# Tenants leave behind so many things



## Nestor_Kelebay (Sep 5, 2010)

I am typing this post on a new computer (new to me).  It's a Dell Pentium IV with Windows Pro XP and 256 MB of RAM.

The tenant who owned it got a job in Toronto, and the moving company he hired to move his stuff to Toronto charges by both volume and weight.  To minimize his moving costs, he left a whole bunch of stuff behind.  So I've inherited this computer, a pair of cheap metal shelf stands that my sister wants, a ghetto blaster, a Magnavox TV set, a computer desk, mouse and keyboard, a set of golf clubs, an exercise machine, a portable dish washer, a half ton of 1.44 MB floppy disks, two end tables and a coffee table, a coffee maker and a whole bunch of other stuff.  He was a computer programmer and he musta left behind about 300 computer books, and those have been disappearing fairly quickly from around my dumpster.  I'll leave them out there until they stop disappearing, and I'll take the rest to the recycle depot.

I've heard of garage sales and yard sales.  I think I'm going to hold an apartment sale because most of this stuff I don't need either.

He did clean up before he left so I'll mail him his damage deposit.  I'll sell what I can, and just leave the rest beside my dumpster for anyone to claim.

I've had tenants leave behind almost anything you can imagine... a hand made table, an old film movie camera, projector and screen (which were obsolete cuz no one uses photographic movie film anymore), a pair of crutches, and I even had a tenant leave behind an old car (that still started and ran well).  I gave that to the Canadian Diabetes Foundation and got a tax receipt for $200 for it.


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## mudmixer (Sep 5, 2010)

Nestor - You may need more ram and adding memory is cheap and worth it.

I understand the problem of ex-tenants leaving things. I bought a townhouse (2 story quad) from a slum lord that had bad renters and lived across the driveway. She just called the police for problems and they had had to bust in the doors during a "bust" or two.

After that, she put it on the market and we bought the unit. After fixing the banged up steel door and installing new locks, everything was reasonable. We found lots of stuff to toss and got it civilized it has been fine.

While doing more work, I removed smoke detector to get access for fishing some stereo wiring. I found a couple of plastic bags behind the detector with white powder. I did not want to create problems and complications, so I flushed them. I always wonder what was in the bags.

Since then, the only problems are the deer eating my plants and a family of racoons. I know I will get a bear or two this fall before hibernation for the winter, but that is free entertainment

Dick


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Sep 5, 2010)

You're probably right.

I now have two Pentium IV's.

The old one I was using for my business is 1.9 GHz and 512 MB of RAM.  I don't access the internet on that computer cuz I don't want to get a virus on it that might cause an interruption in my business.

The one I inherited is 1.6 GHz and 256 MB of Ram.  Maybe I can buy some old RAM somewhere.

On my old Pentium IV, I had two 256 MB memory cards.  If I have two 128 MB memory cards on my new P4, can I add a 256 memory card, or is it better to keep them all in the same denomination, that is, install another two 128 MB memory cards.

I'm computer illiterate.


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## TxBuilder (Sep 8, 2010)

Congrats Nestor! That's an awesome find. Are those clubs for a lefty by chance? I could use a set.


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## kok328 (Sep 9, 2010)

I've seen where tenants have literally seemed to just plain disappear and leave *EVERYTHING* behind all the way down to the toothbrush still being in the holder in the bathroom.


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## TxBuilder (Sep 9, 2010)

Wow, like they were never going to need it again? Crazy.


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## ErinNik (Sep 10, 2010)

You're generous to give back all the rental deposit. To me the house should be delivered in habitable shape with the exception of minor cleaning (like dusting trim or small paint touch ups). That means all stuff out! I charge for the removal of left behind items. I don't need the hassle of disposing someone's discards and my incoming tenants deserve a pristine home.

That being said, my own discards and some of the nicer ones I have had left by tenants in the past I've put up on Freecycle.org and just watch it disappear. I've posted stupid stuff that I can't imagine someone wanting to drive to pick up (one odd sized lampshade) to pieces of furniture and kids stuff. 

It's great for DIY stuff too. Any left over materials or things I'm replacing go on Freecycle or Craigslist.org. Half a can of paint. One open box of flooring. Stuff I know would just sit in the basement unused. I got rid of a whole picket fence we replaced from our back yard. Even though half was rotting, someone paid us $100 and took all the panels saving us at least that much in hassle and disposal fees.

