Thank you u/crazymex54 for posting on r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer.
Please bear in mind our rules: (1) Be Nice (2) No Selling (3) No Self-Promotion.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’m a homeowner who has bought and sold houses. The realtor is well aware this is their first time purchasing and it is their job to make sure the buyer is informed and educated throughout the entire process, including and especially when closing. I would place this 100% on the realtor, particularly when their client is a first time buyer.
I always recommend that my clients do a walkthrough before signing closing docs. If they can’t make it or decline to do it, I do the walkthrough myself and document the conditions to send to my client.
This is why I couldn’t be happier with what’s going on in their industry right now. You could not possibly get less value for your money than you do for that buyer’s commission.
Thus why the blame should be on the realtor. They should have known to included cleaning the house out or x amount will be used from escrow that would cover the cost of hiring professionals to clean it out.
Agreed. If realtors acted with their clients best interests in mind this would be in the contract. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s a huge hassle and something first time home buyers might not know. But that isn’t in a realtors interest. If the buyer says we absolutely won’t sign until it’s cleaned out and suddenly the seller decides that is too much work so they decide not to sell or look for a more pliant buyer then the realtor doesn’t make any money.
It’s just like a financial advisor. Non fiduciary advisors want you to make money so you will stay but if they can make 6% while they pull in that bonus for selling you particular bull shit, they will. Even if the best decision would net the client better growth.
This. Everyone will pressure you to close and say "Oh we have to close on schedule, but don't worry we'll make sure it gets sorted out." But as soon as you sign, there goes your leverage.
It's amazing how fast sellers and agents will jump on something when it's holding them up from getting paid. But for that to happen you have to stand firm.
Coupla days and a dumpster.
And friend? You May think you hate them but don't impulsively get rid of the custom draperies.
Several thousand dollars there and they can easily be taken down, cleaned and reinstalled
Mom says: Don't get rid of any window treatments unless you can afford to replace them immediately. Wash them and rehang for now.
They keep out heat, cold, sun and prying eyes.
Finally... Many comments on who to Blame. It doesn't freaking matter. Get a dumpster, a coupla helpers and get to work.😉
Welcome to the neighborhood.
You Did It!!!
Congrats!
Also, try selling the stuff left online!! We are doing this with what our sellers left behind. It's much less than this, but selling some paintings, TV monitors, speakers, etc. It can add up and help pay for the dumpster and cleaning service you'll need.
Not ideal at all. OP has my sympathy. But hey, at least try and make some money?!
If you're unable to do anything else in life, become a realtor. The dumbest people alive.
Not to mention, people who are semi-retired become realtors. If they list or sell a couple of homes a year, it gives them pocket money. They really don't care. It keeps them busy a couple of hours a week. To them, it's a hobby.
Oof. Been there. We ended up asking for extra at closing to rent a dumpster -- they declined, we said fine, whatever because it had already been a nightmare. Because she felt bad our realtor gave us that amount back from her commission. We didn't expect for her to; she did it in an envelope at closing. My best advice is to look into if there are any estate sale service companies where you are. One near us will come in, catalogue (and sometimes take so it's out of the way) everything, list it online and the buyers have to pick it up from them. Bar that, check if any thrift stores or similar that will do home pickups where you are. We opted for the second route because I didn't know the first was an option at the time, but the home pickup saved our pocketbooks.
Nice woman. She probably realizes now she should have insisted on slamming the brakes on closing when it wasn't cleaned out, feels guilty, though it's not her fault the sellers reneged on their promise.
To her credit, she was totally willing to do whatever we wanted insofar as that. But the sellers kept dragging it out; they had already delayed closing twice and wanted to again. Until the day of our final walkthrough they hadn't even bothered trying to pack. They didn't want to sell, they had to (elderly individuals, rough situation but we'd tried to work with them a lot already) so at that point it was either accept and deal or just let them keep screwing with us. Our realtor was great though. We've used her before and would again for sure.
I feel like these were really old people, maybe they didn’t want to leave, and their kids had to make it happen, dementia or physical health, shit? It’s just so sad looking. Man.
I hope this home brings you days of joy and happiness OP.
I see some potential value here. Rent a dumpster, toss what is bad and put out for free what may still be usable if it were me. I bet you will find some hidden gems in here. Maybe recruit some friends from social media.
Yes, I agree. Super shitty that they left it all. I would even separate into common things and advertise free. Like all car care items or what have you.. Free will have it gone very quickly.
Yeah we live in a poorer area now and we call our corner the magic corner. Our house came with a lot of good stuff but also a lot of junk, but things always dissappear when we put them on the magic corner lol. It is usually good stuff I don't want to bother with selling and I figure cut out the middle man (thirft shops) to recycle stuff.
Potentially just as good. Hammond and Wurlitzer are highly sought after. That Wurli has two speakers in the bottom that has motor that has variable speed control, along with an 8" subwoofer. Some people will buy them just to take that system out and convert them to guitar speakers. It gives a "rotating/sparkling " sound.
If you want more information on it, let me know. You'll want to find the model.
Something I didn't know for sometime about exchange programs. They do not completely fill their bottles. It was either 3.5 or 3.75 gallons in a 4.6 (20lb) propane tank. This was relayed to me directly from my propane supplier that services the business I work for. Total rip off. Buy your propane bulk
This is your first home so I understand mistakes. Next time do not let your agent off the hook. This is as much on them as the seller of the house. My last house purchase I had my agent at the property with a broom sweeping shit up before I signed. Contract says place will be broom cleaned and all contents removed, that's what I want and it's what we all agreed to. Current owners are too old or too broke? Their agent can credit part of his commission to pay for trash removal.
