During your home search you may come across a house that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Here are 5 tell tale signs of a former drug house:
1. Reinforced door jams. Drug dealers will often put extra nails in door jams to make it more difficult for police or rivals to kick in their door. Look at the front door frame. Does the frame have several extra nails or screws and is the wood splintered?
2. Surveillance cameras. Of course drug dealers want to see who is coming. I have cameras on my house too, so don’t think every house that has cameras is a drug house. Drug dealers never wire the cameras correctly either. They usually just run the wire across the front of the house.
3. Lots of traffic. Talk to the neighbors to find out if the house you are looking at had a lot of foot and vehicle traffic at various times. If you are at the house for a while see if anyone shows up looking for the homeowner.
4. Premise history. Go to your local police department and ask for a premise history on the house you are interested in. You will see all of the police calls for service at the house and determine if the house had any drug issues. You may be asked to fill out a public records request in order to get the premise history.
5. Go to the local County Assessors office (or website) and obtain the name of the person who currently owns the property. Search their name in Google and Facebook and take a peek into their background. I’ll post more on this topic at a later date.
These tips are not all inclusive. Trust your instincts when looking at homes and do your own due dilligence! Follow us on Twitter @myrealestatecop.