I found on craigslist trying to give stuff away for free usually leaves you stuck waiting for a bunch of no-shows. Charge anything and they'll be fighting each other for it. Freecyclers seem very concientious about being serious in their inquiry and prompt with pick-ups in my experience.

ErinNik


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Sep 14, 2010)

TXBuilder:

I don't remember if the golf clubs were L or R handed.  They ended up going to my nephew's girlfriend's brother, so they're not around any more.  The cost of transporting them to Texas would probably be a significant chunk of what a new set would cost, I'd imagine.

ErinNik:

I agree that if a tenant leaves behind JUNK, then I'm no happier dealing with it than any other landlord, and I would have charged for my labour to remove stuff like that.  However, the tenant did clean the place up and removed all of what I'd consider "worthless stuff" that no one else would really want.  He just left behind stuff that he didn't need or want ENOUGH to pay the cost of having them trucked to Toronto.

I suppose I could have sold some of that stuff, but that's one more project I don't need.  I'm happy just to get the thanks of friends and family that wanted the things they took.  None of it was actually valuable.  He had a much newer and faster computer, and left behind his old one, which wasn't much older than my new one!

One man's trash is another man's treasure.


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## TxBuilder (Sep 16, 2010)

I would think so, but finding lefties already made, versus having them put together, is a pretty significant chunk unto itself.


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## Albert_23 (Nov 2, 2010)

Try to sell them on eBay.  For those things that you think nobody uses anymore (like the old film camera), you might want to try posting them as collectibles.  They may rake in more money than you realize.  I've read a recent news about an old Nintendo getting sold for $25,000 to a collector.  You'll never know right?


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## TxBuilder (Nov 2, 2010)

That would be great if you could find something like that. Most of the junk from my childhood is just worthless.


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## lily694 (Jan 20, 2011)

if its made with good quality, then it is a good investment


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## joecaption (Jan 20, 2011)

You have to be careful with what you do with other people stuff.
We had someone 3 months behind in there rent, notice had been given in hand by the sherrif for them to move out and they skipped town. 
The only thing they took was some furniture that really belonged to Rent to Own and a lawn mower that belonged to the new people buying the house that they had stored in the shed. There was a plate full of food still sitting on the table, 2, juck cars, the kids clothes and toys had been dumped out and were all over the house, cartains of cig. A jar with change in it, food in the cabinets and still in the ref. It looked like someone just got up and walked out. 
I was told to go there and take everything to the dump and keep anything I wanted, just get it cleaned out ASAP so it could be sold. 
Two months later the old tenet came back and kicked the door in thinking his stuff was still in there. Someone saw him doing it so we called the police.
When we went to court he won because we were suppost to hold his stuff in storage and post in the local newspaper for 30 days and pay for storage for at least that long.
To me that just makes no since but that's the law. He did not even have to pay for the damage to the door.
If stuffs left behind try and get it in writing it's now yours.


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## TxBuilder (Jan 20, 2011)

joecaption said:


> You have to be careful with what you do with other people stuff.
> We had someone 3 months behind in there rent, notice had been given in hand by the sherrif for them to move out and they skipped town.
> The only thing they took was some furniture that really belonged to Rent to Own and a lawn mower that belonged to the new people buying the house that they had stored in the shed. There was a plate full of food still sitting on the table, 2, juck cars, the kids clothes and toys had been dumped out and were all over the house, cartains of cig. A jar with change in it, food in the cabinets and still in the ref. It looked like someone just got up and walked out.
> I was told to go there and take everything to the dump and keep anything I wanted, just get it cleaned out ASAP so it could be sold.
> ...



That's terrible, sorry to hear it.


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## TxBuilder (Feb 28, 2011)

What did they leave?


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## TxBuilder (Mar 1, 2011)

handygirl520 said:


> Were you asking me? ^_^ They left the fan on and it probably had a shortcircuit, almost burned the house down.



That's terrible, luck you. Honestly, I hardly ever remember to turn my fans off before I leave, I understand how a mistake could be made.


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## WeHeartJunk (Aug 17, 2011)

On a junk removal job/move out we picked up a weight set worth about $600.  We told the guy its probably is worth something but he just wanted it gone.  We sold it on craigslist and donated the proceeds to our local 4-H group.


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## ownersblues (Aug 21, 2011)

ErinNik said:


> You're generous to give back all the rental deposit. To me the house should be delivered in habitable shape with the exception of minor cleaning (like dusting trim or small paint touch ups). That means all stuff out! I charge for the removal of left behind items. I don't need the hassle of disposing someone's discards and my incoming tenants deserve a pristine home.
> 
> That being said, my own discards and some of the nicer ones I have had left by tenants in the past I've put up on Freecycle.org and just watch it disappear. I've posted stupid stuff that I can't imagine someone wanting to drive to pick up (one odd sized lampshade) to pieces of furniture and kids stuff.
> 
> ...



