So, we took a walk by my old apartment last week, and found:

[eyesroll]

Neither unit in the building had been re-rented. It appeared to have been vacant for some time.
The "for sale" sign was down (whether the building was sold or just taken off the market is unknown -- the city website still shows my old landlord).
Three notices taped to the door -- weed abatement, litter/debris abatement, and a code violation for an upper balcony.
A box of stuff I left for a freecycler was never picked up and was still on the porch (I dragged that to the curb, so it'll either be scavanged or picked up by the garbage hauler).

I moved out in April.

I bet if I still had a key, I could have gotten in.

This is a $325,000 building (in a market where $325,000 can buy a lot of building). My landlord was collecting about $1,600 in rent (he bought the building for next to nothing about 15 years ago), and he could have been collecting $2,500 if he fixed up the units (mostly cosmetic, too) and was able to charge market rent. He could even get more if he fixed the attic into a two-bedroom apartment (the attic already had two bedrooms, roughed-in plumbing, and a big common area that could easily be converted into a kitchen and living room -- all it would need is fixtures, a re-routing of the entrance from within the upper unit into the common hallway, and a fire escape).

Why would a seemingly intellgient property owner let his property go to waste like this?

[Midlodemocrat]

Illness in the family? Death in the family?

Seems like it would certainly be something drastic if he let the property go that badly that quickly.

[eyesroll]

2. He did say he was selling the property because he didn't have time

to take care of it...but this is crazy.

Even if it was a family illness or death, he seemed to me to be a bit more of a workaholic than to let something slide this long.

[Magrittes Pipe]

1. Because all is not as it seems?

:shrug:

[eyesroll]

3. Hm...I did do some googling and found his name on the steering

committee for the Illinois-Wisconsin False Memory Syndrome Society. :o

[Magrittes Pipe]

4. The fuck?

:shrug: