From a Citizen who wants to see this property cleaned up:

This property is located in the deeded community of North Woods. Recently a shirtless man was seen in the home, all windows have been bashed out and the doors are broken open. There are many children in the neighborhood and Edmunds elementary school is located around the corner. This is a nice neighborhood and it is very upsetting to see a property abandoned like this.

We suggest you call Licenses and Inspections (dial 311) and report the property as unsafe.  If you get no response, call your Ward Leader and/or City Councilperson – Maria Quinones-Sanchez - until appropriate action is taken.

Thanks for contributing to Abandoned Philadelphia!

From a Citizen who wants to see this property cleaned up:

Not only does it need to be cleaned up, but the doors are broken, the outside is a mess and the steps are broken.  No one is living in the house nor do they come to make sure its ok. It is really an eyesore. Don’t even know if someone could be inside. You need to see it to believe it.

Submitted by a Citizen, who would like to see the property cleaned up.

Owners: Evelyn & Vivian C. Jenkins
Their address listed is not this property. 

Date of last sale: 10/5/1981 for $1

Taxes Due: $17,576, last paid in 1994 (according to the OPA)

Without going into much research, we would guess the current owners inherited the property, and then either moved away and/or died.

If this property is unsafe and/or causing a public nuisance, contact Licenses and Inspections (dial 311), your Block Captain, Ward Leader, City Council person.  Make noise until someone takes action.

This map is the Redevelopment Authority’s go-to site for anyone wanting to make an “Expression of Interest” to buy City-Owned property.  It is not clear exactly how this effort will pan out and whether political influence is still required.  The current system requires that anyone wanting to buy a vacant City-owned parcel would typically go to the Vacant Property Review Committee and present their case.  Support form the Council member in whose district the property was located was essential to an approval from the VPRC.

Anyone out there have any success buying from the City?

PRA Available Properties.

via PRA Available Properties.

From a Citizen:

The current owner of the house has not come to check up on the place for at least 5 months, there are no doors, the stench is unbearable and at night since there is no security who knows what that house is being used for.

Abandoned Philadelphia Writes:

Owners: Jeffrey and Victoria Vogel

The Deed recites that the property was purchased on April 15, 1999 from Victoria Vogel’s mother, Yvette Halawani.  Although executed in 1999, the deed was not recorded in the Philadelphia Recorder of Deeds until August 6, 2004. Curious.  We have often wondered why someone would execute a deed and not bother to record it until years later.

Purchase Price $10,000

The really interesting thing about this property is that it was bought for $10,000 in 1999, the deed recorded in August 2004, and in November 2004 a lender put a $51,600 mortgage on it. I wonder if the mortgage is current?

The Vogels’ home address, as listed in 2004, shows more than  $11,000 in back taxes.

We suggest immediate and repeated calls to Licenses and Inspections, City Councilwoman Marian Tasco, 49th Ward Leader (Democratic-Shirley Gregory (215) 389-4627, Republican-Elizabeth Blong (215) 329-7248) , Block Captain, anyone else willing to listen, to get the City take appropriate action in addressing the safety issues.

3748 N Palaski Street

Posted: May 26, 2012 in Shell Properties

Thanks for the reader submission, but the address submitted, 3748 Palaski Street, does not exist in Philadelphia. There is a Pulaski Avenue, but no address 3748.

Please, readers, be sure to get the address right.  You can always check an address at the City’s Office of Property Assessment site, found HERE.  Once on the site, you will see much useful information about the owner, when the property last sold, and the current taxes.

Well, wonder no more. This is another piece of fantastic work by PlanPhillly and Patrick Kerkstra.

City’s “Front Door” Cracks Open

At last, the city’s enormous inventory of mostly vacant surplus land is being made available online for would-be buyers.

The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority’s “Front Door” – essentially a database and map of the city’s property holdings, coupled with a streamlined sales process – has been in the works for over a year and a half. Some of it goes live today, albeit in a limited form, on the PRA’s website.

The initiative – which won’t be formally launched until next month – represents the Nutter administration’s most notable achievement to date in Philadelphia’s long-running fight against blight.

There are an estimated 40,000 vacant parcels in Philadelphia, empty lots and abandoned buildings that depress property values, mar neighborhoods and pose safety risks. Of those, more than 12,000 are owned by city-related agencies.

Before the Front Door, would-be buyers of those city owned lots were forced to navigate a confusing bureaucratic thicket of city land-holding agencies with conflicting policies and agendas, without the benefit of a written rulebook.

Now, the Nutter administration contends, developers, non-profits and average residents will be able to easily submit applications to purchase city owned vacant properties through the PRA’s Front Door. And the entire process will be governed by a new policy document (which has been previously reported on by PlanPhilly).

“What’s different about this (policy) is that it exists. There are no policy documents that exist right now for the disposition of land certainly none that are consistent, none that are comprehensive,” said Bridget Greenwald, the new commissioner of the city’s Public Property department.

Check out the map and more here:  City’s “Front Door” cracks open | PlanPhilly: Planning Philadelphia’s Future.