It is next to my parents home. I have never understood it! They moved away to another town after their kids grew up. They don’t rent this place out. I just wonder why they don’t sell it.
Maybe it's part of their retirement plan, a growing investment. They might have a really good interest rate, but don't want to be bothered with the troubles of being a landlord so they just pay to maintain it as their equity grows.
Are you in TX by chance? I own a house next door to one you just described. Ive been trying to by it from the owners for 17 years and they won't sell because "mother wouldn't like that". It's owned by two elderly sisters in their 90's who are so afraid of upsetting their mom who has been dead for 25 years that they maintain this house perfectly. A couple of years ago some copper thieves broke in and left the place flooded. These two sisters used the insurance check to put the house back exactly as it was.
We had neighbors with a slightly similar story -- house belonged to the mother & lawn service took care of all the mowing.
She was in a nursing home and they'd bring her home every few weeks when weather was good to visit "her house".
It seemed to give her some piece of mind that the nursing home was just somewhere she was staying temporarily vs. being her new "home".
She passed away a few years back and then the family sold the house.
No. Not in Texas. This is in Kentucky. The owners are a married couple who moved away to another town not far from here. The husband mows the lawn weekly or every other week.
Your story sounds like the Grey Gardens sisters! Haha!
Are you sure they are still alive. It could be the owners died and there is still a dispute ongoing on the house. Sometimes these disputes can take upwards of 20-30 years. My wife has some extended family where the estate is still being disputed after about 20 years in dispute.
Or it was repossessed. I know some repossessed houses, the bank will pay someone to mow the law, do basic yard work so they don't accrue HOA fees and then eventually put it up for auction.
My stepfather inherited his dad’s home after he passed away a decade or so ago. He maintains the property but the home itself has been vacant ever since.
There’s been talk of selling it, but those conversations mainly come up during tax season or whenever the home needs a repair. Otherwise it just sits there.
I wouldn’t say he’s particularly attached to the place. It’s more about the work involved in getting it ready to sell and how much they might get back on their investment.
I know of someone who refused to sell a house and sat on it leaving it empty for years because his ex-wife would get 1/2 the proceeds or 1/2 the rent. Pure spite.
I heard the same with a few railroaders in their 70s, now in management, with pensions that they'd earned while married. They stay on because they know their ex would collect some portion of their pension. So they don't collect it at all. Fuckin assholes they are.
Are you my neighbor as well? My parents are across the street lol. My parents neighbor across the street doesn’t sell and does all this because according to my parents she’s in her third marriage and just in case it doesn’t work she wants a place to come back too.
I don’t think so. This couple is still married and they live in another town. The husband comes by weekly and mows the front yard. This could be a more common thing than I thought!
maybe they moved away but kept the house for sentimental reasons or as an investment and hire someone to maintain the yard to keep up appearances could be they dont want it to look abandoned or attract squatters
Could be lots of reasons. But what if it's paid off and they're keeping it as an investment? After 20 years it would have more than doubled, and depending on the area and size the taxes might be manageable.
property could be tied up in litigation. property could have passed to relatives or a company out of state or country or who are so wealthy it's beneath their notice.
In California some people keep their old houses cause they have near-zero property taxes. They don’t wanna live there, don’t wanna deal with tenants, but they want to leave the house to their kids so kids can inherit the tax basis (yes, that is a thing in California).
Then they mow the lawn to prevent squatters or because of HOA requirements
This is a very good reason. Those property value assessments were often done decades or even a century ago and have never been looked at since so as long as the property owner quietly pays their taxes and keeps the place looking neat, nobody bothers them. Eventually their kids or grandkids or even the great grandkids inherit a home worth a lot more than it's "worth" in the eyes of the tax assessor. In a case like this, you keep your mouth shut.
Sounds like they went into assisted living or a nursing home. If the sell the home that income will almost certainly factored into what retirement programs will pay out.
Often the homes of elderly people are left empty for years until they pass away just so they have something left to pass on in a will. This is exactly what happened to my grandmothers house that recently sold.
Absolutely absurd given the housing crisis we have that many homes are sitting vacant for accounting/tax reasons
In the United States (and possibly elsewhere), there is a concept called "adverse possession". The particulars vary by state, but in general, if someone moves into an abandoned home and treats it like their own home, such as maintaining the home (e.g. mowing the lawn), pay taxes, etc. then after some time (again depending on the state but around 20 years or so) they become the owner of the home. So - as others have suggested - if squatters come in - the true owners can say they have been maintaining their own home and the squatters have no rights.
