Foreclosures--What Are They Thinking?
Lounge By adonisthegreek1 Updated 18 Jul 2009 , 1:28am by Rylan
My friend lost her job and her house. She's now looking into purchasing a foreclosed property to save some money that she doesn't really have anyway. I have looked at some homes with her. I understand that people are upset about losing their homes. It's all over Michigan, but why on earth are people taking everything from cabinets to toilets out of the houses? It hurts other families trying to find a good buy in the horrible economy. Some things I can understand taking, but to take the toilets are just gross and malicious. Rats come through the drains and we've seen homes infested with rodents. We've even heard of people putting aluminum foil and quick concrete down the toilets and drains. This is insanity.
I'm in MI too. They are doing this because they are mad that they are loosing their home and they have to leave. This is their way at getting back at the banks in a way in their minds. I've seen where people had taken very very expensive counter tops and busted them with sledge hammers. Kind of one of those "If I can't have it, you can't either." way of thinking. It's sad really.
I've seen people on craigslist selling everything from toilets to light fixtures to even the air conditioning units out of their houses...they always say they're remodeling, but who gets rid of an AC when it's still working and fairly new? Some of the ads will say "moving, make us an offer and remove what you want from the house, cabinets, doors, etc..." And you know they wouldn't be doing that if they had really sold the house to someone else.
I have looked at a few foreclosures here in my area and it is bad here too....
Some people think they are loosing everything and are going to have bad credit because of the foreclosure might as well destroy everything I put into it... What they don't realize is they are only hurting themselves even worse because the lenders can sue them for vandalism, destruction of property and many other charges since the things they are taking and destroying actually belong to the bank...
But I guess as the old saying goes "you can't get blood out of a turnip" it basically just amounts to a court judgment and bad credit..
One of the homes I looked at had been completely gutted then they drained the pool into the house Then closed up the house... I doubt anyone will ever be able to get rid of that mildew... It's really sad because it was once a beautiful Home now it is listed for less than $100,000 and nobody will buy it! (The previous sale record shows it sold for $384,000) Too much work to make it livable again. So it sits there empty and getting worse , bringing the rest of the neighborhood down.
I also never understand that mindset. I mean, if I get to the point that I've lost everything, the one thing I can walk away with is my self-respect.
My son's girlfriend bought a foreclosed house and got a good deal. The only work they had to do was cosmetic, so not everyone treats their house that way.
My friend just told me that the banks are now offering "Cash for Key" to foreclosed homeowners. I had never heard of this so I googled it. It seems that in efforts to thwart homeowners from destroying the property after foreclosure the banks will offer the occupants $500-$2,000 to turn over the keys early and leave the home in good condition. I wonder if people will stop the destruction and take the money.
Cash for keys has been in place for many years. It is even offered to tenants when it is a rental property. It makes it much quicker to get the people out without the full eviction time and expense.
I purchased a small three-bedroom, 1 bath home on a lovely tree-lined street in Milwaukee 5 years ago. I put in 45k in upgrades (I'm talking winter conscious windows and doors, eco-friendly flooring, energy-saving appliances, etc.) and countless sweat equity hours. My home was small, put perfectly upgraded and maintained. When I lost my job and couldn't get another in the area for ten months, I moved to the West Coast and I kept it on the market for nearly a year (at less than I paid for it) while paying for two households on one income. When I finally had to admit defeat, I spent over a month trying to talk to someone at Wells Fargo to arrange for them to take over the home. I accepted I would get nothing for it and would never have the chance to own my own home again with destroyed credit, but my main concern was that nothing happen to my house. Both my realtor and maintenance guy had moved away. Wells Fargo was completely uninterested in talking to me, taking over the property early, or expediting the foreclosure process in any way. Over this past winter the house was vandalized, the appliances and light and bathroom fixtures stolen, and the floors ruined when snow and rain from the broken windows flooded it. It's not Wells Fargo's fault I lost the house, but it's their fault a young family starting out couldn't get a killer deal and make good use of my once beautiful home. Thanks for listening, this is the first post I ever made anywhere and I promise the next ones will be shorter!!
I was going to add, similar to some other statements, that it often times isn't the property owners who are stripping the house. When thieves in the area realize that someone's home is vacant/abandoned and no one is showing up to check on it, they go in and steal whatever thing they can get of value. Appliances, fixtures, copper wire, whatever. It's also happening in new developments that have had financial difficulty moving forward with the buildings on the properties. .... Very sad indeed, no matter how you look at it.
..... someone's home is vacant/abandoned and no one is showing up to check on it,
I know a guy who has a job just driving around and checking on repo'd homes for the banks, just for this reason. I saw him when he pulled into my neighborhood ... I stopped to talk and he said he was checking on one of his properties. I knew immediately which one and told him, 'Can't miss it ... the grass is 4 feet tall." The next week the grass was cut! Coincidence? Hmmmmm!
But it makes sense .... 4ft tall grass is just crying out, "I'm abandoned! Strip me now! Break my windows!" which doesn't do the neighborhood OR the bank any good.
How do I find a cushy job like my friend has? Who'da thought it was a real job!?
I was going to add, similar to some other statements, that it often times isn't the property owners who are stripping the house. When thieves in the area realize that someone's home is vacant/abandoned and no one is showing up to check on it, they go in and steal whatever thing they can get of value. Appliances, fixtures, copper wire, whatever. It's also happening in new developments that have had financial difficulty moving forward with the buildings on the properties. .... Very sad indeed, no matter how you look at it.
Someone I know lost her home. It was beautiful.
Her husband went back the two days before the last day they legally had it and caught them trying to change the locks and their things being loaded up.
The police were called and it got nasty.
He called everyone he knew who could come drop what they were doing and come over to get out and be done. They were done in 3 hours, called the police back to mediate and witness them handing the keys over to the mortgage company representative. The rep, my friends hubby and an officer walked the entire house and the rep agreed it was in perfect condition and was happy there was no damage and the quote was included in the police report.
Two weeks later there was a clog in upstairs toilet and it had been flushed so the water just kept running and running and eventually overflowed a large portion of the upstairs, which also soaked the ceiling of the down stairs.
The pool water was running as well which caused the pool to overflow and soak the backyard and into the neighbors as well as a hose turned on and running freely.
The mortgage holder blamed them. Said they returned after the fact with an extra key and did the damage, no proof either. They took my SIL to court over the damages and she won.
Here in my area we are having a huge vandalism problem with abandoned homes. If one homeless person finds it there are 5 of them squatting there by the time the sun goes down and with in 72 hours the place is stripped and destroyed.
My house was foreclosed. I took everything I had installed. All the upgraded light fixtures, recently installed hardwood floors (we installed it) and upgraded carpets. Hardwood floors are expensive and no way I will leave it there (I took most of it off). I had nice berber and shag carpet we had just installed and I took the shag carpet off and cut it out to make an area rug in our new house. We had put a lot of money in our old house and I am not going to leave it there if I know I can take it with me.
You have to understand that some people will take off some of the things so that they can install it to their new house. I don't feel sorry for the families who buy foreclosed home because they are getting what they paid for. So if they a house with toilets, they would have to pay more to get that house. However, I do think it is wrong that people would vandalize and destroy the property as a form of hate.
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