Well where to begin?


A guy I grew up with inherited a home, well, his mother did. She's 2/3rds owner. The others live in Guam and one is in a nursing home in California.

This was their grandfather's home. It's in a high demand historic district here in San Antonio and worth some pretty good scratch even in the condition it's in. My friend's mother rented it to her great-aunt (the original owner's sister) for $200 a month over the past nine years which didn't even cover the taxes on the place. At some point the adult kids joined her in the tiny house.

The great-aunt passed away 9 months ago and the rent checks stopped. The adult kids won't respond to phone calls or emails.

I went over there last night and again today and it looks like they took off, but there's a lot of furniture in the home. A lot. The power and water are apparently off (the front door was unlocked) and the place is pretty trashed. If they did leave, it was within the past week or so.

There are bottles of water and candles in every room which leads me to suspect that they were either living there a while with no power/water or are still living there. The neighbors really don't know what is going on with the place either.

There is obviously no formal rental agreement with the adult kids, neither was there one with the great-aunt. They want the place cleaned out before deciding what to do with it. Do they need to go through some formal eviction process or can I just change the locks and toss everything in a dumpster?

Is it as simple as placing an eviction notice on the front door?

That makes complete sense. Thank you. I'll do that in the next day or two.

I had a lawyer type up the letter, I'm placing them this afternoon. I'll make sure to take a lot of photos with a time stamp.

Thanks y'all.

You don't need to file an eviction.

They have abandoned the property.

Post a notice of abandonment. Change the locks.

If they don't show up after 3 days, done deal. Save the money from filing eviction.

Keep us posted with lots of photos! I would love to get my hands on that.

What neighborhood? And I definitely can't wait to see some progress pics.

Congratulations! That is a beautiful house!

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What neighborhood? And I definitely can't wait to see some progress pics.

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King William.

I'm debating putting up a running thread on the home improvement forum, but this is going to be a multi-year project. They thrashed the house pretty good over the past 10 years.

Would love to see the progress.

You are very brave and I can't wait to follow your renovation!

Start with some before pics before you even clean it out. It's super gratifying to look back later.

Oh my!

Another view:

Paul

I always like a guestimate for renovations. Will you give us one?

I will admit we failed pretty miserably on our last house reno and spent far more that I wanted/expected.

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Oh my!

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Not even the worst we've had to deal with. Working on one now that was way, way worse but I think its going to be one of my favorites when done.

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Start with some before pics before you even clean it out. It's super gratifying to look back later.

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Yeah, it's pretty nasty.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HhHj8d][/url]2016-05-20_11-54-39 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HkF3r8][/url]2016-05-20_11-55-06 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HkF5cT][/url]2016-05-20_11-55-26 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/HeBg92][/url]2016-05-20_11-55-46 by Paul Bubel, on Flickr

Currently in weekend #2 of the brush clean up. I regained about 15 feet of backyard so far.

I don't know budget yet as I don't how how far I'm going to take it in terms of upgrades. It's a neighborhood of cheap remodels and remodels with appliance packages in the $30k and above class.

I'm just going to work on getting it weather proof and livable for the next 6 months to year probably.

Wow on that bathroom, Paul. The one I referenced above but don't have after pics for yet was very similar - except in the living room there had been a hole in the roof & the sheetrock had all fallen down on furniture that the last tenant had left in there (and people had gone thru) for over 2 years of being vacant.

You will have a beautiful house when finished though.

We search craigslist for left over supplies. If your rooms are fairly small, it's common to find people with extra tile, overbought flooring, etc. Helps with the budget.

edit: Our Lowes has a great rental floor sander. It's easy to use (not like those big drum sanders)and keeps the dust down. Our really trashed wood floors came out looking pretty good. The sand paper for them is a little spendy, but the end result is a big bang improvement.

If you do go the cheap finishes route, for the love of God don't change anything structurally (Windows, flooring, doors, etc.) that could have been restored/replaced to a better finish. We've owned multiple historic properties and if the Home Depot flippers got to one first, just....ugh. Especially problematic here in SA where a lot of the handy manny population has actually been living in those historic homes. So you get an 1890s KW home with a Lowe's leaded glass front door, ill-fitting vinyl windows, etc.

And by cheap I mean leave the bathroom in place, minimal wall removal, stick to the window units for now and cheap-ish appliances.

Sounds like a plan - can't wait to see the progress! We do buck up for central hvac. There is a big difference in the rental rates here without it. Plus in the houses we just got, the window sills & some exterior siding where the window units were are all having to be replaced due to water. 2 of these houses are around 1915 & have the original cedar siding (luckily there is some in the garage and an area in a closed in back porch for repairs) and 1 is an older era craftsman that the drain water from the unit caused a little foundation/rot issue. Not bad, easily fixable + once you get things squared away, you won't be letting the maintenance slide like the past owners. Us either.

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If you do go the cheap finishes route, for the love of God don't change anything structurally (Windows, flooring, doors, etc.) that could have been restored/replaced to a better finish. We've owned multiple historic properties and if the Home Depot flippers got to one first, just....ugh. Especially problematic here in SA where a lot of the handy manny population has actually been living in those historic homes. So you get an 1890s KW home with a Lowe's leaded glass front door, ill-fitting vinyl windows, etc.

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THIS

You wouldn't believe some of the things I've seen removed from houses by flippers. One ended up falling off the national historic register, it was so bad. There was nothing left. Heart pine floors, walls, plaster, craftsman style windows, doors, cypress trim and woodwork - all gone. Another flipper removed an original kitchen and bathroom from a house nearby built in 1938 (nice cabinets with glass windows, 4' long authentic farmhouse style sink, solid core doors with brass hardware, original black and white tilework, ...) to put in big box junk. When housing comes down again we'll see all these players exit the market.

We're getting ready to start demo (to rebuild) on our 1920 craftsman that the idiot roofing contractors crushed the roof on. After 18 months of heavy water infiltration I might win the whose place is nastier contest. Soon I'll have probably 1,000 board feet of 100 year old trim and doors to depaint.

Made a thread...