Foreclosure's filthy aftermath

[Subdivisions]

http://realestate.msn.com/buying/Article_busweek.aspx?cp-documentid=5084782">Link

The mortgage mess is getting even messier. Literally.

Malnourished and flea-ridden animals, feces-covered floors and urine-soaked furniture, piles of rotting garbage, swarms of diseased mosquitoes -- these are the horrors that may await the sheriff, property inspector, real-estate agent or passer-by making that first visit to a deserted home.

With foreclosure activity well above last year's levels and still on the rise in many parts of the country, nasty surprises like these have become more common. In April, there were 147,708 U.S. foreclosure filings -- default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions -- down 1% from the previous month but still 62% higher than a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure marketplace based in Irvine, Calif.

"It's almost every day now that we see a (foreclosed) house in awful condition," says Scott Mitchell, the president of National Property Inspections, a company that provides home inspections and assessments in the Las Vegas area. "We've really noticed it increasing in the last month and a half."

RealtyTrac estimates that Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate in the country in April, with one filing per every 232 households.

This is awful. And it's only going to get worse. Mosquitoes in stagnant swimming pools? That's a virus just waiting to happen.

This world and this country are going to shit. *Sigh*

[WorseBeforeBetter]

1. It just keeps getting better...

and Alan "Froth" Greenspan and the powers-that-be didn't see it coming. Un uh.

[AlCzervik]

2. it happened in Sacramento, some dude went swimming in his neighbors

"Green swimming pool" and got west nile, neighbor walked away from house, house now in foreclosure. Dead lawn, lawns full of weeds, broken windows and non functioning swimming pools. I started calling our non emergency police line to report all of those things and they are now fining the homeowner (usually the bank) and making them take care of the properties.

[NYC]

5. There was a man,

though I don't remember in what state, who was mowing the lawn, and placing chemicals in the swimming pool of the house that had been abandoned next door to him.

He said he didn't want all that extra labor, but it was self defense.

[AlCzervik]

6. i'm not surprised and what pisses me off are the banks, they know these

properties have pools and lawn and yet they keep the water and electricity shut off, now how the f*ck are you gonna get that house sold when it looks like shit from the get go?

[kestrel91316]

3. Stagnant swimming pools are the jurisdiction of local health departments,

usually. For locales that still have them and fund them.......

Here in Los Angeles there's an army of pool police, lol.

[rucky]

4. blight.

the vultures are coming to roost, though. Maybe cable TV will replace "Flip That House" with "Pimp My Slum"

[cliss]

7. An amazing story.

There was a house being foreclosed on outside Portland, OR. This was a few months ago. The owner who lost his home, was apparently upset. He went back to the house several times, and did a lot of damage (obviously, he was upset!). Tore a lot of the roof off, and ruined a lot of the interior.

THEN, as a parting gift, he went and found 2 pigs. Turned them loose in the house. Lastly, he tore off the porch so the pigs could not get out. The little porkers were stuck in the house several days. The fire department had to come resuce the pigs.

What a waste.

[NJCher]

8. there's gotta' be a better way

I don't think the kind of damage that cliss points out is unusual. I know a few people in real estate and I hear stories similar to this.

I've seen some of it first hand. There's a huge Tudor mansion around the block that was purchased in a foreclosure. The owner told me that when he purchased the place, the entire basement was flooded by the previous owner--on purpose, of course, because he was so angry with being foreclosed on.



Cher