ArticlesTHE PROPERTY PRESERVATION BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY: 6 REASONS WHY IT’S HOTTER THAN EVER Monday, February 8th, 2010 Foreclosure Clean Out Jobs Continue to Increase Imagine making as much as $10,000 a week cleaning homes. Okay, it isn’t the kind of housecleaning you normally think of – where you dust and vacuum for an hour and call it a day. It’s all about cleaning out foreclosed homes – what’s called property preservation or mortgage field services – and some newbies to the field have found amazing success in recent years. Foreclosures, as you probably already know, are rampant in the U.S. – and show no signs of slowing down. Here are 6 reasons why property preservation will continue to be the biggest foreclosure business opportunity around – and will grow even faster in the months to come. If you get expert training from people who know the ins and outs of the business, you can start doing foreclosure trash-outs in as few as two weeks. In addition, you’ll only need a truck and some basic … A SOLUTION TO THE “MANCESSION”: THE PROPERTY PRESERVATION BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY Monday, January 11th, 2010 Foreclosure Clean Outs Will Be Big Business for Some Time to Come At the beginning of 2010, the unemployment outlook continues to be bleak – 85,000 more jobs were lost in December of 2009 and the joblessness rate won’t budge below 10%. Not only that, but 661,000 Americans just plain gave up looking for work at all. Working-age men, however, have been hit hardest of all. Economists have termed this recession a “mancession,” because figures state that the jobless rate for this group is closer to 20% – with just about one out of five males 25-54 unemployed. The good news is that there are still business opportunities out there, for those willing to give a new skill category a shot. And one of the hottest job categories right now is property preservation. Property preservation – also known as mortgage field services – involves performing foreclosure trash outs, repairs and doing ongoing maintenance, and is truly the biggest business opportunity in this climate of ever-increasing home … THE 2010 PROPERTY PRESERVATION BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 More Foreclosure Clean Outs Will Be Needed Than Ever Before Property preservation – performing foreclosure trash outs, repairs and doing ongoing maintenance – had an incredible year in 2009. The second year in a row of historic foreclosure highs meant even new field service companies could earn over $10,000 a week. In 2010, a year in which the overall American jobs picture is expected to still be bleak, property preservation companies will be busier – and more profitable – than ever. In addition to the continuing escalation of foreclosures, the beginnings of the so-called “shadow inventory” of vacant homes that have yet to be listed for sale or even acknowledged as foreclosures will be put on the market. This shadow inventory has been estimated at anywhere from 1.7 million homes to as high as 7 million. If it is actually 7 million, that would be over twice as many REO homes that require foreclosure clean outs as were recorded in all of 2009. The problem of … MORE GOVERNMENT ACTION: MORE PROPERTY PRESERVATION Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 Colorado Community the Latest to Advocate Controlling Vacant Foreclosures As more and more foreclosed homes are left vacant and in bureaucratic limbo, more and more neighborhoods and communities all across America are facing the health, safety and social hazards presented by these unsecured, uncared-for properties, which continue to deteriorate. Property preservation companies are traditionally called in when these homes are classified as REO (Real Estate Owned) properties, in order to prepare them for resale on the real estate market. These mortgage field service businesses will perform a foreclosure clean out, make necessary repairs, do the landscaping and also carry out necessary maintenance. The incredible overload of foreclosed and abandoned houses should make property preservation the biggest business opportunity around. As it is, contractors who specialize in this niche are incredibly overloaded with work and making a lucrative living while other occupations suffer at the hands of the currently-dismal economy. Still, the fact is that more houses need immediate tending to prevent neighborhoods … PROPERTY PRESERVATION PAYS OFF FOR FLORIDA COUNTY Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 Active Use of Foreclosure Field Services Helping Neighborhoods The slow foreclosure process has plagued many areas across America. An abundance of vacant homes are quickly turning into safety hazards and eyesores – and also severely taking down property values. Property preservation companies, specialists in foreclosure trash outs and maintenance, routinely clean up and secure these unoccupied properties, but, often, no one is employed to perform this vital service and neighboring residents are left to watch the area deteriorate. Enter Pasco County in Florida, located along the Gulf Coast in Florida. As reported recently in “The St. Petersburg Times,” the county has bought – or is in the process of buying – 170 foreclosed properties within its borders. It plans to spend millions for property preservation services and foreclosure contractors to rehabilitate those homes, not only helping to save neighborhoods, but also giving the biggest business opportunity in the state to mortgage field service companies. There is no doubt that Florida was one … HUD DECLARES PROPERTY PRESERVATION OPPORTUNITY WILL INCREASE Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 National Conference: Foreclosure Field Services Will Be in Big Demand A national conference on property preservation was held in Washington D.C. in early November – and it was clear that government is very aware of the growing need to clean out and service foreclosure properties quickly and efficiently. Foreclosures are on track for another record-setting year and skyrocketing unemployment is sure to create even more distressed properties. At one panel discussion, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a nonpartisan group that represents cities with populations of over 30,000, sent out an industry warning that unemployment – and foreclosures – will continue to soar in 2010, causing more and more distressed properties to require field services, in addition to the many homes already in this situation. Some