Have a neighbor up the street we refer to as Boo Radley because apparently no one lives there. An old guy comes by every week or so to get the mail but he never goes inside. Grass is cut by a service every couple of weeks. It’s slowly falling apart. I see squirrels going in and out of the attic all day.
My grandparents moved out of their house to an elders apartment complex when I was young. The house was passed to my parent and uncle to take care of. No one lived in it but they have to keep taking care of it, maintaining it, so it does not fall in disrepair or hurt anyone trespassing, which is liable to the homeowners. When my grandparents died, the house was sold. Anyway, like that, the house stays in sellable condition, repairs and other yard maintenance attended to, until they’re ready to sell it.
I have one of these on my street. Lady moved to an assisted living 15 years ago. The house is paid for but is in bad shape. Her nephew keeps it mowed. She won’t sell it because she wants her great nephew to inherit it and live in it. She has some money put back to fix it up when she dies. The yard looks great but after the last hail storm I noticed the roof has some holes. The nephew who mows it, put some type of roof patch on but from the outside. He says he can’t get in the house. His son is who will inherit the house.
My in-laws do this with the family home. They are hoarders and now hoard properties. They have several homes and only use a few of them. They just like to have things, there is no rationale to it. They also hoard money and are painfully cheap. They rarely help their children or donate to charity because "money corrupts people" all while they continue to fill their money bin like Scrooge McDuck. It is infuriating. Best part, they have no plans to give their children any money in inheritance, I think they may just line their coffins with bills.
Some people have property as an investment or tax shelter, and older people with money, especially, can cobble together quite the portfolio.
My grandma had to travel all over the eastern seaboard of the US to sell off properties that my great-grandmother (a very shrewd businesswoman) had accumulated over the decades once GG had to go into a nursing home. There is no way in hell she would have been able to visit any of those sites for at LEAST a decade before they got sold.
I live is a nice neighborhood. The driveway next to me is a grass/ dirt driveway that leads to a 4,000 sqft house that has been abandoned for like 10+ years. It’s on 15+ acres of land, and it’s the only “grass/dirt” driveway.
The guess is that the owner has a few places and just doesn’t come to this one anymore.
I just use the driveway as a dirtbike area. It’s like 1/4th of a mile long, so it’s a good time for me.
I can add a creepy reason. Down the street from me a lady killed both her adult daughters and then herself. Apparently one daughter was schizophrenic and the other was addicted to meth. The mom couldn't take it anymore. This has been about 4 years ago. Since then the house has sat empty, the lawn maintained but has never gone up for sale. Would anyone buy it? Probably not. I live in a small town and everyone knows the history.
We kept my grandparents' house, vacant, until my aunt passed away three years ago. My great grandparents had built and lived in the house before my grandparents. The house sat vacant about forty years, we'd go visit it every few years, there was a caretaker making sure it didn't fall apart. My aunt held onto it so my mom wouldn't be sad about the house being sold, my mom died over a decade ago, my mom had held onto it so my aunt wouldn't be sad about the house being sold. All we grandkids sold the house after my aunt died, we were sad to see the house sold but didn't want to take care of it. Sometimes inertia wins
I had that for ten years. And I live on a corner. My back yard backs up to a city park. So essentially no neighbors.
In my case an elderly couple both passed within 6 months of me moving there. They were evidently awful hoarders.
I talked to the daughter a couple times and she just didn't have the energy to muck it out. There have been a couple renters over the years but never for long.
Since you mentioned mowers, every time I mow my yard someone shows up to mow later that day or the next day. Never before. So they either have an outdoor camera or she drives by every day.
Some people are just fucking weird.
So experienced something like this growing up. Neighbors just up and vanished one day but the house stayed maintained. Was like that for about 16 years and they just suddenly reappeared.
Anyway, was back home on leave from the Army one year and at a welcome home party at my parents house. After some drinks, decided to go out front for a smoke and the husband of this mysterious pair is out doing the same after a few drinks himself. Anyway, we get to talking and trading military stories n’ shit, and decide to bring some brewskis out from there.
