Shelter + Sanctuary
looking for greener pastures...does that still exist?
This week's hunt for Sanctuary + Shelter is absurd enough to explain why I'm still in nowhereville Mexico. The investor who will buy a house/property for a sanctuary and sell it back to me has a budget of $100,000. I don’t really ever see anything at any price to be fair, but I may just be running out of steam for this. Anyway, house must be in US. This week’s budget finds.
1. A $35,000 property with abandoned house, detached shop and RV hook ups on 3/4 acre in Bowie, AZ
An hour and a half east of Tucson, I could stock up on decent provisions after I buy another minivan (which I can do here but I can't take it anywhere in case anyone is wondering why I haven't bought another vehicle after the wreck).
The agent who answered the phone was the dad of the listing agent and an older fellow who told me right away that the guy died inside the house. It's a spooky ghost town in the desert. Of course he did.
Any details?
I'll let her tell ya.
The agent was honest and said the house needed about $50,000 (roof, windows, kitchen, bath, total gut, furnace etc) to make liveable and that the garage was a great metal building with roll up doors and for sure the best part of the property.
I asked about neighbors and she said that the guy on left had a bunch of unfenced dogs (sounds familiar) and the guy in front had hundreds of outdoor cats. The neighbor and the homeowner of abandoned house had a long time feud with unfenced dog guy. He yelled at his kids, there was a shootout in the road, abandoned house guy went to jail and when he got out went home and boarded himself inside and died (undisclosed autopsy) No one found him for 2 months. PS, speaking of cats, they ATE HIM.
Aside from about a dozen other reasons, I'm not moving there. As my contractor friend Fernando used to say when we looked at blighted property...not even for free! $35,000 seems way overpriced.
2 . Yellow Adobe Willcox, AZ 1/2 acre
The agent said that the creepy neighbors were trying to buy the Bowie property and likely if I moved in, it would be “uncomfortable” but she did have another property in a nicer town closer to Tucson in Willcox, AZ which is a small but decidedly better area with vineyards and lots of agriculture around. Not listed yet. Foreclosed, tax lien buy. Tenant occupied must evict. Big yard and I could see myself making this pretty cute. Needs a lot of work. Unknown water source.
It's easy to forget that Southeast Tucson has a rich agriculture history. The agent works for an investment company that goes around and buys tax lien properties. Could be BlackRock, or a Baby BlackRock. I've been losing on foreclosures and auctions since I sold my place in 2019 to these folks. Deep pockets. They don't clean or repair, they just get the dead bodies out (apparently) and get rid of personal belongings (we hope) and then flip. Or just sit on it, which sucks for both the community and anyone looking to buy anything. Ever.
The current resident was doing a rent to own from an owner who didn't realize that by not paying her tax bill, the county now owned the property. The rents paid were lost and of course they don't have a contract. Neighbors are Mexican construction workers and work in (by the looks of it) concrete. Seem nice, likely family of this renter who has been ousted. Lady has 8 pitbulls. Only two but unspayed female and…you know the rest.
The house is not listed but reported to be a "corner lot" but the concrete amigo is on the corner. Knowing what I know about Mexican's land deals, I'd guess someone allowed concrete man to build on the property and it's not platted which will be a pickle in AZ. So, I wait. It makes me sad to wonder where she'll go with those dogs. No price yet but it'll be "about the same" as the other, but that seems unlikely in Willcox as even vacant lots are $40k. But I’m into it. Big back yard, semi fenced dirt pile. Nothing I’m not used to and a project I'm suited for. There’s a post office in town. And a garden center and lumber yard. The town is cute! Am eager for price.
3. My friend's ex husband's mystery investor farmhouse in Pennsylvania near Three Mile Island on 3.5 acres
Well, this is actually one of those word of mouth ideas that may get us out of here and into a place that could actually serve as a Dog Sanctuary and other entrepreneurial possibility.
The house was purchased at Auction and moved the most recent tenant out who was a hoarder with 11 chihuahuas. The house has to be gutted completely it was so "beyond repair" and I've not talked to the investment guy yet.
3.5 acres is nice but is there fencing? If it's 100 acres and no one around, that's dog friendly but small town acreage needs fencing. Google satellite view shows 4 high concentration chicken houses within walking distance of the back door and a driveway that accesses tractor trailers next to the 'sanctuary'. Red flag. I lived in North GA for more than a decade, chicken capital of the US. I see the Tyson processors less than a mile away. I’ll bet that driveway has tractor trailers on it all day every day loading birds. Elizabethtown looks sweet but I’ll bet it smells like chocolate and chicken shit. I’ll rent/babysit/manage it—-but I know what chicken tractors means. Noise. Smells. Lots of it.
Farming communities sound nice but they're often stinky feedlots and not the Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms homesteads you think they’ll be. Tyson will dump all their toxic waste onto the land or in the waterways. Still, I'll listen to the pitch. I'd be a manager and likely have free housing in exchange for work, but I also know that starting and running a BNB, Air or otherwise is a REAL JOB and so will I be unpaid labor in exchange to live at someone's house for discounted/free rent? I already have an unpaid job with rescue dogs.
29 year old me says Weeee!!! fun experience! 56 year old me says, I've already done this and it's a ton of work and I'm good at it, but it's worth a lot more than whatever rent that place could bring even if I paid $3000/mo which seems to be the going rental rate in all 50 states, but to get a bunch of doggos and me outta Mexico and back into the US (gulp) this could be an opportunity. Or is it??? But I’m all ears.
And so I finished a writing assignment, paid rent for May, went to the grocery store to see they were out of kibble again, went home and raked my sand. Tuesday is another day.
To be continued...
Thank you for reading and subscribing to Lola's Dog Rescue linktr.ee/lolasdogrescue