[mikeinri]

What have you "received" when buying a house (or moving into an old apartment) by the previous owner (or tenant)?

Useful or other???

Here are some of my examples (started this discussion in a different thread):

The PO of our first house left a couple of (broken) trash cans, and (a dented) one of these...

View attachment 2582085

When we moved here, we left those for the new owners...

...and the PO of this house left us with a wheelbarrow, a manual hydraulic logsplitter (painfully slow, not worth using), and some leaf rakes.

You just reminded me, at the prior house, buried under a huge overgrown forsythia bush, we later found a Ford engine and transmission, sitting on a partial frame with one axle and two wheels. No idea what it came from, but it was big, heavy and not rolling.

I called everywhere, no one would come get it without charging me several hundred dollars. I found one junkyard who'd take it (for free, I believe) if I could get it to them.

So, I bought a come-a-long, and winched it up onto my utility trailer. There's still a nasty scratch on the ramp to remind me (the trailer was new at the time)...

EDIT: Just remembered, the PO of this house also left a pick mattock behind.

Mike

 

[X300owner]

Not left to me but - I left my Cyclone rake (without tractor) to the buyers of my old house. It had over 70 trees in the front yard! My new house only had 2 trees.

 

[Alien5044]

We inherited a lot of miscellaneous stuff that should have gone to the dump. Did get a broken table top Craftsman band saw in need of repair, 3 artificial Christmas trees in the barn loft in boxes with mouse hotels, and a few rough file cabinets 2 in the barn and 1 in the basement. A Wen soldering gun with the plug cut off, a Skill saw that actually runs, and a few storage cabinets with nuts bolts washers etc. Lots of florescent lights all in stages of failing. Dismantled and took them to a recycler and got a few bucks for the metal. Then there is the wood furnace in the shop, it actually works and has an automatic fan that blows the warm air around the shop. Takes about an hour to get it warmed up in there, but very happy it is there.

Actually glad no outdoor equipment was left, so I have room in the barn for my own equipment. Not a big barn, foot print is roughly the size of a 3.5 car garage about 25 feet deep with a 2nd floor above two thirds of it. Now with the UTV out there taking up a third of the one car side of the barn, and the X500 in the main garage at the house, it all "just fits" with room to walk around most of it.

Generally speaking, not a lot was left although we did buy some very well made Amish hutch and china cabinets and a 12' long dining table and chairs, all in new condition. Makes it great for when the kids and grand kids come for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.

Next spring I will complete clearing and repairing the overgrown mini shooting range with a nice log backstop at the base of the wooded hill. It is only about 25 yard max but very convenient.

 

[PA318Guy]

Previous owner left mostly old tires and crap that I ended up taking to the trash or paying to have recycled, it wasn't a lot but certainly work I didn't need to be doing.

 

[Alien5044]

Would be nice to find an old 8N or similar but no such luck.

 

[X300owner]

My son up in Ohio bought about 40 acres and got "left behinds" of 2 Ford 8N's - running, with a bunch of attachments , a WW2 Jeep and a lot of other stuff.

 

[MARK (LI)]

Sounds like he paid for that stuff and got the property for free!..He got some treasure there

 

[Jere39]

I jumped in on the old thread with this recollection:

When My wife and I bought the house we have lived in for 35 years there was half a motorcycle, an old garden tractor, a console stereo, and a stack of tires in the garage. I consolidated the stuff in a corner, but after a couple months, I sold it to one of those guys who buy scrap and come pick it up. I think I got like $250 for the whole lot. About 5 months later, I was working in the driveway and a stranger showed up and introduced himself as brother-in-law to the previous owner who claimed he was there to pick up the garden tractor. I like to think I am quick on my feet, and I told him how happy I was to see him as I had paid $250 to get rid of all that stuff, and was trying to find who I could give the bill to. He stammered while backing up to his car and high-tailed it out of there.

 

[APinNY]

Our summer place had been a rental cabin. The seller left everything including furniture, lamps, cookware, beds, you name it. That saved us quite a bit of change during the first couple of years. We added levels and remodeled but still have some of those things.

 

[Just Jeff]

Nothing "terrible", but we did find a couple of garbage piles with old tarps and some other crap in them. There is also at least one, maybe two large (really large) piles of tree limbs, sticks etc. I did see that one prior to buying the place and asked the previous owner about it. He said "we've tried to burn it several times, but we just can't get it to burn". I didn't think that was a big deal, and I figure I'll get it to burn somehow, at some point. Wasn't happy about the pile of garbage, but I didn't know it was there prior to buying the place. I didn't walk the entire 40 acres prior to purchase, so that one is half "shame on me".

We've also got three or four huge piles of rocks spread amongst the property. I don't blame anybody for that one. I'm guessing that each time they built a building, when they were doing the dirt work, they came across the large boulders, and just moved them to a pile. Not much I can do about that, and it's not a huge deal to me anyway since the property is large enough that I'm not stuck staring at them 24/7.

 

[mikeinri]

@X300owner: Wow, left behind a Cyclone Rake, and found two 8Ns and a Jeep!!!??? That certainly beats the smattering of hand tools left here!

Not a "house" but close enough... Don't recall which RV these items came with (I've owned two over the past 22 years), but I have some pans, and a set of reflective triangles (for roadside emergencies).

This is a "stock" photo, and the triangles are WAY too close together (and to the vehicle)...

May have had other things (we've owned the current RV for 19 years), but these are still in the current RV, and have been used by us.

