Vacant Sacramento Home Vandalized And New Owners Can't Sell
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Potential squatters in Sacramento have vandalized a Tahoe Park home. The 14th Ave. home has been sitting vacant for five months as a real estate tech company tries and fails to sell it.
With boarded windows and broken blinds, the Sacramento home is in bad shape.
"It's boarded up and vandalized and who wants to buy that," said Tahoe Park neighbor Paige Moss who tells CBS13 the owners of the home moved out months ago. "One day they told us they were selling the house."
According to Sacramento County Sacramento County Assessor's Office, real estate tech company Opendoor bought it on June 15, 2021. It's been vacant ever since.
"There's constantly people breaking into the house unsavory people that make us not feel safe," said Paige.
For five months, neighbors on 14th Ave. say they've watched several crimes take place.
"Coming home from work and seeing police cars out front and arresting someone that's living in there. We're talking about starting a family and it makes you think twice about that stuff," said neighbor Michael Jensen.
We reached out to Opendoor. The company responded: "Opendoor is a part of the communities we serve. We work hard to make sure our homes are clean, safe and secure for owners and the neighbors around them. We have the home on twice daily security patrol, and have engaged with local police. While problems like this are rare, we take them very seriously and will be reviewing our policies and procedures to determine how best to prevent an issue like this in the future."
But neighbors say Opendoor employees are nowhere to be seen.
"I've never met anybody from Opendoor," said Moss.
So why isn't the property selling? We're getting answers.
Opendoor has the property listed for $495,000.
"If it's not priced reasonably a property's more prone to sit," said Ryan Lundquist who says the stale property is more vulnerable to crime.
"If squatters… are… seeing continuously there's a real estate sign in front of the property and there's no activity, then, yea, it makes it a more viable target. Opendoor they own 352 properties in the region. When you have that many homes, maybe these ones falling through the cracks," said Lundquist.
The Sacramento Police Department told CBS13 that some squatters' cases are handled through the civil court process. Other cases could be criminal in nature and the police department can take enforcement action in those instances.