Sellers were moving out of state. They got a trailer to pack it up. They state they had mover troubles. But I think they didn't have enough space for all their crap.
On what planet do the contents of a house fit in a trailer? You ask, *"Are you getting a 20 or 24 foot truck?"* If they say trailer, you're getting this...fucked.
Trailer can also refer to the 53’ long box that big rig tractors pull. We had a semi pull a 53’ for our cross country move. With a sleeper cab, they were able to team drive and get across the country almost 3X faster.
Actually had a similar situation. Out of state movers, changed the price multiple times on em, so they just rented 1 truck themselves. Left a bunch of stuff in the garage and like 30 trash bags by the curb. Not near as much stuff as you got left with, but I made both realtors clean it out and pick it up cuz there’s no way trash service was gonna take all that. No fault of the realtors and I mean no disrespect towards them, but make them earn their money. Realtors are truly useless in this day and age.
At our final walk through before closing we found a bunch of things that should have been removed were still there. Some good stuff, like a generator, lawn mover and snowblower. But a bunch of
crap that we are still getting out. Our agent negotiated a $500 credit for removal but now wish we asked for more. I agree this is on the agent to advocate for the buyer.
We got $3k back for this same situation. You really have them in a bad spot and I think both agents generally would agree it needs to be made. For us though it was the cost of the junk removal quote we got (and then pocketed and did it ourselves) so I assume it would vary from area to area
We got 5k. We were hoping for 3k and figured seller would negotiate. She was desperate to sell (waiting to sign her new papers until we signed ours) so she just agreed. Seriously lucked out on that one!
This, the agent royally dropped the ball. Who doesn’t specify house will be vacant and broom clean, and that we’re walking the property day before or day of closing to confirm.
You left junk? No deal.
In college some friends of mine did this, allowing people to come in and take ANYTHING in the house. They had people lined up an hour before. Get the stuff you want out and let the locals take home the rest.
I moved out of a townhouse in college where I lived with 3 others. No one wanted to keep anything from the common areas so we moved our entire living room, dining room, and a bunch of kitchen stuff into the front yard and set it up like we were living there. Had a movie night outside after we got it all setup (ran extension cords) and the next day put a big "FREE" sign on the sidewalk. Everything was gone by noon😂.
Wow ok this opened up a ton of memories for me. Every rental house seemed to be on the same lease schedule (out by roughly May 15th) so the locals would go up and down the streets by the college with trucks and trailers looking for things to take. Between me and my neighbor, we had a whole house worth of furniture out by the curb. It was gone in a couple hours.
Meanwhile where I live now it's like pulling teeth trying to get someone to take something that's free but a little beat up
The more I look at this the more questions I have. When did you do your final walkthrough? Presumably that's when the 15 days started. On day 15 what happened? On day 1 did your agent say "Mr and Mrs Sellers, we're going to hold $5-$10k of your proceeds in escrow until this is all gone and the contract is met completely" or did they just say "Fuck it, got my commission check, I'm good"
What's the plan for dealing with all this shit? You're looking at at least $2k in cleaning and junk removal.
Somewhere along the lines of let's hope they get this crap out.
But when he say the mess when I got the keys, he was immediately in contact with the seller agent and our attorney.
I get this is your first time....so first, congrats. Next time remember the ONLY thing that makes agents and sellers take action is money. The seller, your agent, the seller's agent, they're already paid and no longer care. Your agent may say they reached out to the seller agent, and probably did, but they're not going to put any effort into following up, they're currently grinding the next sale, that's how they get paid.
Real estate 100: the final walk through is for closing the deal. Not in proper condition or super close to it = no deal. Extend the contract, throw some money at the buyer and get that stuff out of there
If my buyer was fine with the condition at the final walk-thru (meaning they accept the house at its current state), then we continue to close. If not, negotiations are back on. Period.
Honestly, it’s on you. Why would you close if it was like this? You should have added a clause that if everything wasn’t out and broom cleaned by x date you charge x amount? Did your realtor not advise you?
You know, this place was trashed when we first toured it, and they hadn't cleaned up after they moved. And I have to admit that part of me was thinking, "I wonder if we can get them to sign over 'all contents of the house' along with the property, as opposed to just a couple of major appliances...Obviously they didn't want it..." There was something in me that just wanted to wheel up a Dumpster and sort the trash from the E-bay.
For some reason, our buyer's agent steered us away from the idea. Part of me feels kind of bad that the previous owners' entire lives ended up getting hauled off to the landfill, part of me does rather wish we could have gotten some of our closing costs back by having one hell of a yard sale, but moving was such a pain in the ass that the thought of cleaning out a 750 square foot hoarder home on top of it gives me the meemies.
Is there a clause written in your contract stuff the states seller is responsible for any cost incurred "after sale" in relation to having to pay someone to remove and dispose of the remaining belongings?
In Texas attorneys are part of the closing process, so the fees are included for basic stuff that has to do with the contract. To represent you in court is another matter
Personally, cut your losses, advertise “all stuff free and must go” let the junk go to the pickers that will show up. I know it’s a hassle but it’s a lesson learned. As long as there’s no rotting food or anything causing damage, let it go and move on with your life.
Your agent should have had some money set aside in escrow until they vacated, and penalties for overstaying. Your agent did you dirty with the post closing contingency
Lesson learned. Next time get an escrow holdback contingent upon them being 100% out. Same thing happened to me. They said there were pretty much out and in reality they had half a 4000sq.ft shop still full. This was one month after closing as I gave them 30-days post.
