Foreclosures becoming unsaleable junkers

[Liberal_in_LA]

Foreclosures becoming unsaleable junkers


$800 home in Detroit, MI

April 18,
Forget the unknown number of foreclosed homes poised to come to market.

In Nashau, NH there are only 29 foreclosed homes in town, but most of them aren't available for sale.

On Realtor.com more than 100 homes were found in Detroit priced from $500 to $1,000.

In both cases the homes are either off the market or in such deplorable condition they likely won't sell except to a scratchy investor or handy person -- if they can get a mortgage.

With foreclosures amounting to 50 percent of the inventories in many locations and mortgage money tough to come by, the homes sit vacant, boarded up and run down.

By some estimates, a third of all of the foreclosed properties nationwide have become the targets of squatters, vandals, gangs, thieves and even disgruntled homeowners who wreak havoc on the properties.

And apparently Washington hasn't taken up this cause just yet.

According to surveys by Campbell Communications in Washington DC, real estate agents say distressed foreclosed homes comprise a larger share of the market than most are aware.

http://www.examiner.com/x-1303-Real-Estate-Examiner~y2009m4d18-Foreclosures-becoming-unsaleable-junkers

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Apr. 19, 2009

People forced from foreclosures take fixtures, leave messes

Damage to homes can be expensive, time-consuming to fix

By HUBBLE SMITH
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Iddo Gavish and Harley Marks survey damage to a million-dollar home in the Anthem Hills area of Henderson. Marks, owner of American Home Services, said most people being evicted from a foreclosed home often don't have time to pack everything and probably won't clean the place.

In the sweltering heat last summer, real estate agent Iddo Gavish walked into one of his foreclosed home listings in North Las Vegas and gagged at the stench.

He staggered back to his car and got a T-shirt to cover his mouth and nose. It didn't take long to find the source of the foul smell when he re-entered the home. There lay a dead cat in the living room.

**********

Kent Babcock, a carpenter by trade, has been busy repairing about 40 real estate-owned, or bank-owned, properties being handled by local real estate agents. People have punched holes in the walls, poured bleach on the carpet and torn doors from the hinges.

Someone tried to pour QuikRete, a fast-setting packaged concrete, down toilets and sinks, but wasn't able to do much damage because he or she didn't do it right, Babcock said. The concrete "set up" too quickly and dried in the trap instead of getting down to the main line, he said.

"There was so much damage on one house that the mortgage company was going after them," Babcock said. "It was probably $20,000. I met with police on that one."

http://www.lvrj.com/business/43242802.html

[and-justice-for-all]

1. Why do people have to subject animals to their problems..

could not just let the Cat outside, rather then living it in the house to die.

[thunder rising]

2. what if the cat was already dead? ...consider who is presenting this collection of anecdotes

and what the intended purpose is. Obviously, it's presented to persuade the audience that folks that were foreclosed on were at fault. It's more of the same "fuck the poor" propaganda.

[elleng]

3. Yup.

Elsewhere there are stories about the great deals working people can have on foreclosed properties.

[sandyj999]

4. And in Farmington Michigan they are doing something about it

An ordinance is being re-written that puts the responsibility of the upkeep of foreclosed property on the bank that "owns" it. They will need to see that the grass is mowed and trash cleaned up. That should automatically be their problem.

[ninety lives]

5. The banks should be sued

If they sit on a house and collaborate in harming the community by allowing drug users, vermin and squatters to endanger people.

These people are such negligent ***holes. They think it's funny to just sit on this property.

[SoCalDem]

6. Plan B

Let them sit there unsold, and vandalized,until eminent domain kicks in, and the municipality razes the whole area, and ends up with undeveloped land they can re-sell later for a profit..

They are trying to rid themselves of poor people...and if poor people leave, the area they leave behind becomes more "valuable"..(see New Orleans, post-Katrina)

[notadmblnd]

7. What I don't understand, is why the banks won't work with people to keep

their homes. I can't get the bank to work with me. they closed all their local branches and now I have to call some menu driven number and sit on the phone all day in an attempt to reach a human. If I lose my home, the bank won't get nearly what I owe on it?

Right now I'm looking at walking away. It doesn't make sense to me to spend my life savings keeping up the payments only to lose it anyway when my savings run out. So I've been looking at one of these cheap homes, pay cash and use the rest to fix it up.

What else can a person do?

[SmileyRose]

8. Here, the foreclosures aren't on poor people

here most of the foreclosures at this phase are on developers, investors and formerly upper middle class people who had to take pay cuts or lost jobs.

The first wave was mostly houses over 2500 sq ft (not poor people houses) that were sold on fancy loan products that imploded.

[FreakinDJ]

9. Which Banks are sitting on the properties

From what I see some sell before the former owner is even out of the home

Others are boarded up and sit that way endlessly and are not even on the market

[dembotoz]

10. local grocery store chain does the same thing when they vacate a propery

supposedly to slow down any new competitior who would
take the property and try to reopen it quickly and cheaply.

Just another reason why i do not EVER go into their stores....