Stop me if you've heard this one before... I did write about this, or maybe It's just that I told so many people. I was just reading about a gal who turned the house over to the bank, rather than wait for a foreclosure. The economy here in Michigan is in the toilet (excuse the language), with lots of foreclosed houses, houses for sale, empty houses, etc. In fact, a plumbing and heating guy we know put on a whole crew that does nothing but rehab forclosed homes that were abandoned, for the banks and realty companies. If you leave a house in the North country here with no heat, the pipes burst, ruins the fixtures, and sometimes the whole heating system, depending on what you have. Anyway, I digress (a lot). The story that came to mind was, my DD#2 had a girlfriend whose Mother passed away. Mom and her boyfriend had been living in a house that Mom owned, well, she and the bank owned. Anyway after she was gone, the children came and took the things that they wanted out of the house, told the boyfriend that he could do whatever he wanted with the rest, and left it. They didn't try to sell, find a renter, or anything,(I do not understand that), just left it for the bank to take back. Well, the boyfriend stayed on, said he wasn't going anywhere until the sheriff came and booted him out (do they actually do that?). He ended up staying 2 1/2 years! The foreclosure notice came out in the paper, the mortgage was owned by a bank in CA by that time. They tried to sell the property on the courthouse steps, no sale. If it was ever listed for sale, it wasn't with any of the local realty companies. So he just stayed there, paid the utilities, which were still in her name (that's a whole other story), and claimed that no one had ever contacted him, or come by the property as far as he knew. They would easily have known that someone was living there, the lawn was mowed, there was a dog in the yard, etc. etc. Finally, he just moved, got a job that was further away and moved to be closer to work. I am still astonished every time I think about it. I wonder if the bank ever knew what condition the house was in, apparently they didn't care. So anyway, when a girlfriend of mine lost their house, she was all in a tizzy wondering where they would go, and I told her not to worry so much, it might take years! They did move because she wanted to be settled before school started this Fall, she has 5 kids in school, and they didn't want to end up switching schools in the middle of the year. I wonder if the house is still empty, maybe one of the neighbors needed a place???