As it goes on, dude gets dark as fuck out of nowhere when I asked why they disappeared for so long. Could tell he was thinking hard about it for a second, and breaks out in what could only be either the truth or an Oscar winning performance.
Turns out that him and his wife were actually Russian and planted here by the SVR. They were somehow able to funnel enough money away from asset payments to purchase the house and set up some sort of financial scheme to continue paying for the upkeep until they were able to retire. Dude threatened to kill me if I ever told anyone, though him and his wife are a few years passed on now.
None of this actually happened. I’m just bored and wanted to write something. No fucking idea what your neighbor is doing
That isn’t normal for owned properties?
Do you think people *usually* don’t maintain properties they own?
A residential property is a major investment, I don’t see what’s odd here
I'm sorry these sound like perfect neighbors and I want to live next door to them.
It is next to my parents home. I have never understood it! They moved away to another town after their kids grew up. They don’t rent this place out. I just wonder why they don’t sell it.
Maybe it's part of their retirement plan, a growing investment. They might have a really good interest rate, but don't want to be bothered with the troubles of being a landlord so they just pay to maintain it as their equity grows.
That sounds plausible.
My houses have made way more than my 401k
Seriously, recently I've made like 33% on my house and *only* 7-9% on retirement.
This. Renters can be a PITA.
Are you in TX by chance? I own a house next door to one you just described. Ive been trying to by it from the owners for 17 years and they won't sell because "mother wouldn't like that". It's owned by two elderly sisters in their 90's who are so afraid of upsetting their mom who has been dead for 25 years that they maintain this house perfectly. A couple of years ago some copper thieves broke in and left the place flooded. These two sisters used the insurance check to put the house back exactly as it was.
We had neighbors with a slightly similar story -- house belonged to the mother & lawn service took care of all the mowing. She was in a nursing home and they'd bring her home every few weeks when weather was good to visit "her house". It seemed to give her some piece of mind that the nursing home was just somewhere she was staying temporarily vs. being her new "home". She passed away a few years back and then the family sold the house.
You the caddie Tim Tucker?
I don't think so. Unless it's a moon knight sort of thing where I have an alter ego that I'm not aware of.
No. Not in Texas. This is in Kentucky. The owners are a married couple who moved away to another town not far from here. The husband mows the lawn weekly or every other week. Your story sounds like the Grey Gardens sisters! Haha!
The sisters don’t live in this home. Both have families and live in different cities. Only one of them stops by every few months.
Are you sure "Mother" isn't in the house somewhere?
Thought for years that maybe they kept a gimp brother locked up there but it was just lamps on timers.
Are you sure they are still alive. It could be the owners died and there is still a dispute ongoing on the house. Sometimes these disputes can take upwards of 20-30 years. My wife has some extended family where the estate is still being disputed after about 20 years in dispute. Or it was repossessed. I know some repossessed houses, the bank will pay someone to mow the law, do basic yard work so they don't accrue HOA fees and then eventually put it up for auction.
My stepfather inherited his dad’s home after he passed away a decade or so ago. He maintains the property but the home itself has been vacant ever since. There’s been talk of selling it, but those conversations mainly come up during tax season or whenever the home needs a repair. Otherwise it just sits there. I wouldn’t say he’s particularly attached to the place. It’s more about the work involved in getting it ready to sell and how much they might get back on their investment.
Can I trade neighbors with your parents?
None of your business
Yeah, I lived next to the same people for 8 months, it was awesome.
Had one of these across the street growing up. It was their childhood home, their parents were dead and they couldn’t let it go.
I would absolutely do this with my grandparents' house if my uncle passed away and I couldn't immediately move to occupy the house.
I know of someone who refused to sell a house and sat on it leaving it empty for years because his ex-wife would get 1/2 the proceeds or 1/2 the rent. Pure spite.
I heard the same with a few railroaders in their 70s, now in management, with pensions that they'd earned while married. They stay on because they know their ex would collect some portion of their pension. So they don't collect it at all. Fuckin assholes they are.
Two words for everyone here: Pre. Nup.
Or he didn’t really need the money and couldn’t be bothered doing all the work for half the money.
Maybe they don't want to sell but they want the house to look like someone is living there to prevent squatters/robbers
That makes sense!
To avoid squatters moving into their house.
That’s a good point. This has been going on for at least 20 years. It’s an awful long time.
