Foreclosure Trash Outs: More Property Preservation Services Needed
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As has been reported often, one of the major concerns caused by the overwhelming number of foreclosures in the past few years has been the impact on America’s neighborhoods.
The large number of vacant homes that have yet to be processed as foreclosures – and thus, have not been cleaned, repaired and secured by a property preservation company – have created real difficulties for communities. Perhaps the biggest problem is that there are a number of abandoned properties where mortgage holders have simply walked away from houses when they feel they will never recoup their losses from them.
These homes are known as “bank walkaways,” and, because the financial institution never notifies anyone they’re abandoning the property, the house quickly falls into complete disrepair. Twenty U.S. areas account for 61 percent of the bank walkaways, with the most occurring in cities in Michigan, Ohio, and Florida.
Abandoned homes can devastate a neighborhood. They can cause spikes in crime, further depress property values, and become a safety hazard as well as an eyesore. Local governments can often be left holding the bag; they have to dig into already-strained public services budgets to either hire a mortgage field services company to take care of the home or pay to have the building in question demolished.
The Government Accountability Office has noticed this growing crisis and wants to do something about it. They want to require mortgage lenders to notify the local government, as well as the homeowner currently occupying the property, that they are walking away from the property.
Its new report calls for bank regulators, the Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, to issue that requirement; the GOA’s blog on the matter can be seen at http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-93?campaign=blog.
Many communities are already beginning to pass legislation requiring mortgage lenders to notify them when a property is going into foreclosure, to ensure that property preservation services and foreclosure trash outs will be performed.
The demand for foreclosure trash outs is certainly not going away any time soon; recently, Elizabeth Duke, governor of the Federal Reserve, recently informed Congress that the Reserve projects over 2 million foreclosures in 2011 and 2 million more in 2012, a similar foreclosure rate to the past two years. With an increased demand by local governments for the cleaning and securing of these properties, experts believe that property preservation will continue to be the biggest foreclosure business opportunity.
A valuable resource for training those new to the property preservation business is the nationwide franchise, REO ResQ™, run by property preservation experts Frank and Scott Patrick. They’ve already trained many franchisees in foreclosure trash outs and launched incredibly successful property preservation careers for people who had never done that kind of work before.
Visit www.REOResQ.com for more information.
About the Author
Frank Patrick began his real estate career in 2000 after a 12-year stint in corporate America as a sales manager. As a new real estate agent Frank knew that he wanted to find a niche within the real estate industry. After months of research Frank decided to specialize in REO, an acronym for bank owned foreclosed homes. Frank quickly became one of the top REO agents in the nation averaging over 100 transactions per year for the last 8 years. In 2007 Frank’s production soared to over 214 sales. In 2004 Frank and his brother Scott Patrick started a property preservation company to offer maintenance and repair services to banks with foreclosed homes. Frank’s solid understanding of the REO industry and Scott’s 20+ years in the construction business was a recipe for success. This year their property preservation business is on track to gross over one million dollars in revenue. Today Frank manages his REO Real Estate Brokerage, REO Renegades an REO agent training business, his trade association The American Society of REO Specialists and is developing a national Franchise Property Preservation company, REO ResQ. For more information please visit http://www.REORESQ.com
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