A property has A LOT of junk around the house (appliances, and all kinds of stuff).

[J Grant]

This was my yesterday appraisal. Nope, it's not an estate sale; they LIVE like this! Oy!
View attachment 94194

Need hazard pay for this one!

 

[Tom D]

Some of you people are clutter prejudice with your minimalism attitude. You might get a fannie letter. With clutter, there's clutter and then there's clutter filth together.
My wife was a doll/toy collector, that's what she spent money on. I tell people i don't live in a house, i live in a warehouse or a museum. I'm more of min clutter, but you can't fight with the boss.
My wife could not get rid of stuff, felt like she was throwing out a piece of herself. There's a phych reason as to why the cluttering.

 

[Zoe]

Need hazard pay for this one!

Yeah. That one is definitely a health and safety hazard. I am not sure it would go conventional loan. Maybe owner financed.

AMC will say wait. I can get another appraiser that don't take that picture.

 

[Sandra Koutsopoulos]

The thing with cluttered-up households is that the loan is being made on the structure, not the china inside. But... honestly, I couldn't get close enough to the DR wall to see whether it was covered in some sort of interesting Art Deco wallpaper, or swirly watermarks. And I could not see much of the floor anywhere. So... I'll let the underwriter deal with it. What I see, I include in photos. I think these ppl are absolutely overwhelmed with stuff to where they have no idea where to even START dealing with it.

I suggested to one clutter bug to just start with one 2'x2' area and consider it progress. And big restaurant-type adjustable wire shelving racks are a good way to get stuff off the floor and sorted for those who actually want to get the monster tamed. Once they see what they actually have, they can sell, donate, or dumpster it.

My mother was "an accumulator of things", and had multiples of virtually everything b/c she forgot or misplaced what she had, and would just go buy another one. It is a real burden for the inheritors. I realized I had been entrusted with other ppls memories, and let them go. "Things" are just things. It's amazing what sells on eBay. The more purging one does, the easier it gets. It's unlikely ppl remember what they hung onto so tightly a year after its gone. Mom's been gone for 7 years, I've sold 800 of her items on eBay with 2500 listed now, and probably another 1000+ waiting in the wings. This week I'm listing 8 or 10 fur coats. My eBay goods have 1/2 the garage and their own room upstairs on floor to ceiling wire racks warehouse style. I haven't purchased anything in a store other than groceries for 10 years.

 

[Cob]

How much of the junk should be removed?

I am sure I am in the minorty here, but after having to deal with this more than once, now I simply contact the lender/client and have it re-assigned to someone else, I don't like to be the person that tells them what the have to do, clean up and get rid of, because no matter who else is telling the homeowner/borrower they have to do, clean up and get rid of, it's always made out to seem like it's the appraiser dictating it, I simply move on and have someone else deal with this.

 

[Sandra Koutsopoulos]

Update on my previous photo: Owner called me at 6:30 twice this morning complaining that he wished he'd known sooner that he'd have to fix stuff, as he doesn't have that in his budget, and now that hurdle will become a delay to getting $$$. I guess he didn't "see" the missing roof tiles, water marks, piles and piles of stuff, doors missing to the porch with plywood stuck in there... and didn't apparently see that all his china and glassware won't shrink magically into the cupboards. It's a common "blindness". Oh well. We'll see what lender finally conditions for. It's a straight FHA. Uh-oh! 203K or reverse mortgage with repairs included in the loan sound like better possibilities to me. They are in their 70s, so probably have 50% or more equity and would qualify, thus fixing the house AND reducing their monthly housing expense. I think the guy needs a new L/O, as he thought he was getting a VA loan, but FHA was ordered. The mysteries never end....

 

[J Grant]

The thing with cluttered-up households is that the loan is being made on the structure, not the china inside. But... honestly, I couldn't get close enough to the DR wall to see whether it was covered in some sort of interesting Art Deco wallpaper, or swirly watermarks. And I could not see much of the floor anywhere. So... I'll let the underwriter deal with it. What I see, I include in photos. I think these ppl are absolutely overwhelmed with stuff to where they have no idea where to even START dealing with it.

I suggested to one clutter bug to just start with one 2'x2' area and consider it progress. And big restaurant-type adjustable wire shelving racks are a good way to get stuff off the floor and sorted for those who actually want to get the monster tamed. Once they see what they actually have, they can sell, donate, or dumpster it.

My mother was "an accumulator of things", and had multiples of virtually everything b/c she forgot or misplaced what she had, and would just go buy another one. It is a real burden for the inheritors. I realized I had been entrusted with other ppls memories, and let them go. "Things" are just things. It's amazing what sells on eBay. The more purging one does, the easier it gets. It's unlikely ppl remember what they hung onto so tightly a year after its gone. Mom's been gone for 7 years, I've sold 800 of her items on eBay with 2500 listed now, and probably another 1000+ waiting in the wings. This week I'm listing 8 or 10 fur coats. My eBay goods have 1/2 the garage and their own room upstairs on floor to ceiling wire racks warehouse style. I haven't purchased anything in a store other than groceries for 10 years.

Clutter that does not damage the home or structure and hoarding, which can involve feces, urine and too much weight , or hazards, mold from closed up spaces etc are different.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

This was my yesterday appraisal. Nope, it's not an estate sale; they LIVE like this! Oy!
View attachment 94194

Looks like my kitchen

 

[Sandra Koutsopoulos]

Terrell!!! Oh NO!!!! You're the boss of your stuff; don't let your stuff be the boss of your space!

So often, I see ppl just being overwhelmed with the sheer volume of stuff that they just can't seem to get control of. In the case of the above, the spouse is out of state caring for her 96 y/o mother, so there's likely going to be another truckload of "stuff" being dumped on this house in the relatively near future.

I find younger ppl seem to have more vigor to be ruthless and chuck stuff out, while the grey-hairs tend to have less energy to purge and shed their excess and often shrug their shoulders to let their heirs deal with it. 30 years b4 my mum actually passed, I told her to get rid of her excess stuff and not leave it for me to take care of. Her response? she called all the relatives and told them I wanted her dead! OMG! In the end, of course, most of her stuff that didn't go at estate and garage sales before moving her in with us, ended up my responsibility. My mum's accumulation is down from 18,000 CU ft to about 3,000 CU ft. Progress, for sure, but we're not at the finish line yet.

The filthy garbage hoards are a different mental illness I think. Accumulating is more about greed and love of "things" IMO. The filthy hoarding is about fear, loss and comfort in some twisted way. It amazes me when the filthy hoarders complain and whine about what terrible living conditions they are in, and I want to just scream: "Clean it up!" Step one: empty a 2 CU ft space, rest for a couple days, then do another 2 CU ft and finally, eventually the clean-up will clear things out. But nope, they can't do that for some reason.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Some of you people are clutter prejudice with your minimalism attitude. You might get a fannie letter. With clutter, there's clutter and then there's clutter filth together.
My wife was a doll/toy collector, that's what she spent money on. I tell people i don't live in a house, i live in a warehouse or a museum. I'm more of min clutter, but you can't fight with the boss.
My wife could not get rid of stuff, felt like she was throwing out a piece of herself. There's a phych reason as to why the cluttering.

Someone once wrote that their (husband-wife) parents were two couples who lived through the depression and reacted differently. The one parents recalled that they didn't have access to things so they hoarded everything from sugar to clothing, household goods, etc. The other recalled they had no money in the depression and hoarded money. They were frugal beyond belief. Wore clothes to the point of being rags, bought at yard sales, bought used furniture, etc. Never threw anything out or updated anything. As a result both houses were cluttered - one with old junk and the other with unopened boxes of new stuff.