I could see charging for stuff left behind. Sometimes you can get useful things, but much of the time its just garbage takes up room or costs for removal. It seems like Nester got a good deal with his left behinds though! Putting things on craigslist seems like more trouble than its worth. Donating it is a good thing and if it goes to a dump, get a reicept!


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## BridgeMan (Aug 26, 2011)

Ah, yes, the things renters leave behind.  Let's see, it's been a few years, but let me try--13 broken windows (kid had a beebee gun), battery acid burns in much of the livingroom carpeting and kitchen flooring, caused when he wheeled his crashed motorcycle through the house "to keep it from getting stolen," smashed door jam and casing (he "lost his key again, and didn't want to bother us"), etc., etc.

So after we replaced the carpeting and flooring, and had the door replaced, we just took it out of his security deposit--except there wasn't a security deposit, because the wife felt sorry for him and was friends with his mother, etc.  Oh, and did I mention the last 2 month's rent that he never bothered paying?


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## JunkDawgs (Jul 28, 2012)

I had a tenant leave behind fleas in one of my rental properties and then tried to get a lawyer involved because I had to take some of his deposit to pay for the service.


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## drsmiley (Jul 30, 2012)

Wow, you are so lucky! I can't be too surprised though. I am one of those people that have left a lot behind when I moved. I was going through a hard time about 3 years ago and decided to move. I left two beds behind meaning everything on it: mattresses and bed frames and comforter. I left a vanity, a maybe an couch. I was ready for a new beginning. Meaning leaving just about everything behind.


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## Garenius (Aug 3, 2012)

I just recently moved out of my old room (I am renting a new house closer to my place of work), and it turns out that there was a huge closet of clothes in the attic I never got around to cleaning. 

Too bad none of them fit me!


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## Admin (Jan 10, 2013)

What an awesome thread!

I've only found toys when I've moved into new places. Never anything of value, only kids stuff.


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## nealtw (Jan 10, 2013)

I looked a house a while ago, the people bought a nice house with new hardwood floors and crown molding and new paint inside.
When they went to move in they found no furniture or pictures had been removed for painting and there was no hardwood under where the beds were.


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## Admin (Jan 11, 2013)

They just laid the floor around the bed? 

That seems like more trouble than it's worth.


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## nealtw (Jan 11, 2013)

The real estate people paid for the new floor, three bedrooms.


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## Admin (Jan 16, 2013)

They didn't just fill in the missing spots? 

I would have liked to have seen a pic of the missing boards.


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## nealtw (Jan 16, 2013)

It looked like they had water beds on a platform, the buyers weren't going to accept the house never mind a patched floor.


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## Admin (Jan 19, 2013)

Makes sense now. Waterbeds are a tough things to move around, let alone deconstruct then reconstruct.


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## JunkDawgs (Jan 24, 2013)

With my company, we get called to remove waterbeds and it's the little things that become a nuisance, i.e., draining the bed before you even get into removing it.


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## poorgrlkc (Jan 30, 2013)

I am a girl, I am not sure  if that makes a difference but I used to love it when people left stuff in their apartments because I would get $50 bucks a month off my rent to remove it by either putting it in the apartment dumpster or by hauling it off. 
Most of the time it was the easiest thing to do and I usually made a couple hundred extra a month by selling cheap the items at Swap n shop (for those of you not familair in KC we have a drive-in (movie) where you can go on Saturdays and sundays (duing the day) and sell stuff) the rest of the stuff I would list on KC freecycle and like Erin said people will come pick up anything if its free. 
Freecycle can also be valuable if you are looking for certain stuff. Perhaps TxBuilder could find some leftie golf clubs that way as you can put up ads for wanted things too.
On the bad side of clearing apartments there are always those who are just plain gross and leave an apartment full of filth and trash.  
I can see where being an apartment manager/landlord can lead to headaches if you are constantly having to deal with people leaving stuff behind for you to deal with.


