What's you best War Story

[Cameron Skinner]

Mine has to be when I rented to the manger of the Bottle Stoper, a local bar whose moto is "if you don't have a gun or a knife will issue one at the door." I was young and dumb at the time and she showed up with 4 months rent in advance in cash.  Neighbors started calling about odor coming from the home. Tenant refused to let us in, finally found out after cops we're call on domestic issue they were keeping thier deceased grandfather in the garage so they could keep getting his social security checks.  We literally had to rip up the carpet and bleach the concrete to try and get the smell out.  After several weeks it still smelled so bad my wife made me crawl up in the attic just to make sure they didn't have grandma stuffed up there too.   Let's see if anyone can beat that! 

[Rick H.]

After many, many hundreds of probate deals (obviously involving deceased owners) I can tell you more situations than most would ever believe should happen to one investor in a lifetime.

One client, admin for her Mom's estate, lied about her Dad's whereabouts repeatedly. After weeks of metered release of the facts, It turns out the Dad was in prison after murdering wife and sealing her in kitchen wall. A relative was visiting and noticed an odd stain in kitchen wall, and...

Another file involved a guy in prison who's father had died while trying to repair a wiring problem in the attic when a fire erupted and he fell to his death. The son never knew his father, could not receive money but thru a deaf girlfriend who used TDY operator. The house was set to be demo'd by city, tax sale by county, fraudulent probate claim by son's Mom, a dirty attorney, a bad judge, a city attorney, code enforcement and bldg depts who don't talk and require conflicting compliance. 

To top it off, 18 months later the prisoner son sued me claiming that the amount he asked for was not sufficient and ge now wanted more.

I've got plenty more. They're all cautionary tales that will not make you money but might save you money and grief.