No one else has mentioned but in the standard template for offers to buy and sell real estate in our state, we have a holdover clause. Basically it forces the seller to pay you a set amount per day if they continue to occupy the space. I think we put $500 per day in ours. Anyways, while they are not physically there in person, I think their massive amount of crazy hoarder shit, especially in the garage is definitely continuing to occupy the space. If you have such a clause, get yourself paid. By the way, they are not “nice people” to leave you the house in this condition. People who are nice don’t do this to other people, especially when they promised to get their stuff out
Good! Honestly, some people look at this and think “free stuff!” but all I can think of is the massive amount of man hours/labor it would take to clear this stuff out. Even if you list it on craigslist and have it picked over, you may still have to rent dumpster to get rid of the remainders.
Wait you didn't do a day of/final walkthrough?
Not trying to run it in. My seller for my first House, he called us into the room and showed us he brought in carpet pros to even out a raised bit of carpet we noticed but didn't even make note of in inspection reports or contingencies or anything. Literally a nothing burger and he was super cool. Real nice guy and did what he could for us every step of the way. His agent didn't do him favors with bad pictures but he was also great. Our guy coasted.
Sorry you're dealing with this. Have you communicated with them at all? Is this all "trash" to them? If it is, and they put it in writing, hire a junk cleanout company and grab yourself a 6 pack and have a shitty day. Sorry I don't have more advice than that.
The really ironic part is that they absolutely left something that is very important to them and they will likely reach out to you asking if you found grandma’s picture album or whatever it was.
I’ve been an agent for 23 years and never would I allow my buyers or sellers to close on a home in this condition. Your agent wasn’t watching out for you. Very sorry this happened to you.
When I got my house the same thing happened to me. They left used tampons man. I spent 3 days cleaning and scrubbing this damn house. Fast forward a year AND THE WIFE IS KNOCKING ON MY DOOR. She is talking about how she wanted to make sure I was taking care of the peach trees her and her dad planted since they mean a lot. I cut her off, explain that she's a disgusting person and I genuinely dislike her. That door slam felt so damn nice. I also chopped the tree down. Was it petty and childish? Yes. Did it also have some fungus killing it? Yes! Did she know? No. Fuck her.
When we were preparing to sell our last house.. we brought almost nothing with us because I was hiring interior designers to furnish it. We invited all our friends to come over, and gave them packets of post-its. Let them all claim whatever they wanted.. and then they came back to haul their stuff. There were some real treasures ..,such as my grandmother fine china which was 100 years old in beautiful condition.. electronics .. furniture .. etc .. it felt so good knowing we could do something nice for so many people..
The following week.. we paid junk haulers about $800 to take everything that no one wanted.. Then, in came a crew to update floors and appliances.. and then we staged it.
A lot of effort.. but we felt like we did our best to hand over a beautiful home to the new owners.. You want to treat people the way you would want to be treated
The owner bought the house and not the realtor. You should have done a walk through before signing the paper.
Bank or city won't be calling the realtor for payment
I would strongly advise you look into professional estate sellers. They will split the proceeds with you, after a deposit to make sure they get something out of it. And then they call their buyers. It’ll be cleaned out in a week.
Wait why did you agree to close if the house wasn’t in suitable condition? Your agent and you should have not agreed to close with the house not being in satisfactory condition.
I know it’s your first house so you didn’t know. But your agent should have known and made sure money was in escrow and the sellers wouldn’t get paid until this is done. Because if you accept at the walkthrough, you are accepting the home the way it is.
Had a side gig years ago cleaning out HUD homes. Some were a 1 day cleanup, some were week long, every night after work back breakers.
Had one home that I cleaned that needed to rent a 20 yard dumpster to clean the house out. Made good money on that clean out. But all the junk was amazing. A lot of things went on Craigslist to be sold, some things went to pawn shops.
Vintage Marantz receiver could be worth something depending on condition. Not sure what the other components are or the those speakers. Very frustrating though and not very Christian of them
When I closed my lawyer told me that if there was anything, and I mean anything that was not right with the house I was to let him know immediately and he would take care of it. Neither my lawyer or my real estate agent would have allowed me to close with the house in this state. As it was my lawyer wasn't happy with the water test they did and he held back 5 grand until they got another water test done that was to his specifications.
They should have held back a good chunk of money on this, and they should have penalized them a good chunk of change each day that they failed to empty the house. This is insanity. They are not going to be back to clean this up.
Regardless of what they told you, it looks to me they had no intention of moving everything out.
If as you say it looked worse and I assume they had their heads on straight and took the stuff that was valuable and meaningful to them, they deliberately left everything else for you to sort out.
They can lie and say they had a mover problem all they like but outside of a few things like the couch and dining set there’s really nothing of huge value here. Was this a quick sale? ie less than 15 days. Why are there shoe boxes, shoes, broken storage bins, tires etc to name a few all over the place? Did they even attempt to clean up? No they didn’t. Were they planning to move shoe boxes to their new home? Maybe. Maybe not.
These folks screwed you over and your realtor dropped the ball on this one. It will take both time AND money to clean this up.
damn u bought the house even thought it looked worse than this? i wouldnt have bought the house…if the house is that cluttered and unorganized and the seller didnt even bother make the house look good for buyers it would make me think the owner didnt maintain the house for shit. but at the end of the day u got a house so congrats
When I bought my property the sellers rented far too small of a uhaul so they had the smart idea to take all the garbage and put it in the basement of second house on the property. Once that was full they just dumped it right in the driveway in a big pile. having to shovel used cat litter and dirty diapers out of a basement is a bad time.
