While we were in Syracuse we stayed at my grandparent's house. Camped there is probably the more appropriate term. My grandfather is now located at my Aunt's house 30 minutes away (she is caring for him in his final days/months/years), and my grandmother is not able to stay in the house alone, so she has permanently moved into an apartment that is handicapped accessible for her limited mobility.
I was completely amazed at the house that greeted me when we arrived. I have been in some real junker houses in my line of business, and some of them have even been occupied at the time, and I'm always amazed by the conditions these human beings can allow themselves to live in. I do my best not to judge others, but I can't help but wonder sometimes if they are aware of their deplorable surroundings. Maybe my grandparent's house wasn't quite as bad as a few inhabited ones that I've seen, but it would probably make the short list.
My grandfather is a very proud man, one who can not even entertain the idea of others doing something to help him. He built this house entirely with his own two hands (he was an engineer and thought it was a fun project) and probably would shudder to think of anyone else touching what he worked so hard to build. Family members have offered time and again to help take care of him and the house, but he'd have none of that talk, we might "mess something up." And though he is not poor by any determination, he was too proud to pay someone, even a skilled tradesman, to work on HIS house. As such the maintenance on the house has been nil for nearly 10 years, and the house is no longer fit for any long term inhabitants other than the mice that already reside there. A house that once showed incredible pride of craftsmanship is now the eyesore of the neighborhood.
Staying there certainly gave me a new perspective on the run down houses I'm sure to look at in the future. I would never have thought that a member of my own family would be living in any sort of comparable home to some that I've seen, but the reality is they were all along. It is entirely possible that many of us will end up in similar situations at some time in our lives. We can not predict the future nor what our attitudes or reasoning are. If my grandfather had been shown a picture of his future house 50 years ago when he started building it, then perhaps he would have had a different mind on keeping it maintained over the years. Or maybe the same thing would have happened since it is difficult to change human nature.
All in all, I've come away from this trip with a new insight to how some of these properties come to end up in investor's possession. Most people don't plan for the inability to maintain your surroundings, terminal illness or other hard times and seemingly hard choices that may come upon us, so remember with me that the people in these junker houses we go out to buy may one day be someone we love, or even ourselves.
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Melody, Above all else, I'm sorry to hear of your grandfathers state of health at this time.
ReplyDeleteIt sure sounds like he is a very proud man and enjoyed putting his sweat and tears in a house that he could call his own and share with family and friends.
Unfortunately it seems that time takes its toll on everything. When I started real estate investing a few years ago I chose to look at properties that were on the low end of the price scale. About 30 miles from where I live, you could find homes at about 1/4 of the price of similar homes in my backyard. I was devastated to go from one property after another and see walls full of mold, old-timers who pee'd on the carpeting, folks hooked up to oxygen yet having to take every breath in stench, etc... So, I decided to forgo my dream of purchasing real estate in such a market.
I took a course on purchasing out of state properties and the "guru" recommended having a lockbox put on the property (even before purchasing) and having folks go through and tell you what they thought about the place. I found a place in Ohio, quickly put an ad out and had several people go through the place and I heard everything from "nice", "I really like the location", "good sized rooms", etc... Since I liked what I heard, I decided to purchase it. The price was right... heck, you couldn't complain at $15,000. I took a drive out the following weekend to check out the house. Ughhhhhh. Purple and pink walls, carpeting torn up, plumbing that was leaking, old furniture left inside, 30 year old cabinets that were missing doors, missing siding, etc... The next words out of my mouth was something a little more harsh than CRAP!!! But it was one of those things where either you or I might say that the place is in absolutely deplorable condition, others somehow find it appealing. Another ad in the paper and I sold the property under a land contract. A couple of years later when that land contract fell through, I had someone in the house within days (of course selling it "as is"). I only put out a couple of ads on the internet some 3 years ago but not a month goes by where I won't get at least 1 or 2 phone calls asking if the place is available.
I didn't lay one hand in fixing up that house. Today I buy/rehab/sell properties and what puts a smile on my face is when a neighbor tells us that we've improved not only the property but the neighborhood and community.
Anyway, again, I'm sorry to hear about your grandfather. Sometime in the future you may take a trip and go by your grandfathers home to find that another proud family has founda a way to make that house shine.
My parents both worked middle class jobs in Illinois before moving to Canada some 19 years ago. My dad came down with cancer a few years ago and went through the whole surgery, radiation, drugs, in and out of the hospital, and though hospice for a period of about one year before passing. He received absolutely fantastic care. If my parents had continued to live in the U.S., I shudder to think what their financial situation would be. However, because they called Canada home, the bill was very close to ZERO (minus buying some drugs). Because of that, my mom is still able to live comfortably in a place that my dad called "God's country". I hear a lot of folks going back and forth about universal healthcare in the U.S. and how it might throw the health care industry into a tizzy. From my perspective it has enabled my mom to live where she wants and to not lose every last dime that she and my dad saved in order to make their move to Canada.