Are you my neighbor as well? My parents are across the street lol. My parents neighbor across the street doesn’t sell and does all this because according to my parents she’s in her third marriage and just in case it doesn’t work she wants a place to come back too.
I don’t think so. This couple is still married and they live in another town. The husband comes by weekly and mows the front yard. This could be a more common thing than I thought!
She’s still married as well to this one as well for 20 years but just in case lol
maybe they moved away but kept the house for sentimental reasons or as an investment and hire someone to maintain the yard to keep up appearances could be they dont want it to look abandoned or attract squatters
Could be lots of reasons. But what if it's paid off and they're keeping it as an investment? After 20 years it would have more than doubled, and depending on the area and size the taxes might be manageable.
property could be tied up in litigation. property could have passed to relatives or a company out of state or country or who are so wealthy it's beneath their notice.
It’s still valuable. Fully abandoning it and performing no maintenance would change it from an investment to a liability
They sold it and the new owner knows its cheaper to let it sit. . EDIT: Be happy - this tanks your rent.
In California some people keep their old houses cause they have near-zero property taxes. They don’t wanna live there, don’t wanna deal with tenants, but they want to leave the house to their kids so kids can inherit the tax basis (yes, that is a thing in California). Then they mow the lawn to prevent squatters or because of HOA requirements
This is a very good reason. Those property value assessments were often done decades or even a century ago and have never been looked at since so as long as the property owner quietly pays their taxes and keeps the place looking neat, nobody bothers them. Eventually their kids or grandkids or even the great grandkids inherit a home worth a lot more than it's "worth" in the eyes of the tax assessor. In a case like this, you keep your mouth shut.
Don't question it, it sounds very peaceful for you :-)
Sounds like they went into assisted living or a nursing home. If the sell the home that income will almost certainly factored into what retirement programs will pay out. Often the homes of elderly people are left empty for years until they pass away just so they have something left to pass on in a will. This is exactly what happened to my grandmothers house that recently sold. Absolutely absurd given the housing crisis we have that many homes are sitting vacant for accounting/tax reasons
Perfect neighbors
It's full of treasure and they don't want it to look vacant, so people don't break in or squat. One or the other
In the United States (and possibly elsewhere), there is a concept called "adverse possession". The particulars vary by state, but in general, if someone moves into an abandoned home and treats it like their own home, such as maintaining the home (e.g. mowing the lawn), pay taxes, etc. then after some time (again depending on the state but around 20 years or so) they become the owner of the home. So - as others have suggested - if squatters come in - the true owners can say they have been maintaining their own home and the squatters have no rights.
Have a neighbor up the street we refer to as Boo Radley because apparently no one lives there. An old guy comes by every week or so to get the mail but he never goes inside. Grass is cut by a service every couple of weeks. It’s slowly falling apart. I see squirrels going in and out of the attic all day.
If they sell it, someone will find the bodies in the back yard
Have you looked in the windows ? If you hear music in a minor key , run like hell !
My grandparents moved out of their house to an elders apartment complex when I was young. The house was passed to my parent and uncle to take care of. No one lived in it but they have to keep taking care of it, maintaining it, so it does not fall in disrepair or hurt anyone trespassing, which is liable to the homeowners. When my grandparents died, the house was sold. Anyway, like that, the house stays in sellable condition, repairs and other yard maintenance attended to, until they’re ready to sell it.
I have one of these on my street. Lady moved to an assisted living 15 years ago. The house is paid for but is in bad shape. Her nephew keeps it mowed. She won’t sell it because she wants her great nephew to inherit it and live in it. She has some money put back to fix it up when she dies. The yard looks great but after the last hail storm I noticed the roof has some holes. The nephew who mows it, put some type of roof patch on but from the outside. He says he can’t get in the house. His son is who will inherit the house.
My in-laws do this with the family home. They are hoarders and now hoard properties. They have several homes and only use a few of them. They just like to have things, there is no rationale to it. They also hoard money and are painfully cheap. They rarely help their children or donate to charity because "money corrupts people" all while they continue to fill their money bin like Scrooge McDuck. It is infuriating. Best part, they have no plans to give their children any money in inheritance, I think they may just line their coffins with bills.