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## poorgrlkc (Jan 30, 2013)

Neal,  that is funny what you said about them not painting behind the pictures. One day after I moved in with my mom I was removing the pictures and dusting and found she had not painted under any of the pictures! 
OMG I was like Mom what the heck?! She was like well I was doing it by myself and... To this day there is still a  2"x2" area that my mom puts a pillow in front of that is not painted. This is because the color paint she used is no longer made and she refuses to let me paint the room a color similiar. Thankfully, when I found out the pictures had not been painted under she still had a little of the paint which is why there is only the small area left. 
I cannot imagine not removing the pictures when painting though WHY?! Ahhh


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## Admin (Feb 1, 2013)

So you could see the original color of the house? 

How did she paint without getting the paint on the picture?


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## poorgrlkc (Feb 3, 2013)

Well, I guess she did it very carefully. It seems it would have been easier to remove them and then paint. My mom thinks weird.


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## bud16415 (Feb 12, 2013)

Here is the strangest one I have seen in a while. We have been looking at some short sale properties and they are basic nice homes that have sat at least one year and the north east winters sitting without heat have been hard on them. One day we looked at one and it was mostly cleaned out except in one bedroom closet there was a 20 pound dumbbell. We laughed when we saw it and made some joke about it being too heavy to take along. About a week later we were in a different house about five miles away and open a closet and low and behold there is another 20 pound dumbbell. We have a bid in on that house now dumbbell and all. I asked the realtor if he would throw in the other so we would have a set. 

The first house was a much nicer house and a good price but had a crawl space and a major black mold problem. That&#8217;s not something you want to find for free. The one we have a bid in on has about enough free stuff to fill a good size dumpster and that&#8217;s where it&#8217;s going if we get the place.


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## oldognewtrick (Feb 12, 2013)

So Bud, did they throw in the dumbbell?


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## Admin (Feb 12, 2013)

oldog/newtrick said:


> So Bud, did they throw in the dumbbell?



I was thinking the same thing. I've thought about leaving behind a weight set once or twice. 

You buy it thinking you'r gong to lift, but it ends up being one more heavy thing you have to take with you when you move.


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## bud16415 (Feb 12, 2013)

The guy that owned the house we are trying to get was upside down about eight different ways. I&#8217;m surprised someone wasn&#8217;t owed money still on the dumbbell. He applied for all kinds of special loans thru the government and they all ended up getting lumped together well most did thru a bank in Ca. the local township also got stuck with one and last night was their meeting to see if they would forgive it to at least get someone back in the house paying taxes. I will tell you how bad it is and keeping with the thread here he had a yard sale last summer and when we got the mid-January thaw we saw he still had all the yard sale stuff on the front yard under 2 feet of snow. I&#8217;m assuming that goes with the house also. The one find beside the dumbbell that looks like it might be ok is in the basement there is a cement mixer pretty good size and I haven&#8217;t a clue how it got down there as the drum is larger than the basement door. I was told they made lawn art things down there. Also included are a dozen bags of ready mix that are now turned into boulders. Those go to the dumpster. 

So one of the two dumbbells goes with the house the other one I will have to let stay in the black mold house for now. 

I remember hearing only in America do we install a garage door opener and then fill the garage with weight lifting equipment. 

If we get the house I&#8217;m sure we will find a few more items to report back on as the garage was so full we had a hard time looking at the structure.


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## Admin (Feb 13, 2013)

Are there a lot of foreclosures in your area? 

Anything good in the abandoned yard sale?


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## bud16415 (Feb 13, 2013)

Austin said:


> Are there a lot of foreclosures in your area?
> 
> Anything good in the abandoned yard sale?


 


There is afair amount of foreclosures, but most are handled responsibly and kept up untila sale. With the market down and lending hard to get even though they aresometimes going cheap the banks want a cash sale and even though someone thatneeds a home might be able to get what was a 100k house for 20k they dont havethe 20k. its crazy the house will sit a year or two and these winters arereally hard on them. The one we are looking at the value was so low it wasnt worththe bank wasting money on a foreclosure and it was in the best interest of theowner to not have that on his record so they just tell him you must sell it andget nothing. In his case he owed utilities so much everything was shut off ayear ago. He has nothing to gain keeping it up as he knows he wont get anythingout of the sale. The bank advertised it as a quick sale, but they found he owedthe township money and they have a lien on the property that they are willingto forgive but they only meet once a month and every time they meet they needto look into something and then it takes another month. Its stuff like this iswhy no one wants to mess around buying these places. We looked at one nicehouse the power was turned off the sump pump was under water and the high watermark was half way up the furnace. The furnace, A/C and hot water looked likethey were brand new, now junk. 



