Does anyone actually log the condition they saw, or just the address
I have been asking myself this for a few weeks because I went back through my running list from the last four months and realized most entries are just an address and a date. No notes on what caught my eye, whether it was roof sag or overgrown siding or a car that had not moved in two months, nothing. So when I am sitting down to write a letter three months later I am working from memory or from a Google Street View that might be two years old.
I started adding a short note after each address in October, something like "fascia rotting on east side, no curtains, mail piled" and even that small thing changed how I am thinking about the letter. The house on Lagrange Street in West Roxbury I logged last week, the one with the tarped section of roof that has clearly been there through at least one winter, I know I want to reference urgency differently than the one on Weld Hill that is just tired-looking with an absentee vibe.
The question I keep landing on is whether the specific distress type should actually change the letter or whether that is overthinking it and a motivated seller reads any sincere letter if the timing is right. I lean toward it mattering because the roof situation implies a cost the owner is aware of, where the general neglect house might still have an owner who thinks it is fine.
Curious whether anyone has a system for what they log beyond the address itself.