municipalities may experience unemployment as high as 15%, according to the organization – and homeowners simply won’t be able to keep up with their mortgages. Meanwhile, HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is spearheading new ways of … PROPERTY PRESERVATION: A TALE OF TWO CAROLINAS Thursday, October 29th, 2009 Foreclosure Trash Outs Make the News As foreclosures continue to mount and unemployment continues to increase, it’s only natural that the media would begin to focus on the property preservation business opportunity. It’s one of the few sectors where business is booming, so more and more people are interested in finding out more about it. For example, in an article from September 20th, “The News and Record of Greensboro” newspaper zeroed in on several North Carolina foreclosure trash out businesses, including Junk King, run by Matt and Drew Hambright, and Junkyard Dogz, operated by Thad Loftin. In 2005, when Loftin began his business, he went to ask a local bank about foreclosed homes in the area that might need cleaning out. He was told there was usually only about one foreclosure per year. 2009 is a totally different story – with 343 foreclosures in one month alone in his area. The Hambright brothers have a similar story. … FORECLOSURES: TAKING CARE OF THE YARD WORK Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 A Growing Problem for Cities: Overgrown Lawns of REO Homes
Agents and brokers for REO (Real Estate Owned) homes – unoccupied homes where the owners have been evicted due to mortgage default – are finding that if they don’t employ professional mortgage field service companies to deal with the outside as well as the inside of a property, the city may be sending them a pretty steep bill for lawn care. Hint: it’s going to cost a lot more than hiring a teenager for $5 an hour to mow the lawn! As a matter of fact, in some Illinois towns, it’s costing up to 25 times that – as one homeowner found to his dismay in Buffalo Grove. No, his home isn’t in foreclosure – he just doesn’t like to mow his back yard, only the front. One day, however, he arrived home to find that the back yard was cut down to size as well without his knowledge – and a … THE IMPORTANCE OF PROPERTY PRESERVATION Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 How Foreclosure Contractors Make the Difference in the REO Marketplace
Knowledgeable real estate experts know that foreclosed properties are taking a long time to finally making their way back on the market – to transition to REO (Real Estate Owned) listings. Back in February, RealtyTrac.com estimated that up to a shocking 70% of foreclosures still weren’t on the MLS yet. One large reason for the delay? Because of the explosion of the number of foreclosures in recent months, banks can’t keep up with processing the individual properties. That means they sit untended, unsecured and unoccupied for longer periods of time – leaving these homes open to vandalism, threat and damage. That means that, by the time property preservation companies are finally called in, there’s more much more substantial rehab work to be done on these homes. The lawn is usually a disaster, the plumbing can need major repairs and there is probably rotting food in the refrigerator. Ideally, the “trash-out” of foreclosures should … STARTING A PROFITABLE PROPERTY PRESERVATION COMPANY Sunday, July 5th, 2009 $89,000 Revenues in One Month – One Couple’s Amazing Story
It hasn’t been a good economic time for most Americans. And Matt and Carrie Singleton were certainly no exception. They had always run their own businesses – and for three years, they built commercial freezers for food distribution centers. They were doing fine. Then gas prices climbed – and the stock market crashed. That double play stopped Matt and Carrie’s business right in the tracks in early 2008. Suddenly no one was building anything anymore. The couple had no other source of income – and no prospects. Matt reacted as any guy might with a little money in the bank – he went fishing. But with savings dwindling and the economy still in shock, the couple knew they needed to do something. But in that bleak business climate – what? Luckily, Matt went over one day that summer to help his friend Scott Patrick fix a roof leak. … SWIMMING INTO TROUBLE: THE URGENT NEED FOR PROPERTY PRESERVATION PROFESSIONALS Friday, June 5th, 2009 Abandoned Foreclosure Home Pools are Potential Disease Pits
Foreclosures that have been abandoned by their owners are at historic highs. For many holders of mortgages left owing a lot more than their house is actually worth, it makes more economic sense to walk away than to continue to struggle to meet huge monthly payments. What happens after those homeowners leave, however, can turn into a horror show. A recent round-up of newspaper stories from across the country shows how these abandoned homes can quickly deteriorate – especially when the previous owners left without any concern as to the condition of the house – and accents the need for more property preservation companies to clean them out. In Las Vegas, one of hardest-hit foreclosure cities in America, many of the empty homes also have filled pools with the potential to become disease incubators. The number of “green pool” complaints jumped from 1700 to 2800 from 2007 to 2008 – and it’s expected to grow … REO RESQ™ : TAKING PROPERTY PRESERVATION TO THE NEXT LEVEL Thursday, May 14th, 2009 National Franchise Helps Service Record-Setting Number of Foreclosure Properties At a time when foreclosures are surging all across America, the demand for properly-trained and qualified contractors who will properly service these vacant and frequently-abandoned properties is at an all-time high. Enter REO RESQ™ – the first national franchise of property preservation specialists (“REO” stands for “Real Estate Owned” and is the common industry term for a property that has reverted back to the lender or asset manager when a mortgage has gone into default). The business of taking care of a foreclosure property can be complex. Frequently, the lender or asset manager who needs to sell the property can be located hundreds of miles away and obviously can’t personally handle the “on-the-ground” details. Not only that, but foreclosure REO properties require a lot more repair and maintenance than normal homes being sold by their owners. To begin with, the homes are frequently left in very bad condition – sometimes it requires two tractor-trailers … |
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