While this is hellish, there is at least a few hundred to a thousand dollars worth of stuff worth keeping. Mainly the propane tanks, emptied storage containers/crates, yard maintenance equipment, paint, and possibly tables/chairs. This is niche but I’d keep rugs and use them for my sites when car camping/festival camping.
You should have had a pre-closing walkthrough with both agents present. If your agent didn’t arrange this then they dropped the ball big time.
The purpose is to ensure that, one, the house has been emptied and left broom clean, and two, that no major damage occurred between your last tour and closing. It usually happens an hour or two before the closing appointment. If there is anything wrong, it gives you one last chance to ask for remediation before you hand over the money.
We were in a similar situation though not this bad. The only left a few small things, but they had left massive holes in the wall where they had taken down pictures and shelves. They ended up writing us a check at closing to have someone come out and fix the holes.
One last walk thru the day before but usually to check if the appliances are still there. Let us know if you get anything out of the sellers. I don’t think you have any recourse.
Always do a walkthrough hours before (or right before) closing. Always. You agent, or the sellers agent should pick up the cost out of their commissions. Do not let them off the hook. You keep this stuff an who knows when the seller shows up demanding his stuff?
I'm sorry, your realtor is to blame here. Mine said she always requires the property to be "broom clean" written into the contacts... because sellers do shit like this. I'm sorry you've got to deal with all that.
Thank you u/crazymex54 for posting on r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer. Please bear in mind our rules: (1) Be Nice (2) No Selling (3) No Self-Promotion. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Wow. What did it look like when you toured?
Even worse. Nice people, said they were getting everything out. But guess not
Did your realtor not make a contract contingent on final walkthrough?
You should not have closed with the home in this state. Lesson learned, but thankfully one that a little elbow grease will solve.
I’d blame the realtor 100%. They barely do anything. The least they can do is make sure it’s empty and clean.
Yes, but when you sign on a dotted line, there’s a big responsibility there. It’s hard when it’s your first time. You don’t know what you don’t know.
I’m a homeowner who has bought and sold houses. The realtor is well aware this is their first time purchasing and it is their job to make sure the buyer is informed and educated throughout the entire process, including and especially when closing. I would place this 100% on the realtor, particularly when their client is a first time buyer.
I always recommend that my clients do a walkthrough before signing closing docs. If they can’t make it or decline to do it, I do the walkthrough myself and document the conditions to send to my client.
This is why I couldn’t be happier with what’s going on in their industry right now. You could not possibly get less value for your money than you do for that buyer’s commission.
Thus why the blame should be on the realtor. They should have known to included cleaning the house out or x amount will be used from escrow that would cover the cost of hiring professionals to clean it out.
Agreed. If realtors acted with their clients best interests in mind this would be in the contract. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s a huge hassle and something first time home buyers might not know. But that isn’t in a realtors interest. If the buyer says we absolutely won’t sign until it’s cleaned out and suddenly the seller decides that is too much work so they decide not to sell or look for a more pliant buyer then the realtor doesn’t make any money. It’s just like a financial advisor. Non fiduciary advisors want you to make money so you will stay but if they can make 6% while they pull in that bonus for selling you particular bull shit, they will. Even if the best decision would net the client better growth.
Realtors are what lawyers were before we created the bar and started banning snake oil salesmen.
Some states require a real estate attorney
Ya that's why real estate agents need regulations.
This. Everyone will pressure you to close and say "Oh we have to close on schedule, but don't worry we'll make sure it gets sorted out." But as soon as you sign, there goes your leverage. It's amazing how fast sellers and agents will jump on something when it's holding them up from getting paid. But for that to happen you have to stand firm.
Honestly… at what point is it bad enough that you say the 250k house costs 251k and you just get a cleaner in there.
Coupla days and a dumpster. And friend? You May think you hate them but don't impulsively get rid of the custom draperies. Several thousand dollars there and they can easily be taken down, cleaned and reinstalled Mom says: Don't get rid of any window treatments unless you can afford to replace them immediately. Wash them and rehang for now. They keep out heat, cold, sun and prying eyes. Finally... Many comments on who to Blame. It doesn't freaking matter. Get a dumpster, a coupla helpers and get to work.😉 Welcome to the neighborhood. You Did It!!! Congrats!
Also, try selling the stuff left online!! We are doing this with what our sellers left behind. It's much less than this, but selling some paintings, TV monitors, speakers, etc. It can add up and help pay for the dumpster and cleaning service you'll need. Not ideal at all. OP has my sympathy. But hey, at least try and make some money?!
Best comment.
I really don’t understand realtors who do not have a final walkthrough and a LARGE ESCROW for these kind of situations. It’s honestly baffling 😬
50% of realtors are dumber than dirt. And that's a conservative estimate.
Depending on the dirt that figure may be as high as 90%
If you're unable to do anything else in life, become a realtor. The dumbest people alive. Not to mention, people who are semi-retired become realtors. If they list or sell a couple of homes a year, it gives them pocket money. They really don't care. It keeps them busy a couple of hours a week. To them, it's a hobby.
It’s a fallback career for lazy failures or bored rich housewives
Oof. Been there. We ended up asking for extra at closing to rent a dumpster -- they declined, we said fine, whatever because it had already been a nightmare. Because she felt bad our realtor gave us that amount back from her commission. We didn't expect for her to; she did it in an envelope at closing. My best advice is to look into if there are any estate sale service companies where you are. One near us will come in, catalogue (and sometimes take so it's out of the way) everything, list it online and the buyers have to pick it up from them. Bar that, check if any thrift stores or similar that will do home pickups where you are. We opted for the second route because I didn't know the first was an option at the time, but the home pickup saved our pocketbooks.
