How We Met...[part II]

...so I took him up on the offer to see the house.  He is/was a nice guy. Named Sammie.  He's a retired DC Cop and current Minister at a DC church.  Maybe he was about to be my savior.

It was an overcast, rainy morning and Sammie was waiting for us in his truck [with the engine running]

as he greeted us, he explained that the hadn't visited the house in at least 5 years....and that he usually enters the place with a firearm.  no, the neighborhood isn't THAT dangerous, but the place has been inhabited by squatters for the past 5+ years, so you're liable to find anything/everything inside of the place.  Clothes, trash, etc.  We [Cam, my real estate agent who was with me] were ready for anything...for the most part...especially since Sammie didn't bring a gun this time around.

as we walked up, we got a true sense of the simultaeous beauty/mess the place was.  there was great old brickwork and transom windows, but also rotting wood, a broken staircase, and a front door with no handle on it. its secured with a thick chain and a padlock that wraps around the inner and outer doors, a system Sammie designed to keep the squatters from getting in.  All it did was make them choose alternate points of entry.

the first thing i recall upon entering the house was the stench.  WHOA.  it reeked something awful.  not quite "dead body"  but damn near close.  I let Sammie go first---everywhere.

once we got over the smell, we noticed the cool things going on inside.  Looking past all the trash, you saw the potential for a great place to call home.  we toured the first floor without incident.  it had
nice high ceilings [10']. old-school pocket doors. an actual dining room.  large kitchen area.  cool.

next we took a look upstairs.  we quickly discovered THAT'S where the stench was coming from.   The first bedroom we saw was particularly interesting, as it seems to have been used as a toilet for the past couple of years.  there was piss and dookie all over the place.  yuk.

we ventured to the middle bedroom, where we noticed what a leaking roof will do a wood floors after it springs a leak [probably back in 1995] the floor had rotted away along with most of the joists under it...so you could see clear through from the top floor to the basement, as the dining room suffered the exact same damage.

the master bedroom was great.  large, light-filled, and ALREADY OCCUPIED.

luckily, we didn't find anyone in there, but we certainly found their stuff.  mounds of trash.  bags of clothes. mysterious white powder.  hair extensions. a cellphone.  syringes.

heading down to the basement, Sammie told me that he hasn't been down there in over 10 years and wasn't sure what to expect.  He then asked if I wanted to go down first.  I refused and told him to lead the way.  WHOA.

I wont go into the gory details, but the bottoms of my shoes were caked in what looked to be dirt, but we all knew that it wasn't even CLOSE to being dirt.

but on the plus side, it was a large [750 sq ft] basement that was dry and had a ton of potential to be a great apartment.

finally the tour was over.  Sammie asked if I had enjoyed the place.  the truth?  "HELL YEAH"  my agent and I saw all the potential in this house as soon as we walked in and knew that we had to act fast.

I told Sammie that we'd be in touch soon, still playing my cards close to the vest.

my agent asked if I wanted to make an offer.  I replied "how soon can we get it to him?"

[to be continued]