I find some of this stuff in garages, does it qualify? lol

[centfladigger]

I do foreclosure home inspections and help on some cleanouts of the houses. I love my job but I tell ya it is depressing at times, to see what families walk away from or lose. This stuff in the pics are just a sample of what I see all the time. I find houses where the owners have up and walked out and left the doors open, taking only some clothes. When I do find a house like that I take pictures of every room and the outside and secure it the best I can and then we have a crew come out and secure it.
Sooner or later we get the clean out order to haul everything to the dump. Some of yall wouldnt belive what is left behind. You name it , its there. I have houses where they could have been on the show "hoarders" and they leave it. I found one house that had been abandoned and local kids used it as a hangout and party house. The power was cut off and when I brought my flashlight I found piles of copper tubing where they stashed it after stealing it from a/c units.
I have found grow houses, I even found a new BMW in a garage of a grow house and it wasnt there 3 weeks earlier. I did turn that one into the local DEA and they loved me for it, helped build a case against the owner they have been pursuing for while

I have found 3 Rolex boxes and those fetch around $50-80 all day long, the jewelry never makes past the doors, my girls jump on those. I have traded some things to other cleanout guys who find things I want, like kayaks and jon boats.

I found these at the Taco bus around one of the houses, it was good

 

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[Chug And Red]

If you follow the Local laws, And it was abandoned Property !!!! Go For It. Be careful going through them Especially Grow houses!!! USE EXTREAM CAUTION!!!! If you start seeing Drug Paraphernalia Slow Way down!!! Do not Grab Into a Pile Of clothes Ever!!!! Needles can Poke you and Then you Have A whole Nother Problem Don't forget to check under the Drawers On furniture And Also Note Where the Attic Access Is And Check It out!!!! Never Just throw out the Kids Toy Box!!! Go through it Carfully Trust Me Its a Treasure Trove!!! If you need More Ideas where to Look I can tell Ya HH Chug PS Find the Junk drawer In the Kitchen

 

[creeper71]

I won't have written the thing about the drug car.. other people can read these post not just members an that is something if I was you I wouldn't want on the internet for millions to see...

 

[centfladigger]

why? I left it there with the DEA, isnt mine to mess with and Im not worried about someone and their old grow house,the ones that worry me are the ones that are active and I dont know about when I am taking pictures they were storing the car there to hide it, it was gone a week later when I went back.
Once we get these orders from the banks we have a certain amount of time to clean the houses out, most goes to the dumps and sometimes there isnt enough time to look through all the stuff. I have saved personal photo albums and birth certificates and actually tracked down 2 home owners to give them to them. Christmas time is the worst for me to see folks lose thier houses and they have kids and have nowhere to go.

 

[clovis97]

Very interesting...and very sad too.

It is interesting to see the stuff that is found. I went to a "moving sale" in the dead of winter once, and it should have been called a "we are selling everything that we would have abandoned sale".

I bought a set of heads off of a Harley for $5, and a doll house for $10, along with a fishing reel for $3...and a truck load of stuff. The Harley heads sold for $265 on ebay, the doll house, with a little work sold for $50, and the doll house furniture sold for $150. The reel sold for almost $90.

The woman could have cared less, and I probably could have bought all that stuff for $10.

I was a little confused though...she wouldn't sell me some of the tools, and some shelves but she left them for the clean out crew. The shelves are in my basement now...the crew was trashing them when I drove by! Go figure.

 

[centfladigger]

If you follow the Local laws, And it was abandoned Property !!!! Go For It. Be careful going through them Especially Grow houses!!! USE EXTREAM CAUTION!!!! If you start seeing Drug Paraphernalia Slow Way down!!! Do not Grab Into a Pile Of clothes Ever!!!! Needles can Poke you and Then you Have A whole Nother Problem Don't forget to check under the Drawers On furniture And Also Note Where the Attic Access Is And Check It out!!!! Never Just throw out the Kids Toy Box!!! Go through it Carfully Trust Me Its a Treasure Trove!!! If you need More Ideas where to Look I can tell Ya HH Chug PS Find the Junk drawer In the Kitchen

I have only found 5 grow houses so far and of the 5 ,1 was unknown to the law. The ones the were known were raided and anything drug related was long gone. There usually isnt much in these houses, every available space is for weed. The last house was a $400k home and it is trashed, it was a hydroponic grow and there is mold on all walls both floors 4 ft up the walls. That was the one they recently left but still had stuff in
and your right about a junk drawer in the kitchen, anything and everything is in those,lol

 

[Chug And Red]

All of the Grow apartments Were Cleaned out of the Evidence before hand all that was left was the evidence of all of the wall hangers in the Closets!! ceilings etc and I had to rehang the Closest Systems Shelf's Etc Found the Bad Crap in the Piles of Clothes!!! And in the Drawers in the Bath and Kitchen!!!!


