It finally happened, my worst nightmare! I had some clients call me the other day to list their home that had been a rental for the past 5 years. We met at the office, quickly went over the comps in the area and then were going to go over to the home for pictures and measurements as the renters had finally moved out the night before.
As we drive up, I compliment my client on how clean the home looks on the outside and how this was going to be great for selling it as the curb appeal was amazing! He said "Thanks, I have a service come out every Friday and take care of the property. I don't want the neighbors to be upset or even know it is a rental. That usually makes a neighborhood worth less and I didn't want that to be my property."
I thought that was pretty cool! So, we pull into the driveway and walk up to the house and the first thing we see s what looks like a screwdriver mark on the deadbolt. That's a little weird! But, we proceed to go inside and are just overwhelmed by a horrible smell! It smelled like a house with 50 cats and no litterbox! The only problem was these people didn't have any pets!
We got out of there as we just couldn't handle the smell even long enough to take pictures or measure and had to re-group outside and figure out what was going on. I originally thought it was just really strong cleaning products, but then someone walked up while we were there and they startled us! They asked, "Where Jimmy?" "Ahhh, Jimmy doesn't live here anymore, he moved and we don't know where."
That is when we figured it out! This was a drug house and they had used it to manufacture Meth. His $289,000 home, just dropped to $125,000 in less than 20 minutes. It was my worst nightmare to have to tell this client that he was going to have to call the EPA and have this house basically condemned! We called the police, who came out and confirmed our suspicions and gave us the number to the EPA and told us we had to have the house boarded up by the end of the day to avoid being fined.
The lesson here, is if you walk in to a house that smells of ammonia and don't see any sign of pets, get out and get out fast!
Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739
Wow - what a horrible experience! I really feel for your owner!
Tina in Virginia
The homeowner is lucky to have the home still even, Meth is very volitile and the home/ neighboorhood could of went KABOOM real fast, not to mention had the tenant been busted and the home seized by police the homeowner (in some states anyway, I know Michigan is 1) could lose the property and even face jail time themself as it is their property and illegal activity is going on in their property. My parents know a guy who bought a home from a city here in MI that was seized for Meth manufacturing and distribution. He got it for like $4,000 and it was the biggest 2 or 3 story home in the area not even a mile from a high school. He had to completely gut the home within so long and redo everything and pay a bunch of fines they never told him about and different things that almost made him lose the home back to the city after he was almost done fixing it up.
Also you can not just "clean-up" meth. It is a very hard and long process many times it calls for completely gutting the home, and cleaning even the studs and plywood that is under the brick/siding/or wood exterior, and then redoing the entire interior with new drywall, and everything. Deoending on the size of the home might even bee easier to doze it and build a brand new one.
I also thought you were going to say y ou found a dead body!
How horrible!
Oh, how horrible!!!!!
I had a similar situation a few years ago. I had a property listed that was vacant. I always check on my vacant listings once a week or so, usually first thing on a Saturday or Sunday morning (easy to drive around town at that time). So, one Sunday at around 7:30am, I opened the lockbox of the listing and started to unlock the door. Before I could, a young guy opened it for me, with a piece of pizza in his hand and a smile on his face.
He said that Steve (my seller) had rented the place to him the week before. I was pretty annoyed with Steve for not telling me there were renters, so I called him a few hours later and started to give him hell (nicely) about it. He had no idea what I was talking about.
So, $25,000 and three months later, we put the place back on the market. It did sell, but at a nasty loss.
Just line 'em up and shoot 'em. Sorry - that's how I feel. I don't care if they want to kill themselves with that nasty crap, but don't mess with other people's property!!!
Oh that is really terrible! Both of you are victims in this mess. The government really leans heavy on the homeowner. Thank you for sharing your experience and warning. We do have meth lab disclosures here in Ca.
Todd
If that does not sound like a nightmare.
Sincerely
Tom Braatz
Amanda - It really is, but you do have to wonder if me or that buyer are going to have any long term affect by even walking in to that house.
Tina - They ended up selling that house for $100,000 to a company that was going to burn down the house and build something there. I wasn't involved in the sale as I didn't know what disclosures where going to be needed and didn't want to risk my license.
Bonnie - They didn't get stuck with the clean up, but they did get stuck with a $100,000 loss on the property from when they bought it.
Pam - It was sad, but no they couldn't the clean up cost would have added up to $210,000 and it still would have been listed as a meth house. It just wasn't worth it to him and he actually made more by doing what he did than had he fixed it up.
Colleen - OK, I guess there would have been something worse than a drug house, I haven't ran in to that yet, but I'm certainly not counting it out.
Michelle - With that person coming up to buy drugs it certainly could have been. I still wonder about the long term affects watching these people in full body suits go in to these places.
Liz - Isn't pot legal in Canada?
Kim - I wonder if there is way to get insurance for this type of damage done by a renter.
Chris - You are so right it is very hard to clean up, here pretty much the only way to get the house taken off the meth registry list is to burn it down and build a new home.
Wendy - Don't feel sorry for me, it didn't ruin my life like it did him financially.
Katerina - I think in states where the landlord can be held responsible for stuff like this, the citizens should pass a law that if any politican breaks a law within the walls of city hall or the state capital all of them should have to go to jail. (Make the same amount of sense)
Bryant - It was sad that he had to pretty much give the property away! Since then they have passed a law that you have to clean up the property within six months or start being fined by the city.
Erica - Nope, nope that certainly wasn't it! (but you are right that would be bad also)
Kay - One that I hope to never have to re-live with a landlord.
Patricia - Cats certainly would have been better!
Jennifer - I'm with you on that one... Line 'em up!
Judy - That is what this person pretty much ended up doing.
Kim - We have the same thing on our disclosures now.. Might as well put on the disclosures "Do you agree to discount this property $200,00 because it was a drug lab?"
Debbie - I have started to have landlords I know pay for maid service once a week to just check on the property.
Windy - The should go after the manufactures!
Darleen - We didn't know and I have thought about it many times since that day.
LaNita - I think we are going to be seeing more and more of this as the economy gets worse.
Bob - I heard about it couple nights before and if I hadn't who knew how long we would have stayed in that house breathing that crap.;
Tom - I feel so sorry for the loss my client had to take on that home.
Missy - They didn't have to burn it down, but the new owners did. But, of course that is what they were planning when they bought it.
David - I bet you run into it a lot more often than we do as agents.
Dave - It was just way to expensive here to clean up with all the little laws and even with clean up the house would be on the meth registry list.