Mike Johnston, for now we'll simply call him that,
just returned from work last month to interrupt a break-in,
at his rented Clearwater Beach condominium currently in foreclosure. What is a foreclosure? The intruders were quickly stripping fans off the ceiling and the knobs off the doors. They had carted out the refrigerator and yanked up a toilet. They'd even pulled the plates off electrical outlets and unscrewed the faucet handles
As he stepped slowley around the broken eggs and jelly jars on the kitchen floor, Johnston had no trouble recognizing the culprit: It was his own landlady. I'm going to strip this place, the 70-ish property owner raved to Johnston, as she ripped apart the 950-square-foot unit on Island Crest Way. Welcome to a dark, very dark, corner of the foreclosure business: People who lose their homes to foreclosure and in a pique of revenge strip the homes before the bank takes them back. Local experts estimate such borderline looting occurs in roughly 20 percent of bank repossessions.
But foreclosures are such an explosive growth industry in the Tampa Bay Metro area with hundreds of properties enter the mortgage default pipeline each month so that home stripping affects scores of properties. She even took my shower rod and the brand new coffee pot, Johnston said of his landlady, who hadn't paid her mortgage in full for more than a year before the bank seized the $350,000 condo in January. It was on the foreclosure list. The Foreclosure List.
The law is a bit foggy, much to the joy of those losing their property, on the difference between personal property that is portable and real property that is not. Is the stained glass window you installed in the bathroom your personal property or does it stay with the house? The same goes for built-in book shelves, curtain rods and your grandmother's antique chandelier. That's like saying that when a local bank takes back your car, you'll go back and take the speakers and spare tire out of it, said Miami Florida based banking expert Kendrickson Thomas.
The house was never really yours. You had a mortgage on it. But there's no denying that many strip jobs are deliberately destructive. Witness this single one story beige stucco house in Saint Petersburg's Northeast Parkside neighborhood. The old owner bought the house near the peak of the market in 2005 for $150K and couldn't make the monthly payments. Neighbors were shocked last month when, as the bank zeroed in on the house, the former owner leased a Bobcat excavator and uprooted the wooden privacy fence and five palm trees. Postholes still litter the yard. That wasn't the end of it. The ex-owner, a total dirtbag,dismantled and removed the garage door and the double French doors in the rear, leaving the home exposed to the elements.
A piece of plywood now covers the gap in the back. They're mad at lenders and the property when they should be mad at themselves, said Jerry Laners, an agent specializing in bank-repossessed homes with Saint Petersburg's Realty Experts. Foreclosure List subscriber, Laners will have to pick through the rubble of the Clearwater Beach condo for Fifth Third Bank. The former owner actually broke in twice, the second time in an unsuccessful attempt to pry loose the kitchen's granite counters and the bathroom's travertine tile. Banks sometimes file hazard insurance claims to cover the damage, particularly if a missing air conditioner or hot water heater has left the place uninhabitable.
The more expensive the repair, the more likely the bank and insurer will hound the former owner, Laners said. Usually the homes are sold "as is" and discounted accordingly. In his almost 20 years selling repossessed homes for banks, Laners blog has seen horrors far worse than missing medicine cabinets. Think human excrement spread over walls. Or half-starved Doberman pinschers left as a welcoming committee for the bank's unknowing representative. They hadn't eaten for a week or two and thought I was dinner, Laners said.
Neighbors often end up suffering the most. Renters like Johnston are out of a home. Nearby homeowners worry about squatters enticed by the missing doors. They are hurting the values of the neighbors next door. You're hurting the whole community, Thomasons said. Johnston said his landlady stashed the pilfered fixtures in a storage unit across town. The bank has yet to press its claim. Deprived of lights and appliances, his head knocking against dangling wires, Johnston cleared out of the condo. The house was on the ready to be foreclosed list. His former landlady, greedy landlady, has missed payments on other properties so he expects the stripping and ripping to continue across Clearwater Beach. Now that since that is over, I moved to a three-bedroom condo in Tampa, he said. Hopefully the new landlord is better at making his mortgage payments, least that property also lands up on the foreclosure list.
Within a few years if it doesn't become a foreclosure or so the value of the real estate will increase. Therefore if you plan on living in the home for a decade or so, you can expect to make a good profit when you decide to sell. When it comes to real estate investing there are always a few risks involved. This is why it pays to shop around and truly examine a particular area or subdivision before making a purchase. Obviously you want to value of the property to increase over time and not plummet. Bad thing to have your prised investment foreclosured.
Uncertainty reigns in the foreclosure and preforeclosure area today the watch word is be carefull or you're next!