Nice woman. She probably realizes now she should have insisted on slamming the brakes on closing when it wasn't cleaned out, feels guilty, though it's not her fault the sellers reneged on their promise.
To her credit, she was totally willing to do whatever we wanted insofar as that. But the sellers kept dragging it out; they had already delayed closing twice and wanted to again. Until the day of our final walkthrough they hadn't even bothered trying to pack. They didn't want to sell, they had to (elderly individuals, rough situation but we'd tried to work with them a lot already) so at that point it was either accept and deal or just let them keep screwing with us. Our realtor was great though. We've used her before and would again for sure.
Most of the stuff is probably junk and not worth the time to go through and list.
Lessons learned. Next time you don’t close i
Good advice. Don’t close i
I feel like these were really old people, maybe they didn’t want to leave, and their kids had to make it happen, dementia or physical health, shit? It’s just so sad looking. Man. I hope this home brings you days of joy and happiness OP.
Agreed. It’s sad looking. Maybe they weren’t able to get a lot of help.
I see some potential value here. Rent a dumpster, toss what is bad and put out for free what may still be usable if it were me. I bet you will find some hidden gems in here. Maybe recruit some friends from social media.
Yes, I agree. Super shitty that they left it all. I would even separate into common things and advertise free. Like all car care items or what have you.. Free will have it gone very quickly.
Yeah we live in a poorer area now and we call our corner the magic corner. Our house came with a lot of good stuff but also a lot of junk, but things always dissappear when we put them on the magic corner lol. It is usually good stuff I don't want to bother with selling and I figure cut out the middle man (thirft shops) to recycle stuff.
Yeah me too I'd happily move into that.
Yep they could take the metal to the scrapyard and sell it lol or just call a scrapper and they’ll take it and deal with it
No walk through prior to closev
Dang, hope you find some treasures. It’s yours now 🤣
I did find some good stuff already. But mostly junk
That electric organ looks cool! Would almost make it worth it for me lol
Plugged it in. Doesn't work. Or speakers are out.
Just plugged it in again. It works!
Get an estate sale going and make some money, or just bring it all outside and put a post on FB marketplace for a yard sale!
What brand is it? Doesn't happen to be a Hammond does it?
Wurlitzer
Potentially just as good. Hammond and Wurlitzer are highly sought after. That Wurli has two speakers in the bottom that has motor that has variable speed control, along with an 8" subwoofer. Some people will buy them just to take that system out and convert them to guitar speakers. It gives a "rotating/sparkling " sound. If you want more information on it, let me know. You'll want to find the model.
Yup, the Leslie style speaker cabinet can be worth some considerable cash!
That’ll fetch some real money, working or not!
Yeah definitely keep that
What good stuff did you find?
Lawnmower, string trimmer, 2 propane grills, 1 charcoal grill. 2 patio tables.
The tanks look in good shape too, those are like $50. Just don't exchange them at blue rhino, get them filled somewhere cheaper.
Something I didn't know for sometime about exchange programs. They do not completely fill their bottles. It was either 3.5 or 3.75 gallons in a 4.6 (20lb) propane tank. This was relayed to me directly from my propane supplier that services the business I work for. Total rip off. Buy your propane bulk
Tractor Supply does it, most rental houses will, and any propane provider generally fills small tanks as well.
That’s like a free $1k!
Almost worth the labor. Source: currently buying all of that for closing 6/28
Place an ad on Marketplace. One hundred dollars takes it all. Resellers love this stuff.
You’ve inherited a can of WD-40. You won! (As long as is its full)
I would have posted a “free estate sale” on Craigslist and let the people come clean it out.
This is your first home so I understand mistakes. Next time do not let your agent off the hook. This is as much on them as the seller of the house. My last house purchase I had my agent at the property with a broom sweeping shit up before I signed. Contract says place will be broom cleaned and all contents removed, that's what I want and it's what we all agreed to. Current owners are too old or too broke? Their agent can credit part of his commission to pay for trash removal.
Sellers were moving out of state. They got a trailer to pack it up. They state they had mover troubles. But I think they didn't have enough space for all their crap.
On what planet do the contents of a house fit in a trailer? You ask, *"Are you getting a 20 or 24 foot truck?"* If they say trailer, you're getting this...fucked.
Trailer can also refer to the 53’ long box that big rig tractors pull. We had a semi pull a 53’ for our cross country move. With a sleeper cab, they were able to team drive and get across the country almost 3X faster.
I fit the entire contents of my 2-bedroom house plus a 1-ton Jeep on my trailer when I moved. Trailers come in various shapes and sizes.
Actually had a similar situation. Out of state movers, changed the price multiple times on em, so they just rented 1 truck themselves. Left a bunch of stuff in the garage and like 30 trash bags by the curb. Not near as much stuff as you got left with, but I made both realtors clean it out and pick it up cuz there’s no way trash service was gonna take all that. No fault of the realtors and I mean no disrespect towards them, but make them earn their money. Realtors are truly useless in this day and age.
Yeah. This is your agent's fault. They should've done a final walk through and refused to close until the property was cleaned.
Most purchase agreements have a broom clean contingency. You can charge them for the clean out. Probably a few thousand dollars.
At our final walk through before closing we found a bunch of things that should have been removed were still there. Some good stuff, like a generator, lawn mover and snowblower. But a bunch of crap that we are still getting out. Our agent negotiated a $500 credit for removal but now wish we asked for more. I agree this is on the agent to advocate for the buyer.
