Driving For Dollars Question

[Carly Turow]

I've been driving for dollars, writing down the addresses of distressed properties - the ones that stick out like a sore thumb within a neighborhood of nice/really nice houses.

I get home and look them each up on zillow and then on the county's audit wesbite. I'm finding some of these places belong to, what looks like, investors. The owner name is such-and-such LLC, and often times they bought the property a year or two ago.

Can someone explain why an investor would buy a property and then just let it sit and be vacant (they seem vacant) and not do anything with the home? All these other houses look so nice and I don't understand why someone would invest/buy a property and NOT flip it or fix it up and rent it, etc.

I don't want to reach out to those "owners" because there's no way they'd want to sell it at a low price. What are they doing?

Thanks!