The asset was assigned to me on Tuesday August 17, 2010. FNMA is really on top of things now. The foreclosure auction was just the Friday before. So I went out, determined the property was vacant and rekeyed both the front door and the back door. I took some 40 pictures and uploaded them, along with my report of the condition of the property. To me there was a lot of stuff, but it had no value.
However when the folks back at FNMA analyzed my pictures, they determined there was personal property left behind that had value.
So I went out to the property again, and posted a notice with my information on it. After that was photographed and uploaded into the system, we were to wait 24 hours, then start what is called a personal property eviction.
Guess what? I got a call from the former owner! So I met him there the next day. Got his ID, had him sign the necessary forms, and then I let him into the house he used to own. He had lots of friends with pickup trucks, so less than 3 hours later, they had cleaned the place out, and I could proceed to sell the house.
Other than it taking most of a day of my time, it was a win win for everybody.
So the former owner got his things. FNMA gets to sell their newly acquired property. And I don’t have to wait for weeks before putting the place up for sale.
Thats great that you got a listing but please keep in mind that you are still dealing with people, that former homeowner is still a person, and one that is obviously going through a hard time at that.. But hey in the next decade, they get their life back in order to the point that he can buy a house again and how you treat that person could be the determining factor on if he looks you up at the time or not. Best of luck to you.
This is surprising because as I started to read and looking at the pictures I figured it would have been in a done deal, when I read that they wanted their belonging I was shocked. I guess thats why they say expect the unexpected. However whats his is his and I believe you made great efforts to arrange him to pick up his things.
Thanks for sharing this story. It is a very good reminder not to remove personal property from a REO property until you are certain that the previous owner will not have a claim.
The folks looking at the pictures noticed some commercial boxes that they said could be valuable. What was in them? I told them, as far as I knew, they were just empty boxes.
Turns out, they were right. It was some expensive stuff he needed.
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Thats great that you got a listing but please keep in mind that you are still dealing with people, that former homeowner is still a person, and one that is obviously going through a hard time at that.. But hey in the next decade, they get their life back in order to the point that he can buy a house again and how you treat that person could be the determining factor on if he looks you up at the time or not. Best of luck to you.