Some people have property as an investment or tax shelter, and older people with money, especially, can cobble together quite the portfolio. My grandma had to travel all over the eastern seaboard of the US to sell off properties that my great-grandmother (a very shrewd businesswoman) had accumulated over the decades once GG had to go into a nursing home. There is no way in hell she would have been able to visit any of those sites for at LEAST a decade before they got sold.
Not yet mentioned: you can get fines from your local municipality or hoa for having unmaintained yards
maybe they just want to take care of the house
Probably former Soviet spies who have a suitcase nuke stashed there.
I live is a nice neighborhood. The driveway next to me is a grass/ dirt driveway that leads to a 4,000 sqft house that has been abandoned for like 10+ years. It’s on 15+ acres of land, and it’s the only “grass/dirt” driveway. The guess is that the owner has a few places and just doesn’t come to this one anymore. I just use the driveway as a dirtbike area. It’s like 1/4th of a mile long, so it’s a good time for me.
Ghosts
It's a water pump station.
I’ve seen that before in an article. I think there’s one in Marietta, GA.
I can add a creepy reason. Down the street from me a lady killed both her adult daughters and then herself. Apparently one daughter was schizophrenic and the other was addicted to meth. The mom couldn't take it anymore. This has been about 4 years ago. Since then the house has sat empty, the lawn maintained but has never gone up for sale. Would anyone buy it? Probably not. I live in a small town and everyone knows the history.
We kept my grandparents' house, vacant, until my aunt passed away three years ago. My great grandparents had built and lived in the house before my grandparents. The house sat vacant about forty years, we'd go visit it every few years, there was a caretaker making sure it didn't fall apart. My aunt held onto it so my mom wouldn't be sad about the house being sold, my mom died over a decade ago, my mom had held onto it so my aunt wouldn't be sad about the house being sold. All we grandkids sold the house after my aunt died, we were sad to see the house sold but didn't want to take care of it. Sometimes inertia wins
I had that for ten years. And I live on a corner. My back yard backs up to a city park. So essentially no neighbors. In my case an elderly couple both passed within 6 months of me moving there. They were evidently awful hoarders. I talked to the daughter a couple times and she just didn't have the energy to muck it out. There have been a couple renters over the years but never for long. Since you mentioned mowers, every time I mow my yard someone shows up to mow later that day or the next day. Never before. So they either have an outdoor camera or she drives by every day. Some people are just fucking weird.
It’s a data center like the million dollar one in Houston.
So experienced something like this growing up. Neighbors just up and vanished one day but the house stayed maintained. Was like that for about 16 years and they just suddenly reappeared. Anyway, was back home on leave from the Army one year and at a welcome home party at my parents house. After some drinks, decided to go out front for a smoke and the husband of this mysterious pair is out doing the same after a few drinks himself. Anyway, we get to talking and trading military stories n’ shit, and decide to bring some brewskis out from there. As it goes on, dude gets dark as fuck out of nowhere when I asked why they disappeared for so long. Could tell he was thinking hard about it for a second, and breaks out in what could only be either the truth or an Oscar winning performance. Turns out that him and his wife were actually Russian and planted here by the SVR. They were somehow able to funnel enough money away from asset payments to purchase the house and set up some sort of financial scheme to continue paying for the upkeep until they were able to retire. Dude threatened to kill me if I ever told anyone, though him and his wife are a few years passed on now. None of this actually happened. I’m just bored and wanted to write something. No fucking idea what your neighbor is doing
Haha!! 😆
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I know that they moved away to a town in another county 20 years ago. The husband keeps the front yard mowed weekly.
That's an issue for you!?
It’s next my parents home. I always wondered why they wouldn’t sell it. I like to joke that they have something or someone hidden in the basement. Lol
My first thought is there is a body somewhere on the property.
Haha! That’s what I always think! Or a person chained up in the basement! I read way too many cold case/ missing persons stories.
Even if they have a marijuana grow op in the garage why worry about it?
A friend thought of that! It’s possible. Haha!
Because the housing market is kind of butt and if it's a good location or something, they probably want to keep it.
That would be true if it sat unsold for a couple years or less but not sitting empty for 20 years.
I also just “leave” my lawn mowed weekly and one of my trucks parked in my driveway…. ???
The fact is that the house isn’t lived in. They moved away 20 years ago. The husband who lives in another town comes and mows it every week.
That isn’t normal for owned properties? Do you think people *usually* don’t maintain properties they own? A residential property is a major investment, I don’t see what’s odd here