As to thejunk in the yard sale it might have been ok if it didnt set out in the snowall winter. Bunch of electronic games and such. There is a cast concreteelephant thats painted pink that held up. That has to be worth some money.hehe


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## nealtw (Feb 13, 2013)

It's crazy, up here we wouldn't get the lot for much less than 200K


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## bud16415 (Feb 14, 2013)

nealtw said:


> It's crazy, up here we wouldn't get the lot for much less than 200K


 

You won&#8217;thear much on the news about what a problem this is. In Cleveland the city is demolishing some really nice homes just to get rid of them as they are not selling and becoming a public safety issue. There is even new construction that people have walked away from half-finished homes just sitting and just down the street someone starting another new one.


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## nealtw (Feb 14, 2013)

I have friends here and there around the US and some of the storeys I here are pretty sad.  This should be a time for people starting out or people how lost their house to get started but it's like some don't want that to happen.  Like Romney said, Let them go bankcrupt and let the investers buy them up so THOSE people can rent them.


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## Admin (Feb 15, 2013)

bud16415 said:


> You wonthear much on the news about what a problem this is. In Cleveland the city is demolishing some really nice homes just to get rid of them as they are not selling and becoming a public safety issue. There is even new construction that people have walked away from half-finished homes just sitting and just down the street someone starting another new one.



My brother worked construction for a while. He said he was installing stuff in houses that would never sell. Five years later they are still unoccupied. They didn't even finished building out the streets.


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## bud16415 (Feb 15, 2013)

Not to take the thread way off topic but these short sale houses do leave a lot of goodies behind. 

Nealtw
What happened and what is unfair and I think what Romney was alluding to is people like myself bought homes we could afford and waited till we could many times renting for a good long time. We bought fix em up houses or starter houses and busted our butts fixing them and paying for them. Then came along this notion that it was a good thing for everyone to own a place and not just a starter home but a fancy place and the government made it easy to buy and lowered requirments and then bought up the loans so banks could make more. All these people went in and the banks tell you Oh you can afford a much more expensive home than that and we will get you adjustable rates and on and on. Half the people were underwater before they started but didnt know it and everyone thought housing prices would go up forever. Once the bubble broke everyone upside down stopped paying file bankruptcy after living rent free for a couple years. Government cant have that so they start helping these people out with the tax money responsible people are still paying lowering rates and principles etc. Romney was saying lets not reward the wrong people because chances are when you bail something or someone out the bad habits will get them right back there. Let the system work and someone will buy the places for what they are worth and get them in the proper hands thru renting or selling. Well that isnt happening now. I see another hit coming down the line soon. 

Austin
Your brother is correct lots of building was going on based on speculation and once the money invested was less than any return they could see, why would any smart person pour in more after bad so they just close up shop. There sit houses not closed to the weather or people stuck in a town house complex with eye sores across the street. All of a sudden that lowers their property values and they are underwater and out they go. 

The house full of junk we are looking at has 100% new siding and 75% new roofing. It has a brand new handicap bath and laundry on the first floor. It has new doors and is handicap accessible with decking and ramps that I bet cost 10 grand alone. All this stuff was thru programs Im guessing that had low loan rates. Then people lose their job or just give up stop paying everything and hit a terminal point where they cant pay if they wanted sticking some bank and a dozen other places with bad loans because the homes get ratty waiting around and the home owners sell off anything of value appliances etc. and leave behind a mess. The values go down and down the banks hold off selling too long and end up taking 10 cents on the dollar. Then in our case we make a deal to buy only to find out there are other liens on the property to forgive. Thus the local government get stuck along with the utilities. We know they dont take a loss they just jack up the charges for everyone else thats playing by the rules.

The strange part of it all is new construction is still going on. And I always say who the heck is buying all these new houses.


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## nealtw (Feb 15, 2013)

Bud; I agree with most of what you said, but the average guy goes to the bank for information and we were tought to trust them. A lot of people just don't understand how things work. Your banks asked for less regulations and your government gave them that. The banks found new ways to dump the risk on unsuspecting investors and lent people money that should never have bought a house. You punished the government and the people and the investors but bailed out the banks. Now they drag there feet moving these houses, you can be sure they are still using them for collateral for more than they are worth.


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## nealtw (Feb 20, 2013)

http://autos.aol.com/article/traffi...id10|htmlws-main-bb|dl6|sec1_lnk1&pLid=272984 
Posted on the wrong page. oops


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## Admin (Feb 21, 2013)

It seems having a bunch of half complete houses would be a huge liability as it becomes an attractive nuisance.


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