Another Fun REO

[Jeff Horton]

Got a request for rural located REO Drive by and hide today. I wasn't busy so called a freind of mine to see if they wanted to ride along since it was a ways off. We got out there and found the mailbox along with about a dozen others. Seems the subject is located down a private road along with a several other houses. No way to determine which house it is if I was brave enough to venture down the private road! Don't you just love REO work.

Anxious to hear the lenders response to my questions of how to proceed on this one!

 

[Dee Dee]

Jeff...where is your sense of adventure??
I usually call the homeowner ahead of time for general directions if I'm unfamiliar with the area, even if it is just a drive-by. No point in turning back if you had to drive so far to get there...I'd just ask a neighbor which house is the right one...they probably all know each other.
What did you end up doing?

 

[Ray Ohler]

Jeff is from. Some places you don't ask anyone about anything. May not be the case here but the "possibility" is always there like a 12 gauge pump. Just in case them revenuers come pokin around or them FBI types.
Well, just a possibility. :lol:

 

[Jeff Horton]

Dee Dee, you know I love a challange. However appraising one without seeing it is just a bit to challenging. Ray was not to far from the truth, where I was at I wouldn't be surprised to have someone confront me as to what I was doing. While I have never had a gun pointed at me while Appraising it wouldn't be a total shock in some of the areas I work either. I have been confronted by neighbors more than once.

But to answer your question I went home and notified the client. I drove down the private road to the first point I could turn around hoping to see the house. But I couldn't and didn't want to push my luck and go any further. Since it was a private road I think you could make a case that I was tresspassing. Remember this was an REO and they said DO NOT contact the owner. If there was a protective neighbor that saw me taking photos ...... could get ugly fast.

Plus I have a freind that can't drive because of vision problems that had gone along for the ride with me before we went to pick up her daughter at school. All in all I decided it was better to just go home.

I am waiting on the Client to decide what to do now. I am sure some people would just drive on down there and act they were lost if anyone asked. I might have done that if I had been by myself but being an REO you just never know what you are walking into.

 

[Dan Leggett]

I generally try to collect all the courthouse info that I can before I ever head to the property. I can usually pinpoint the location from the tax line / aerial overlays. Local tax appraisers sketches and property descriptions are pretty accurate. But even they aren't sure when dealing with cluster occupancy.

I have found the absolute worst time to inspect one of these type properties is on a rainy Friday morning, all the locals are usually rained out from their job and are on their second 'quart' while honing their attitude. Once found myself in a setting such as this down a dead-end dirt (not gravel, dirt!) road with 5 to 40 year old trailers, shacks, and scrap built shelters literally stacked on top of each other. I flashed the work order on the bank's letterhead (didn't give them time to read the REO stuff) and said "Looks like this man is trying to borrow some money. I'm trying to help this man get his money. Where is this house so I can help this man get his money!" and I still got passed off twice before someone finally pointed in the general direction. I took pictures of everything in the general direction that fit the tax records and got the doo-doo out of there. To this day I don't know if I "appraised" the right property or not.