Mike

 

[ZTT42]

I was helping a friend work on a house he bought last year. He was going to haul this to the dump so I helped him by hauling it to my house instead.

 

[steddy]

When we bought our 20 or so acres, we were left with a couple posts, wire fence, and some sort of heavy metal mesh- maybe it was an old bed frame? Anyways, now it’s a pigpen with a 4 foot heavy duty gate?

There was also a mystery pile of dirt out behind the barn. I knew the previous owner put it there and I recall when he did, but I don’t recall why. I moved it to our building site, and now it’s a few dozen square feet of lawn.
We share the 30x60 pole barn with the family we bought the property from (previous owner was my mentor for all intents and purposes). We have about 5 years left on the contract we signed. There’s a variety of different hand tools, old power tools, and stuff on the pegboard and at the workbench and in the cabinets. I’m interested to see what they leave behind at the end of the contract. It’s clearly theirs if they want it, but I’ll let them know they can leave behind anything they don’t want

 

[MiniHomesteader]

When we bought or new place, the old owners asked if there was anything in the house that was there at the time of showing to be left behind… including a 48” Gravely ZT an older Craftsman snowblower, and antiques they had decorated with. We said yes to all. The ZT was pathetic, but it made a pretty chunk of money for my current project tractor. The snow blower is for sale, although this spring I might see how it does turning out compost pile.

I forget what was hanging in the center, but it got removed to hang my grandfathers eagle, the rest was left by the old owners. The couple of walls in our entryway was repurposed chestnut from the previous owners family’s tobacco barn that was built in the early 1800’s.

 

[mikeinri]

PO of my parents' second house left an old chipper/shredder in the shed. I think it was a Sears with a horizontal shaft Briggs engine, but it's been many years.

I never knew it was there, and he never used it. That only matters because I always had to help them clean up leaves every year (which got easier once I bought a tractor/bagger and utility trailer to bring it over there).

Anyway, I found it one day when I was asked to help clean out the shed and fix the eaves. It was like Wild Kingdom in there: Squirrels had chewed holes through the fascia and soffit, and built nests inside. Carpenter ants had chewed through a bunch of wet plywood that was being stored up in the rafters, and mice filled in any open space they could find. Amazingly, the damage was limited to what the squirrels had chewed to gain access.

As for the chipper/shredder, it (and/or the engine) was frozen solid (rust) and refused to turn at all, so it went to the curb.

Mike

 

[Ariens93GT20]

We got left dog poo in the house. Wasn't there when we inspected it.
Fence post, barbed wire, chain link yard fence and an old broken down wire spool. It took two or three years to clear that out of waist high grass and tree over growth.
Pretty sure the next owner will get the ditch full of concrete and rock collected to control erosion and a brush pile that got out of hand.

 

[bontai Joe]

The house I've lived in the past 30 plus years was a new modular that I had ordered, so no previous owner. But on the land, there had to be a case of misc. brand beer bottles and another case of misc beer cans. Plus maybe half a dozen aluminum arrows in the ground. I found the last arrow laying flat in one of the weedy spots just a couple of years ago. I've left some stuff behind when I moved out of previous houses. My ex-girlfriend got my antique house jack that used to belong to my grandfather, because I didn't think of going in the basement when she told me to pack my stuff and leave one night after work. It's been over 30 years and I still cry a little over that one, but I was SOOOOO GLAD to get out. She also got to keep the 2 Adirondack chairs I had built, but I can always build more. (She called me 2 weeks later and asked when I was coming back! I told her the 12th of never.) I left behind a couple of homemade work benches at another house, not worth the effort to move them. So no major treasures found or left by me.

 

[mikeinri]

I've found plenty of broken glass buried here, even more at our first house. I don't know what was here before the homes went up around 1999-2000 (I think it was woods before that, but there are no huge/old trees, so it was probably cleared at some point long, long ago).

I've even dug up small, intact, glass bottles. Didn't research or save any, I was too annoyed that I'd bought someone's prior personal garbage pit.

Mike

 

[baltimoreed]

Bought 33 acres 2 years ago, 2/3 woods/ a little bit swampy in the back- 1/3 field. In cleaning it up my son and have found a dozen tires, hot water heater, several tv’s, several box fans, 2 stoves, a fridge, a pickup worth of bottles-glass and metal, another pickup worth of bricks and foundation from a farmhouse that was there, two shallow wells- my son has gotten one operational, several deer stands and two wrecked vehicles in the woods. Both are so bent up as to be unidentifiable. I seem to remember a name on the ones hood, maybe a Madsen? I’Il have to go back and find it next time I’m out there. No tractors yet.

 

[bontai Joe]

Bought 33 acres 2 years ago, 2/3 woods/ a little bit swampy in the back- 1/3 field. In cleaning it up my son and have found a dozen tires, hot water heater, several tv’s, several box fans, 2 stoves, a fridge, a pickup worth of bottles-glass and metal, another pickup worth of bricks and foundation from a farmhouse that was there, two shallow wells- my son has gotten one operational, several deer stands and two wrecked vehicles in the woods. Both are so bent up as to be unidentifiable. I seem to remember a name on the ones hood, maybe a Madsen? I’Il have to go back and find it next time I’m out there. No tractors yet.

Sounds like the previous owner owes you some $$$$ for cleaning up their dump site.I hope you got a little cash for the scrap metal, probably not enough to pay to get rid of the tires. Glad to hear you got one well working, and bricks are always useful to someone, because they are bricks.