Foreclosed and Bank Owned Homes in Vancouver WA

Vancouver Washington Sunday Tour of REO properties

Did you remember that Daylight Savings Time is over?  Since we had an extra hour today, I searched the multiple listing service for a list to preview and take advantage of this "extra hour".  I found 7 properties to search through and all are REO's (bank owned homes).  We packed up the car, cheat sheets, soda, cards, and keys and headed out for our "Sunday Adventure".

The Tree Frog: The first house was off a main street and just under $200K, it was 30 years old with hardwoods, and un-even tile that we kept tripping over.  Apparently whomever installed it didn't know how to level it!  Each bedroom had a different bright color, Cobalt Blue, Lime Green, Sunkist Orange...the bathroom had pink tile that was held into place with a lot of duct tape.  I named this house the "Tree Frog" as it had so many bright colors, just like a tree frog!

Sad House:  The next property was a flashback those terms you learn when studying for your license you think you may never use...like "functionally obsolete"...until you walk through one and the words come popping up...as you are walking through scratching your head trying to figure out why...and...what?   What the heck is this room?  This house made me sad, truly.  As I looked through it, the cold bit through to my bones, the dark rooms took the words from my normal chatty mouth...half packed boxes everywhere, black plastic garbage bags being filled, but not completely...left on the carpets and tile...abandoned.  The dark brown liquid on the kitchen floor that was never cleaned up had dried into a large stain on the tile.  The garbage strewn all over, every room, as if a tornado had hit the day before!

It was my son who pointed down on the carpet in one room, two tiny little socks about 3" long lay on the carpets...his eyes met mine and he said in almost a whisper "a little child lived here"...then as we walked through the rest of the house, his questions kept coming "Why didn't they take all their toys?  Why would they leave their things here? Are you sure they aren't here any more?" 

It was sad to see, I hear so many negative comments about homeowners of distressed properties, I don't even like to read them!  I explained to my son that we don't know what happened, it could have been hundreds of reasons they had to leave quickly.  I then imagined MYSELF there and that's MY house...Why would I leave so quickly?  Why would I leave my child's toys, socks, books and abandon a house that clearly I had been improving!  There were improvements that were being done, a new bathroom, new kitchen countertops. We both agreed at the same time that we also needed to leave this house, we named it the Sad House for obvious reasons.

Freeway House:  Then we found the Freeway House!  Wow, it was a completely remodeled house about $450K LESS than the original list price and other than the location, it was a fabulous house!  Someone had put a lot of TLC into this baby, it was truly nice...inside.  Other than the freeway, which was right in front of the door...the noise was deafening!  We thought this would be a good house for a musician with a band, as the freeway noise would drown out the music and the neighbors would never hear it! (Maybe we should call it the Rock-Star-Ready Jammin' House?)

Series of 3 Pet Houses:  The next three were the pet houses, all were built in in the last 5 years, all were filthy, had some sort of STRONG pet odor, all needed paint and carpets DESPERATELY, just to mention a few things and we could not get out of those houses fast enough.  There was the Dog House, the Cat House and the Praying Mantis House; although the Praying Mantis house had the strongest pet urine odor (probably from several pets and the carpets were torn to shreds), it was the cool...due to the Large Praying Mantis on the slider that caught our attention!

Light at The End of the Tunnel:  The last house on our list was another bank owned home for sale, but this one was truly nice!  Fresh paint, new carpets, it was the light at the end of the tunnel!  It's how the other houses will probably look AFTER someone puts some TLC back into them!  It was the perfect ending to our tour and we couldn't have planned it better.

I don't know about you, but I will be so thankful when the bank owned homes, foreclosures and short-sale homes are no longer on the market!  I miss the days when previewing homes was happy and pleasant; the majority were clean with nice furnishings and the smell of cinnamon and vanilla lingered in the air!

Reminded me of Dorothy clicking her Ruby Red Slippers saying "There's no place like home!"  --Kathryn