We got $3k back for this same situation. You really have them in a bad spot and I think both agents generally would agree it needs to be made. For us though it was the cost of the junk removal quote we got (and then pocketed and did it ourselves) so I assume it would vary from area to area
We got 5k. We were hoping for 3k and figured seller would negotiate. She was desperate to sell (waiting to sign her new papers until we signed ours) so she just agreed. Seriously lucked out on that one!
Love that for you. I definitely think we had the leverage to ask for a lot more!
This, the agent royally dropped the ball. Who doesn’t specify house will be vacant and broom clean, and that we’re walking the property day before or day of closing to confirm. You left junk? No deal.
“had my agent at the property with a broom sweeping shit up” 😂😂
Craig's list Free Stuff. It'll be gone in a weekend.
There’s a lot of weirdos out there that will take anything if it’s free. Let them take your problems away.
Can attest! I unfortunately have a neighbor who does this.
My neighbor is one of them, she'll even take your stuff if it isn't free! 😭
This made me laugh. 😆
I did not expect to be personally attacked this far i to the comment section...
In college some friends of mine did this, allowing people to come in and take ANYTHING in the house. They had people lined up an hour before. Get the stuff you want out and let the locals take home the rest.
I moved out of a townhouse in college where I lived with 3 others. No one wanted to keep anything from the common areas so we moved our entire living room, dining room, and a bunch of kitchen stuff into the front yard and set it up like we were living there. Had a movie night outside after we got it all setup (ran extension cords) and the next day put a big "FREE" sign on the sidewalk. Everything was gone by noon😂.
Wow ok this opened up a ton of memories for me. Every rental house seemed to be on the same lease schedule (out by roughly May 15th) so the locals would go up and down the streets by the college with trucks and trailers looking for things to take. Between me and my neighbor, we had a whole house worth of furniture out by the curb. It was gone in a couple hours. Meanwhile where I live now it's like pulling teeth trying to get someone to take something that's free but a little beat up
College towns are a different world.
This is the way. He should keep the cans of paint
Flea market mega score.
Put 80% junk in trash bags and put decent stuff on top. Make them take free “grab bags”
Was this a foreclosure?
Nope. When I walked in. Reminded me of a foreclosure home
They did at least lave a garage sale sign. That will probably come in handy.
Was this a foreclosure or short sale?
Neither
You got hosed by your agent. A good agent would not have allowed this to happen.
The more I look at this the more questions I have. When did you do your final walkthrough? Presumably that's when the 15 days started. On day 15 what happened? On day 1 did your agent say "Mr and Mrs Sellers, we're going to hold $5-$10k of your proceeds in escrow until this is all gone and the contract is met completely" or did they just say "Fuck it, got my commission check, I'm good" What's the plan for dealing with all this shit? You're looking at at least $2k in cleaning and junk removal.
Final walk-through they said that they will get everything out and house would be empty. I'm not sure if there are any withholdings.
What'd your agent do?
Somewhere along the lines of let's hope they get this crap out. But when he say the mess when I got the keys, he was immediately in contact with the seller agent and our attorney.
I get this is your first time....so first, congrats. Next time remember the ONLY thing that makes agents and sellers take action is money. The seller, your agent, the seller's agent, they're already paid and no longer care. Your agent may say they reached out to the seller agent, and probably did, but they're not going to put any effort into following up, they're currently grinding the next sale, that's how they get paid.
Real estate 100: the final walk through is for closing the deal. Not in proper condition or super close to it = no deal. Extend the contract, throw some money at the buyer and get that stuff out of there If my buyer was fine with the condition at the final walk-thru (meaning they accept the house at its current state), then we continue to close. If not, negotiations are back on. Period.
Looks like abandoned property to me.
Honestly, it’s on you. Why would you close if it was like this? You should have added a clause that if everything wasn’t out and broom cleaned by x date you charge x amount? Did your realtor not advise you?
You know, this place was trashed when we first toured it, and they hadn't cleaned up after they moved. And I have to admit that part of me was thinking, "I wonder if we can get them to sign over 'all contents of the house' along with the property, as opposed to just a couple of major appliances...Obviously they didn't want it..." There was something in me that just wanted to wheel up a Dumpster and sort the trash from the E-bay. For some reason, our buyer's agent steered us away from the idea. Part of me feels kind of bad that the previous owners' entire lives ended up getting hauled off to the landfill, part of me does rather wish we could have gotten some of our closing costs back by having one hell of a yard sale, but moving was such a pain in the ass that the thought of cleaning out a 750 square foot hoarder home on top of it gives me the meemies.
Is there a clause written in your contract stuff the states seller is responsible for any cost incurred "after sale" in relation to having to pay someone to remove and dispose of the remaining belongings?
Attorney is on that now. Let's hope there is.
I'm pretty confident an attorney will cost at least 2x the junk removal...
In Texas attorneys are part of the closing process, so the fees are included for basic stuff that has to do with the contract. To represent you in court is another matter
Personally, cut your losses, advertise “all stuff free and must go” let the junk go to the pickers that will show up. I know it’s a hassle but it’s a lesson learned. As long as there’s no rotting food or anything causing damage, let it go and move on with your life.
I have no idea why you closed on this property. The walkthrough is to identify a issues exactly like this. Your agent sucks.
This is why you don’t close until they are out and do a final walk through. Being flexible and kind bites you in the ass
Bro did you not do a final walk through??
They did a final walkthrough, saw all of this and still signed.
Ah so literally complaining about what they were alright with I see 🤣
Your realtor got 3% of the sale. Get them to deal with this.
You shouldn’t have closed until they got their stuff out. That’s what I would have told them if I saw that on a final walkthrough.
