Crazy Sh*t In Real Estate with Leigh Brown - Episode #120 with Sharon Alters

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


Audio Production by Chris Mottram

Show Notes provided by Melissa Valder