If they are Going to Endanger My Life I'm Going to Take Care Of it With in the Laws!!! I'm very Careful !!!Chug and document everything With Pics!!! HH And Be very Safe Chug One Needle Prick can Cost You Your Life Remember this Phrase!!!

 

[diggummup]

I like that XR500, looks like an early '79-80 model.

 

[The Gray Fox]

Sorry to revive such an ancient thread, but do you get to keep all the stuff that you find in the houses?

 

[centfladigger]

my crews keep what they want and throw the rest away. they know if they find a house loaded with clothes to call me first and if they are any good then I get them for our church. This past year I have taken loads of canned good that are still in date to our food banks and my church and families I know that need them. We have a new investor here inthe state that is buying houses in lots of 3000+ at a time. Alot of these houses have only been vacant for 3-5 months. The crews are informed to throw everything including brand new washers and ryers appliances etc away. They outfit the homes with brand new stuff and then either rent them out or they have contracted these homes for Section 8 housing....guys are making a killing on selling these appliances...all perfectly legal.

 

[capt-zero]

If you are doing forclosure inventories, then the contents of the property is NOT abandoned. It belongs to the financial institution who held the note. Wily-nily keeping things you find on these properties, could end you up in jail. I used to do this for a living, and researched this subject thoroughly. The laws differ state to state, but the legal premise is the same everywhere. The property and it's contents belong to the bank.

 

[2ndisbest]

If you are doing forclosure inventories, then the contents of the property is NOT abandoned. It belongs to the financial institution who held the note. Wily-nily keeping things you find on these properties, could end you up in jail. I used to do this for a living, and researched this subject thoroughly. The laws differ state to state, but the legal premise is the same everywhere. The property and it's contents belong to the bank.

I might be mistaken and talking out my ass, but isn't the bank paying him to take this stuff to the dump? Somehow I don't think the bank cares if he takes it to the dump, the food bank, good will, or his garage just so long as it is out of their house?

 

[centfladigger]

you are correct2nd. we are to empty the house of all contents,ordered from the FINANCIAL INSTITUTES only when we get an order to put the contents in storage do we store anything. we are not doing any inventory. The house has long since been taken over by the bank when we changed the locks. When the order gets to us to clean it out it has been vacant for awhile. My crews are paid per house and per yardage of debris, all trailers are marked at the 5 ft mark with spray paint and pictures are taken before during and after, so they get paid per the house and per the yardage of junk hauled out.Most of it does go to the dumpster, you ever smelled an empty house with rotting food or animal smell? yeah that crap stinks. as for my inspections, I do find abandoned homes every week, my order goes in and then the bank sends the order for securing, nothing is touched at this point or after.on the inspection side, I personally average 80+ homes a day , occupied and vacant pictures only, to document. As for my lawn cuts I have approx 800 yards a week for my crews to cut,( all vacant properties) so yeah there are tons of vacants here

 

[capt-zero]

In many cases the order was just to clean it out, but it may have been the fact that my operation was a small town operation. My banks and real estate companies were real tigers about contents. A lot of money frequently was tied up in the contents. Welding rigs, motorcross bikes, tools, art and such were noticed and accounted for. Often it was our job to sell these items, but taking them home was a real no-no. Of course we weren't dealing with 80+ houses a day.

 

[Red James Cash]

Last summer i painted a foreclosure.Some of the cleanout people are pretty ignorant.I saved a 1958 lionel electric train from the dumpster.Every piece still in its original box and the boxes were packed in its original box.Every piece is in excellent shape except the engine (broken cow catcher)and the transformer.I also saved a sterling cream pitcher and sugar bowl.

 

[Minrelica]

I've always wanted a similar job where I can go through piles of abandoned junk and keep what I want. [I know it's not all fun and games]

I tried getting a job with 1-800-GOT-JUNK a few years back because they encourage the employees to take what they want after doing a clean-out. I think they wondered why I would want to go from working at the HQ of a large corporation to hauling junk so they never got back to me... Looking back, I should have dumbed down my resume... Now I have a bad back and bad hand so no sense trying again

 

[Chug And Red]

It really depends on who your working for and Making sure you are Following all of the rules!!! Yes in most cases you are allowed to keep Items!!! As long as all of the laws and rules are being Followed!!! Always document and Take picture and Save them!!! YES I SAID IT AGAIN!!!

 

[Red James Cash]

I hear you WiT.A friend of mine use to own a thrift store.I use to help her out sometimes looking for stuff and doing an occasional cleanout.Seeing as how i didnt get paid she gave me anything i wanted.I also worked in her store 1 day a week,got paid for that though.I scored big time a few times.My best finds was an 1923 first model Fascists Italian officers fighting knife.A couple of nice pieces of delftware one dated 1732 and the other 1875.A gimbal whale oil lamp,a lithograph from Agnus Tate dated 1937.the list goes on lol.

 

[TreasureHunters]

How would one start a cleanout business? What exactly would one need?

 

[Red James Cash]

Either a dump truck or a pick up with a good size trailer.Word of mouth doesnt hurt either.