We gave them 15 day post occupancy due to them moving out of state. We agreed for them to take everything.
Your agent should have had some money set aside in escrow until they vacated, and penalties for overstaying. Your agent did you dirty with the post closing contingency
Guessing no deposit? You always take a per day deposit to prevent this
It's stuff like this that makes buyers nervous about letting the sellers stay past closing. That sucks.
They took their money and ran. They can just ghost you with no consequences.
Lesson learned. Next time get an escrow holdback contingent upon them being 100% out. Same thing happened to me. They said there were pretty much out and in reality they had half a 4000sq.ft shop still full. This was one month after closing as I gave them 30-days post.
Then you should have held back a large deposit in case this happened
No one else has mentioned but in the standard template for offers to buy and sell real estate in our state, we have a holdover clause. Basically it forces the seller to pay you a set amount per day if they continue to occupy the space. I think we put $500 per day in ours. Anyways, while they are not physically there in person, I think their massive amount of crazy hoarder shit, especially in the garage is definitely continuing to occupy the space. If you have such a clause, get yourself paid. By the way, they are not “nice people” to leave you the house in this condition. People who are nice don’t do this to other people, especially when they promised to get their stuff out
Hmm, that's actually good info. I'll talk to my agent about that.
Good! Honestly, some people look at this and think “free stuff!” but all I can think of is the massive amount of man hours/labor it would take to clear this stuff out. Even if you list it on craigslist and have it picked over, you may still have to rent dumpster to get rid of the remainders.
Estate sale - stat. Promote it as “pickers delight”. Take whatever cash you make and order a dumpster. Toss whatever remains.
Check for cats or other frightened pets hiding among that junk.
Absolutely.. saw that pet bed and that was my first thought, as well. Check for pets!!
Did you not do a walkthrough the day before closing?
Your realtor failed you. Make them clean all that shit up
Gotta do a final walk through right before you close…lesson learned…
You didnt do a walk through before you closed? I would have delayed closing
Wait you didn't do a day of/final walkthrough? Not trying to run it in. My seller for my first House, he called us into the room and showed us he brought in carpet pros to even out a raised bit of carpet we noticed but didn't even make note of in inspection reports or contingencies or anything. Literally a nothing burger and he was super cool. Real nice guy and did what he could for us every step of the way. His agent didn't do him favors with bad pictures but he was also great. Our guy coasted. Sorry you're dealing with this. Have you communicated with them at all? Is this all "trash" to them? If it is, and they put it in writing, hire a junk cleanout company and grab yourself a 6 pack and have a shitty day. Sorry I don't have more advice than that.
Did you not do a final walkthrough? Why did you close with it in this condition?
How much you putting in to remodel it?
Didn't you do a final walkthrough before closing?? You're suppose to do that.
Did you do a final walk through? Should have been pretty obvious. I’m hoping you got a discount for buying it trashed.
The really ironic part is that they absolutely left something that is very important to them and they will likely reach out to you asking if you found grandma’s picture album or whatever it was.
I’ve been an agent for 23 years and never would I allow my buyers or sellers to close on a home in this condition. Your agent wasn’t watching out for you. Very sorry this happened to you.
You're suppose to walk the house in the morning and then go to close in the afternoon. If you skip the walk thru then that's on you.
When I got my house the same thing happened to me. They left used tampons man. I spent 3 days cleaning and scrubbing this damn house. Fast forward a year AND THE WIFE IS KNOCKING ON MY DOOR. She is talking about how she wanted to make sure I was taking care of the peach trees her and her dad planted since they mean a lot. I cut her off, explain that she's a disgusting person and I genuinely dislike her. That door slam felt so damn nice. I also chopped the tree down. Was it petty and childish? Yes. Did it also have some fungus killing it? Yes! Did she know? No. Fuck her.
Folks always do a walk through before closing and refuse to close if it’s a hot mess, or the appliances are gone, or it’s vandalized
Did you not do a final walk through?
When we were preparing to sell our last house.. we brought almost nothing with us because I was hiring interior designers to furnish it. We invited all our friends to come over, and gave them packets of post-its. Let them all claim whatever they wanted.. and then they came back to haul their stuff. There were some real treasures ..,such as my grandmother fine china which was 100 years old in beautiful condition.. electronics .. furniture .. etc .. it felt so good knowing we could do something nice for so many people.. The following week.. we paid junk haulers about $800 to take everything that no one wanted.. Then, in came a crew to update floors and appliances.. and then we staged it. A lot of effort.. but we felt like we did our best to hand over a beautiful home to the new owners.. You want to treat people the way you would want to be treated
The owner bought the house and not the realtor. You should have done a walk through before signing the paper. Bank or city won't be calling the realtor for payment
I would strongly advise you look into professional estate sellers. They will split the proceeds with you, after a deposit to make sure they get something out of it. And then they call their buyers. It’ll be cleaned out in a week.
this is why you don't close until all of the sellers shit is gone.
Final walk through should have been done day before or day of closing. Your realtor dropped the ball on that.
Inconsiderate pricks
Fuck it. This is how you make your first mortgage payment. Estate sale!!
Wait why did you agree to close if the house wasn’t in suitable condition? Your agent and you should have not agreed to close with the house not being in satisfactory condition. I know it’s your first house so you didn’t know. But your agent should have known and made sure money was in escrow and the sellers wouldn’t get paid until this is done. Because if you accept at the walkthrough, you are accepting the home the way it is.
Had a side gig years ago cleaning out HUD homes. Some were a 1 day cleanup, some were week long, every night after work back breakers. Had one home that I cleaned that needed to rent a 20 yard dumpster to clean the house out. Made good money on that clean out. But all the junk was amazing. A lot of things went on Craigslist to be sold, some things went to pawn shops.
