Occupancy Check of newly acquired Bank Owned Home in Snohomish, Washington
The asset was assigned to me by email.
First task? Do an occupancy check within 24 hours.
The property reverted to the bank on Friday and the very next Tuesday I got the email. That same day, I was out to the property to do an occupancy check of this newly acquired bank owned home.
As I drove to the house I am wondering. Are the owners still in the house? If so, are they hostile? Is there someone slumped in a corner with a shotgun, waiting to blow away the emissary of the bank? Or are there four rottweilers that will be unleashed on me as soon as I step onto the property?
What is the house like? Is it a dump? A palace? In shambles? Pristine condition and ready to sell?
Pulling into the neighborhood I realize I have sold several houses here over the years. Great place to live. Large lots. Wide streets with sidewalks and cul de sacs. So that is encouraging.
I park my car across the street and down one house. I start taking the pictures I will need for the Broker Price Opinion, which is coming up as a task to do.
As I approach the house, camera in hand, I notice the front lawn is over a foot tall. There is a van in the driveway. That cannot be a good sign. Now I am approaching the front door. It appears no one has been here for a while. The window by the front door had paper taped over. It was ripped and I could see inside. There was a lot of stuff in there, but it did not appear occupied.
I let myself in for the occupancy check of this newly acquired bank owned home and started taking pictures. There was stuff everywhere! Mostly abandoned stuff, but a lot of it. Inside the front door is a note forscribbled on the side of a cardboard box. It was a note to me (whomever I was) with the homeowners name and number on it. I took a picture of that as well.
Coming into the kitchen, I notice the fridge is missing, which is not unusual, and the built 
in stove has been torn out, which IS unusual. The family room in the occupancy check of this newly acquired bank owned home was VERY unusual. The blinds were all pulled. There was a bed set up on one side. On the other side was a giant big screen TV as well as a lot of other stuff. On top of all of this, the sheet rock of the entire middle of the family room had fallen down, and was broken and scattered all over. I opened up the curtains and then saw the floor. The hardwood floor was buckled severely, like when it suffers prolonged water damage.
Click. Click. Move on.
Upstairs I am taking a picture of each room. They are all empty, but lots of things are strewn about. The upstairs bathroom made me pause. There were bits of toilet paper all over the bathroom floor. They had been wet and were now dry. This bathroom was right over the family room. Did they really do what I thought they did?
It appeared that they had left the water on in the upstairs bathroom for a long time. It had seeped downstairs, loosening the sheetrock in the ceiling, and damaging the hardwood floors. 
Now you understand why the bank is so diligent about doing an occupancy check of a newly acquired bank owned home!
I finished taking pictures, but the mechanical lock box on the house, and drove back to the office to file the occupancy check of this newly acquired bank owned home.
No shotgun blast!
No Rottweillers!
I lived to tell the tale.
Occupancy Check of newly acquired Bank Owned Home by Phil Leng.
Phil Leng
Keller Williams Kirkland
206-409-6600
http://buybankliquidationhomes.ning.com
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