Warning: Do not read this post if you’re thinking you might buy a great property at the steps of the courthouse and live happily ever after.
This story is not a fairy tale. Well, it didn’t start that way, but it was pretty great when it was OVER. It also makes a great story to tell strangers in a bar. It involves a dead body, basket weaving and poop in the tub.
It started with my husbands layoff from Sprint. We’ve been talking about buying foreclosures for years, and figured now or never! I remember going to this townhouse in Smyrna, GA and looking in the window with a flashlight. It appeared empty, but you could see tons of “trash” inside. It was a mess and we were ready to fix it up! My husband could fix almost anything and we were ready.
He went to the courthouse while I went to work and waited for the call. We got it for $50,000. We went to the house, ready to see what awaited us. Maybe some clean-up here and there, paint, some new appliance, and we’d be done!
NOPE.
The shock Set In!
Jim walked through the house with a flashlight while I talked to the neighbor. She told me part of the story that we would soon piece together. The lady (fairly young) died in the the house, and when the family came to see the house and collect her valuables, they took one look, grabbed her car keys and purse, and left it to rot.
Our little homeowner was a hoarder. Not a little messy. We’re talking about, eating a can of ravioli out of the can, and dropping the can in the floor.
Jim walked out and said, there is a CAT at the top of the stairs. I wondered if the cat was ok? No. It was flat as a pancake and decomposed at the top of the stairs. (I have a picture and won’t even put it in this blog!) Jim exaggerates a bit, so I wondered if his “disaster” comments were true. Yes, yes, yes,… they were.
I can handle throwing stuff away (5 dumpsters later…..) and cleaning up…. but this was a new level. We laugh at some of the shows where there is something gross in a bathroom, because they have nothing on us. We think that the lady didn’t have power/water at one point, because the tub was full of……….poop.
Yes, POOP. We feel that is the only explanation for a quarter-full tub of poop. Am I right?
I do have a funny poop story. I had used a rag to clean poop off of the stove and in the kitchen. Then I moved upstairs and started cleaning poop off that counter. After a while, I felt that the rag was a bit overused. So I threw it out the window and into the dumpster out front. The tree didn’t let that plan work out and the POO RAG was stuck in the tree. Nice.
Well, there is still more poo to clean, so I kept cleaning, trying to make a few clean areas in the house. Later, I walked outside and got some fresh air, and then I felt something dripping on my head. Drip, drip, drip. Yep, that was the POOP RAG dripping on my head,… like I wasn’t disgusting anyway from working in that house.
Who the heck lived here...and tell me more about the cat!
When you get a house in foreclosure, you get everything inside it. There were some pieces of jewelry. It was interesting because she shipped homemade baskets all over the nation. You can see her basket weaving supplies all around. We had a yard sale and sold tons of the baskets that she made.
We wondered a lot about this lady that died in her 40s. She was a college cheerleader for a major school up north. Her computer showed lots of discussions and emails with friends. After watching CSI, we wondered what happened to her and we never found an article about her death or any investigation. Oddly, Jim pulled up the carpet and found two different sets of blood stains. I don’t know what an investigator would have done anyway because it took 3 weeks just to get to the carpet.
OK, back to the cat. But first, how did they find the lady in the townhouse? There was a shared wall with another townhouse owner. The lady died in our townhouse, and then started decomposing. No one knew. The neighbor with the shared wall became “immune” to the smell because it started getting stronger a little at a time. One day, the neighbor’s mother came over to visit and walked in the door, and immediately knew there was a decaying body in the next townhome. They called 911, and the rest was history.
There was a cat and a dog in the house with the lady. Both survived living in the house for what we guess was about 1-2 months. When they finally opened up the door, the dog ran out and the cat was scared and hid (and later died from the extermination of the house).
How did they survive? I will leave that up to your imagination. (Message me if you don’t know what I’m implying there!) This is truly too gross to put here. We also felt that there was foul play involved but we didn’t put the pieces together until it was all cleaned up and cleared out.
My Husband is a Champ!
I’ve got to give my husband some serious kudos here! He worked from 5 am to 7 pm, every day, all alone. I’d stop by in the morning and the house had walls. I’d come by to bring him lunch, and I’d be able to see the trees through the walls. I’d check in the evening, and he’d have it put back into place like Humpty Dumpty. He was under the building with scorpions, jacking up the floor to make it level. One of the days, I told him I just couldn’t deal with the POO anymore. He had to shovel out the tub that was full, and he didn’t bat an eyelash.
Photo: Jim is on the left
Did we live happily ever after?
So? What happened with this townhouse. We fixed it up, rented it out for years, and sold it after we moved away from the Atlanta area. It served us well….once it was fixed. The best part is that it was done! I swear that if we didn’t have $50k into this townhouse, we may have just run away.
In the end, my husband wanted to get an Installation Manager job with Home Depot Expo, and I printed out the before and after pictures of this house. He got the job! It was truly a dream job for him because he was doing what he loved.
Here are some before/after pictures. We did all of this work for under $10k because we were on a Limited Budget. That’s what happens when you have 4 kids (one more came later!).
Foreclosures are like children....
I’ll close by saying this. I’m so glad this was our FIRST foreclosure. It is kinda like a child. If you have your good child first, then the second is a maniac, it makes it much harder because of your expectations.
Our second foreclosure purchase in that area needed about $100 worth of work. The guy just couldn’t afford it and left. The home was clean and neat, and he left the keys on the table! The bank actually made us make some upgrades to justify the foreclosure price changing to the new appraisal price. We bought some neat lighting.
Just like our foreclosures, our first daughter NEVER SLEPT, and our second daughter SLEPT ALL OF THE TIME! I’ve found that it is better this way.
If you’re thinking of investing in a property, or buying a home for yourself, please let me know and we will make sure you’re prepared for everything that comes your way…. even a cat at the top of the stairs!
LeslieSellsSavannah@gmail.com
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