The last 6 Months

Over the last 6 months I have been working with my brother in law cleaning out and maintaining repossessed houses. We can do multiple services to a house depending on which stage of the foreclosure process the house is in. If the house has recently been foreclosed on then we go and determine occupancy. If the house is vacant then we change the locks in the house and do a winterize or grass cut depending on the season. During the summer months we do a grass cut up to 1 acre and prune brushes/trees if needed. During the winter months we winterize the houses so that no more damage can be done if there is still water in the pipes throughout the house.Some bank will actually pay people to leave their house early to help minimize the damage that might occur during the foreclosure process. Normally a house will sit for 6 months to 1 year to allow the previous owners a "Redemption" period. Which allows the homeowner to buy back their house if they can/want to. During this time we cut the grass/bushes to keep the yard maintained, however no personal belongings are removed from the property. That way if the homeowner decides to buy their house back then their belongings are still there. After the Redemption period is over we go back to the house to do an initial service on a house which includes cleaning the entire interior of the house and removing all debris left behind as well as all debris left outside around the property. So over the last 6 months we have been all over the state of Wyoming cleaning these houses.

Some of our houses are very clean and you can tell the previous homeowners left their house well maintained and took care of there house. Other houses not so much. We have been to houses where they have spray painted swear words on the walls and windows and have had rules for playing games like beer pong written on the walls. One house was even so bad that it looked like they had peed/vomited all over the walls and floors and left "presents" in the toilet. It always amazes me how these people can have this type of reaction towards loosing their home. I do feel bad for these people that loose their home. It must be very upsetting but why destroy the house?

We have cleaned out hoarder houses and houses with animals left behind. One house still had 4 horses left on the property when we went there to clean. The previous owner actually showed up and asked us to take her horses because she did not know what else to do with them. Wouldn't you try to sell them to keep your house?  Most of the homes we clean are in decent condition. With a little scrubbing and vacuuming with arm and hammer carpet powder I can typically get the house look and smelling good again. The hoarder house had feral cats living under the second trailer (which they used for all their garbage) which was hard to clean because the cats kept trying to get into the trailer while we were clearing out the garbage. And they kind of scare you a little when you are not looking.

But for the most part it is fun seeing all these houses and how people lived and how not well thought out most peoples planned renovations are. Some of these houses people add onto their house and put no thought into it until it is done and then it is like oh well it will have to do. Like putting your hot tub in your living room. How awesome is that... Right??!! Not... now there is mold in the ceiling because of all the moisture. Really? Come on people lets think a little here. Or Lets add on to our living room until it is the size of a small house. Now we have a HUGE room that is so big you need a projection system to see the tv.

But that is the fun part of this job. Cleaning might not be the highlight of the job but going in and seeing what people leave behind and how people live is just truly fascinating.