So you are going into foreclosure and are thinking of selling everything to the bare walls- and the bare walls, and the pipes? We’ve seen a number of Craigslist ads where people have done just that, but now the Feds are cracking down: [Hat tip to both M and L for this one!]
The Northeast Valley’s battered real-estate market is getting a federal bailout of sorts from an unusual source.
FBI agents and local law-enforcement personnel have arrested five people in the past month for stripping their foreclosed homes of appliances, cabinets, countertops and plumbing fixtures.
That includes cases in Fountain Hills, Anthem, Phoenix and Surprise of some of the more egregious violators who are taking everything they can out of homes, said Julie Halferty, a supervising special agent who oversees the FBI Mortgage Task Force.
"It has a huge effect on the current housing market," she said. "Yes, the bank is a victim, but it’s also the neighboring community that has to live with a house left in shambles."
How do people justify this sort of vandalism?
Desierae Tolhurst, an FBI special agent on the task force, said some of the homeowners in default are desperate for cash and justify stripping the home as a way of getting back some of the money they invested in the property.
But that is after they have lived in the home for nine to 12 months without paying the mortgage, she said.
Banks typically take that long to initiate foreclosure on a defaulted loan and sometimes even longer in the current housing crisis.
One Craigslist ad that I posted on said:
Our house is in the foreclosure process, and we won’t be leaving until April 19, 2008. So anything that is of everyday use i.e. the appliances or A/C or the hot water heater will not be removed until after that date. The bank has rejected 6 solid offers that have been made by potential buyers for our home. I have well over $60,000 in upgrades thru out my house; house is less than 1 year old, as is all the appliances and fixtures.
If these house strippers would read the terms of their home loan, they would see that removal of things like the AC or the cabinets is specifically prohibited. Finally it looks like they are subject to prosecution- as they should be.
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The problem that I have with the above situation is who is going after the banks? Great so you arrest 5 or 6 people..what about the HUNDREDS of EMPTY foreclosed homes in my city that are NOT secured? NOT maintained? NOT paid up in dues for HOA’s? These lenders who are now OWNERS of these homes should get arrested to as well..they bring down the community/neighborhood/city from the outside in! I have to drive by these homes each and everyday..
i’ll second that. if they don’t want the costs/responsibilities with owning the homes they take back then they really need to start auctioning them off WITH NO minimum required bids. that’ll also get to the true bottom of the prices.
Mortgagemess-
Some communities are going after the banks for failing to maintain properties. I agree- they should be held to the same standard as any other homeowner.
I noted though in a recent article in the Arizona Republic, a comment by an HOA president. She was saying that a number of abandoned homes in her neighborhood now were looking better since the bank foreclosed. Since banks are often not foreclosing within 90 days, it’s possible that a lot of these unmaintained homes are in limbo- abandoned by the homeowner, but not yet taken over by the bank.
I suppose the only solution for those homes is for the neighbors to team up and take care of these homes themselves.
What took them so long?, oh .. The banksters probably started whining about it. Still, the FBI is really going after the wrong people, this is small potatoes. The people doing this probably feel it is justified because they feel completely ripped off by their own stupidity, heard others were doing it so did it too. I guess, if your careful, you could strip the house, move out and say, I don’t know who did it?
Ok, I’m disappointed now, I was expecting something totally different from the headline