out and B} Salvage stuff that is decent, such as the woodwork.

I had a similar situation where an owner basically walked away and left all sorts of stuff in the house. I hired a crew to come clean it out, took them less than two days and everything was gone, except a few items that were tagged to be left behind. If you did that, then you could come take a look at what you might want to save. Salvage companies come take furniture, old fixtures, woodwork (trim, doors, etc.), windows, all sorts of stuff and pay you for it. There is some demand for those old items.

Good luck to you!

Answer 4

have someone go thru it and take everything out! as far as gutting it if its still structuraly sound it may be a good idea if there is a pest problem it may go away once yo empty the house i think i would empty it first and see how bad the problem is.

with extra stuff Yard sale or advertise that anyone willing to haul it away can keep what they want! ther are people out here that will hual it away for nothing just so the cal salvage the good stuff

if you want to burn it to the ground sometimes you can contact your fire company and allow them to do a controled burn for training pruposes! It allows the fire company thel train for when there is a real problem! they will say yes or no either way if distroying the home ends up being your salution see if this is an option! once they are done you will have less to take away!

Answer 5

save whatever furniture and possible moldings that you can. if you like the layout and the framing of the house is still good then you should let it stand. there are companies out there that come and take all of your junk, if you have a spider problem now, then you will have one later, it has to be treated either way. See if you can get an plumber in there to check and make sure there are no issue with that, electrician for electrical, these are two large expenses and if you can aviod having it all redone you should. Make sure and get the foundation checked too.

after you adding that last one...it sounds like it is more work than it is worth....tear it down and build your dream house!! :)good luck!

Answer 6

Sometimes things of great value, like antiques, can be found in old houses. Perhaps you should at least take the time to visually go through some of the stuff to see if it might have any value.

On the news the other day, some guy found some valuable cars stored in an old garage found on the property he bought. They brought over a million dollars.

Sounds like, however, the place should just be bull dozed over and started anew.

Answer 7

take a quick scan through the house for anything that might be a valuable antique. Save those things and trash the rest (including the entire fridge, personally, I would duct tape it shut just to be safe)

Or if you are worried you might end up throwing something away that is valuable, Contact an antique dealer. Offer to let them take a walk through the house and check for valuables.

Once they've looked it over just bulldoze, dump, and begin construction of your new house.

Answer 8

Call an auction company they may give you a flat rate for everyhting and load it and haul it. Also call some recyclers, they may want the wire and pipes in the house.
It could have 6-7000k worth of materials, that you can sell quick. offset the cost of the demolition at least.

Answer 9

Yup The house most likely has asbestos in its construction and could have other contaminants.

A professional demolition company with a large excavator can scoop it up and put it in a truck to go to the landfill.

Make certain all permits and inspections a done.

A professional demolition company will take care of that.

You should not mess with anything is makes little sense.



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Make sure that power water and sewer are disconnected .

Notify the city with a demolition permit and if Asbestos is present give the required Ten Day notice to the State for Asbestos abatement. For Asbestos the water the house down prior to demolition and take it to a special land fill for asbestos.

Asbestos must be done by properly licensed Asbestos co.



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Answer 10

Id just mow it down because from my experience, if someone else didnt take that furniture its probably not going to be worth the time and trouble to remove and sell it. Make it easy on yourselves, bulldoze it down and forget about it. Focus on your new place and enjoy.
I have been there and done that and i wont clean one up again.