[Cubicle Dweller]

Originally Posted by lvmensch

I am not sure what you thought could happen. The only scam I know that would impact a tenant is a false rental. And those are not a thing that happens in nicer areas. I have never seen one.

Aside from a fake lease scam, we were worried about living near a squatter home and the associated problems. We just had a weekend to find a place coming from the east coast, so we couldn't research the surroundings, but now that we live here we'll have more time to perform the requisite research. Sounds like if we do our homework for our next rental then we should be fine. Thanks for the insight.

[BBMW]

Time to reanimate this thread. Another new squatter article.

https://lasvegassun.com/news/2017/ma...o-live-near-a/

They need a law that if a house is in delinquency and have been abandoned for more than six months, and the bank holding the note hasn't acted to foreclose, the county can take ownership, nuke the title clear, and auction it off. There still seem to be a lot of properties stuck in limbo, and the need to be cycled out.

[foundapeanut]

Why I live in a guard gated HOA. Squatters AREN'T getting in here. For some these are their first homes and they leave for the summer to go back to their second homes. They all hire someone to watch their homes when gone.

[BBMW]

Squatters generally aren't in houses with active owners (a though it has happened.) This started as an artifact if the '08 bust, when a lot of owners walked away from hopelessly underwater houses where they couldn't afford the mortgage. The houses sat empty, and the low life class figured out the could just move in and live for free.

[equid0x]

I dealt with a squatter problem multiple times in the house next door to my own. I do not live in a sketchy neighborhood. The owners of the property simply walked away and moved to California. They owned multiple properties, and still own multiple properties and simply decided they weren't going to pay the mortgage on this one anymore("strategic default").

They had all utilities to the property cut and hired no one to perform maintenance or check on the house. Over the course of nearly 2 years I had 5 sets of squatters tossed out of this house. I think the big giveaways to the squatters were the dead landscaping and piled up newspapers and flyers and lack of electricity at night. Once the garage door was broken into, and remained visibly so, this seemed to accelerate the issue.

One of the problems is that Metro is not enforcing the laws that are on the books. In all occasions but one, Metro simply told the squatters to vacate the property - never arrested anyone - never even put them in handcuffs.

The owners of this home made one final appearance when the property finally turned over with the bank. I had a few choice words to say to these people as a going away present.

[pslhomie]

If you think it's bad in Las Vegas consider that LA's homeless population will soon top 58k. San Francisco has so many homeless that you have to do the "Bum step" in order to walk down the streets. I say give these people bus tickets to San Fran where they actually pay people to be homeless.

[BBMW]

As I stated above, this is a symptom of allowing properties to stay in limbo, with essentially no owner. There needs to be a process to get them identified as such, auctioned off, and back to being properly occupied.

Originally Posted by equid0x

I dealt with a squatter problem multiple times in the house next door to my own. I do not live in a sketchy neighborhood. The owners of the property simply walked away and moved to California. They owned multiple properties, and still own multiple properties and simply decided they weren't going to pay the mortgage on this one anymore("strategic default").

They had all utilities to the property cut and hired no one to perform maintenance or check on the house. Over the course of nearly 2 years I had 5 sets of squatters tossed out of this house. I think the big giveaways to the squatters were the dead landscaping and piled up newspapers and flyers and lack of electricity at night. Once the garage door was broken into, and remained visibly so, this seemed to accelerate the issue.

One of the problems is that Metro is not enforcing the laws that are on the books. In all occasions but one, Metro simply told the squatters to vacate the property - never arrested anyone - never even put them in handcuffs.

The owners of this home made one final appearance when the property finally turned over with the bank. I had a few choice words to say to these people as a going away present.

[lvmensch]

Originally Posted by BBMW

As I stated above, this is a symptom of allowing properties to stay in limbo, with essentially no owner. There needs to be a process to get them identified as such, auctioned off, and back to being properly occupied.

It is a difficult problem. The system will eventually foreclose but the process can take a very long time. And that assumes the property tax is not being paid. In some cases the banks have actually been paying the taxes even though they will not foreclose. And a house owned outright may have to go through a long probate process particularly if their are no heirs to push it.

What would actually do some good is a regulation that a home be maintained with power and water on. Welfare for property. But any such system would be prone to abuse. The municipality could get its money back with a high priority lien. And of course the property right thing would be a huge issue in libertarian Nevada.

[BBMW]

I realize the issues in doing this currently, and that this would need a change to the state law. But that should be done. I think it should be a major priority to get these houses out of limbo, and into the hands of real owners, and not just try to band aid the problem.

Originally Posted by lvmensch

It is a difficult problem. The system will eventually foreclose but the process can take a very long time. And that assumes the property tax is not being paid. In some cases the banks have actually been paying the taxes even though they will not foreclose. And a house owned outright may have to go through a long probate process particularly if their are no heirs to push it.

[Splenomegaly]

Originally Posted by BBMW

I realize the issues in doing this currently, and that this would need a change to the state law. But that should be done. I think it should be a major priority to get these houses out of limbo, and into the hands of real owners, and not just try to band aid the problem.

Aren't the banks holding on to these properties for almost a decade now in order to cause artificial favorable market growth since the recession? I also see lots of cash deals going to out of state investors and entire blocks and neighborhoods are turning over into rentals.