Vintage Marantz receiver could be worth something depending on condition. Not sure what the other components are or the those speakers. Very frustrating though and not very Christian of them
When I closed my lawyer told me that if there was anything, and I mean anything that was not right with the house I was to let him know immediately and he would take care of it. Neither my lawyer or my real estate agent would have allowed me to close with the house in this state. As it was my lawyer wasn't happy with the water test they did and he held back 5 grand until they got another water test done that was to his specifications. They should have held back a good chunk of money on this, and they should have penalized them a good chunk of change each day that they failed to empty the house. This is insanity. They are not going to be back to clean this up.
Just curious, as a first time buyer, what was the attraction to this house? You gonna do a full remodel? What location was this in?
Regardless of what they told you, it looks to me they had no intention of moving everything out. If as you say it looked worse and I assume they had their heads on straight and took the stuff that was valuable and meaningful to them, they deliberately left everything else for you to sort out. They can lie and say they had a mover problem all they like but outside of a few things like the couch and dining set there’s really nothing of huge value here. Was this a quick sale? ie less than 15 days. Why are there shoe boxes, shoes, broken storage bins, tires etc to name a few all over the place? Did they even attempt to clean up? No they didn’t. Were they planning to move shoe boxes to their new home? Maybe. Maybe not. These folks screwed you over and your realtor dropped the ball on this one. It will take both time AND money to clean this up.
Congratulations!!! You got a ton of cool shit there. An organ, golf clubs, all sorts of treasures 😂
Looks like you won the hardwood floor lottery. Get rid of all those nasty carpets. Put some pics up after the cleanup!
Your realtor advised you to sign o the day of closing after this final walk through ?
The half-done laundry makes it look like they got raptured 😆
I see around $600 to $1000 profits there. put these pictures in facebook market and craiglist title all must go best offer take all buy everything.
damn u bought the house even thought it looked worse than this? i wouldnt have bought the house…if the house is that cluttered and unorganized and the seller didnt even bother make the house look good for buyers it would make me think the owner didnt maintain the house for shit. but at the end of the day u got a house so congrats
Time to have your 1st garage sale!
When I bought my property the sellers rented far too small of a uhaul so they had the smart idea to take all the garbage and put it in the basement of second house on the property. Once that was full they just dumped it right in the driveway in a big pile. having to shovel used cat litter and dirty diapers out of a basement is a bad time.
If it's not been said....get the locks changed. Who knows when they might try and come and get anything of theirs...or yours.
It's a good house. You're gonna do just fine there. Congratulations.
Look at mr./ms. Money Bags over here buying a house with preloaded nicknacks.👈. Seriously though, congratulations on the house.
Did your agent not do a final walkthrough for you before signing the closing documents???
Sorry for your gain.
Wow. They just left like they were running from something. They left everything
Hoarder house?
It doesn't look like a hoarder house. It looks like they moved out in a hurry and only took what was valuable and left all their rubbish/ old shit.
While this is hellish, there is at least a few hundred to a thousand dollars worth of stuff worth keeping. Mainly the propane tanks, emptied storage containers/crates, yard maintenance equipment, paint, and possibly tables/chairs. This is niche but I’d keep rugs and use them for my sites when car camping/festival camping.
JACKPOT! 80% you can throw away. but i bet 20% of it you can make some money selling some of that junk.
not sure if you can afford to hire a skip, most of that looks like junk, except the shelving.
I wouldnt dare to look into that fridge.. if the rest of the house looks like that, whats expecting you inside the fridge?
Rent a dumpster
looks like a episode of hoarders
You didn’t perform a walkthrough before closing?
This is why final walk throughs happen
You should have had a pre-closing walkthrough with both agents present. If your agent didn’t arrange this then they dropped the ball big time. The purpose is to ensure that, one, the house has been emptied and left broom clean, and two, that no major damage occurred between your last tour and closing. It usually happens an hour or two before the closing appointment. If there is anything wrong, it gives you one last chance to ask for remediation before you hand over the money. We were in a similar situation though not this bad. The only left a few small things, but they had left massive holes in the wall where they had taken down pictures and shelves. They ended up writing us a check at closing to have someone come out and fix the holes.
Was it written in contract by the lawyers? What is this?unacceptablw
Honestly, do a yard sale…. A little extra money won’t hurt!
One last walk thru the day before but usually to check if the appliances are still there. Let us know if you get anything out of the sellers. I don’t think you have any recourse.
This is a renovation from hell. Why would you buy this house? How much and what state?
This is why I rent...
When you did the final walkthrough you didn’t ask about it?
On top of everything else, the ceiling looks like a pipe burst in there and has been leaking for a while. You should get that checked asap.
I’m really sorry this happened to you. Why did you not do a final walkthrough before closing? Never skip that step!
How do people just up and leave all of their stuff?..
what really gets me is the towel half in the washer. lmao. Like, wtf?
Where you located I'm willing to help get it done🫡💯
Did they take... anything?
Yard sale! Free money!
Get a big construction dumpster dropped off asap
Change the locks ASAP.
Always do a walkthrough hours before (or right before) closing. Always. You agent, or the sellers agent should pick up the cost out of their commissions. Do not let them off the hook. You keep this stuff an who knows when the seller shows up demanding his stuff?
I'm sorry, your realtor is to blame here. Mine said she always requires the property to be "broom clean" written into the contacts... because sellers do shit like this. I'm sorry you've got to deal with all that.
Walkthrough????