Buying a house full?

My other job is construction. I work with alot of real estate agents. This home owner was put into a retirement home and her kids want to sell the home. There are repairs that need to be made that we are bidding on through the construction company.

In meeting with the agent she said the kids didn't want to deal with the stuff inside the home. I'm thinking this is an opportunity to get some nice stuff. I know they have gone through and taken out the things they want and I have not see what is left yet. I am arranging that with the agent now.

I would have to box everything up as this is a senior mobile home park and they do not allow garage sales. It could be a whole lot of work as this is a three bedroom home.

Has anyone had any experience with this kind of thing? I don't even know where to start on price. Should I offer to leave the home clean and how far to I offer to clean? Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks for reading.

I have two experiences with that kind of deal.

The first one was full-sized three bedroom house with a pool and two car garage. There were only about 10 of us there but one woman was on the phone and I think it was to the person who used to live in the house.

I posted this story elsewhere, so when done here I'll come back later and post the link to that thread for more details.

Basically though I got it for $3K even. I thought I could double and I did.  I took everything from inside the house (with no electricity on) and I took a week to do it as I was doing it myself with only a little help on bigger stuff.

There were two cars that were not included..one in garage, one is side yard.  These people even left the dog....the neighbors rescued it after a few days.

I cleaned the place only to the point where everything was gone...even stuff in rafters of garage (except over the car left in there). Later the property manager said ... "You could have stood on the car !"   JERK !

Here's the link:

http://storageauctionforums.com//index.php/topic,561.0.html

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2ND place was basically empty and smelled of cat urine. Walk through the house took about 1 minute. Went to garage where the whole floor surface was covered two feet deep in trash. Old house had a "bend over" walk space underneath...a few things there.  

There were only 5 of us there and the others were 2 couples. I took them up to $325. I would have been happy at $200 but I knew they wanted it and they got it.  Heard from them later it was a break even.  The fellow then went to work for one of the 4 major auctioneers in the area !


Here's the link on the 2nd one:

http://storageauctionforums.com/index.php/topic=1032.0

Hope this helps...as far as the cleaning etc.  Base your offer on what's in there but make it low.  They've got a ready buyer who will basically clean it out!

Didn't read Movieman's links so sorry if I repeat anything.


If you are not bidding on it as Movieman was then I would go take a look...

I use to get paid to clean out homes like that and keep what ever I wanted.

So if the kids are looking for just a cash sale go take a look and make an offer.  Make sure to factor in your labor... A lot different than a storage unit.  You have to pack it up first then move it. And most likely do some cleaning...

I would offer very little. They would have to pay someone to come clean it out. I would try and get paid for the clean up. Just my .02. 

Keep us posted. Good luck.

Yes Money this is not an auction. I just see it a maybe a good way to get inventory for the store cheap or free excluding my labor. I should hear from the realtor tomorrow if the family is interested in the deal or not. I'm just not sure if I should offer them a few hundred dollars if the stuff is good or just try to negotiate strictly cleaning up the home.

My dad has already seen the home when he went to see what the repairs were so I am sure the stuff is not bad or he wouldn't have even suggested this deal. I will keep you all informed how this turns out.