What can be messy and smelly and furry all over? Foreclosures! Especially the ones Sharon has seen. Sharon Alters, a second-generation realtor from Jacksonville, shares her craziest real estate stories which include none other than stubborn hoarders and house-squatting horses! Although she no longer does foreclosures, Sharon recognizes that they can be fun – like a box of chocolates where, “ya never know what you’re gonna get.” Plus, there’s a sense of fulfillment in helping families get into properties they may not otherwise afford. Tune in to hear all about hoarders and horses, homes turned into barns, sky-high piles of junk, and tons of stuff with a grand yard sale value of – drum rolls, please – zero.
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Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 00:50 – Sharon’s Background
- 00:54 – She lives in Jacksonville, has been in real estate for 18 years, is a 2nd generation realtor, and now her daughter works in real estate, too
- 01:50 – Her CSIRE story
- 02:00 – In 2011 her friend who worked with a big bank asked her if she wanted to do foreclosures
- 02:10 – About a year in, she got a small farm with two houses; one house was on the road and she didn’t see the second house
- 02:45 – She sent her handyman to rekey the houses and find the second house, he called her from the property to tell her there were horses in the second house
- 03:30 – The doors and windows had been taken out of the house to make it a barn
- 04:00 – The horses had been living in the house for over a year and a half; the house had to be torn down, which was expensive because it was in the middle of nowhere
- 04:30 – The house had been stripped down and she tracked down the original owners to figure out what to do with the horses
- 05:30 – The bank reimbursed the people that had been feeding the horses; Sharon liked that bank because it took care of her and others
- 06:25 – The bank demolished the house and sold it that way; a man across the street bought it for his daughter
- 07:20 – The rush of working with bank-owned properties; helping people get into properties they couldn’t otherwise afford
- 07:40 – She got a notice of eviction to give to a family on Christmas Eve; she decided she wouldn’t do that
- 08:10 – She did it a few days later; and the bank waited until February and gave the family money to move
- 08:35 – They went to the house and they hadn’t moved; she told the bank and they gave them 24 hours to leave
- 09:00 – The next day they were gone, but they were hoarders so the inside of the house was full up to the ceilings
- 10:00 – “Yard sale value” is sometimes $0; but this was an expensive trash-out
- 10:45 – She no longer does foreclosures
- 11:30 – Foreclosures are not the bank’s fault; banks can be understanding and flexible
3 Key Points
- In many instances, it’s not the bank’s fault if someone gets foreclosed on.
- Foreclosures can be fulfilling because you help people get into homes they may typically not be able to afford.
- Banks can be understanding and work with people to an extent; they’re not all bad.
Credits