PROPERTY PRESERVATION: WE DON’T JUST PAINT THE HOUSE!

If you haven’t seen it, check out my new article, “Foreclosures:  Taking Care of the Yard Work,” where I write about how cities all across the country, already strapped for cash, are fining banks and lenders who aren’t tending to the lawns of foreclosures. Those bills can add up to over two hundred dollars for one grass cutting. Much more than you or I made as a kid mowing lawns!

But you can’t just point a finger of blame at the financial institutions left holding the bag (and the homes) after a homeowner defaults. It takes months to process a foreclosure and the record-setting number of them on the market makes it hard to keep up with the mushrooming inventory.

That’s why the grass can reach heights of two or three feet before a property preservation company is employed to take care of maintaining that lawn. Sometimes, the worst can happen, especially in dry, hot Southern California and Arizona climates – the parched lawn can just plain die and turn brown.

Just as folks in Ohio don’t want to see the lawn of the foreclosure house next to them turn into the rainforest, homeowners in Phoenix and Sacramento don’t want to have dead brown grass next to their property. It’s not good for property values that are already under siege.

How do we in the Property Preservation business handle that kind of extreme situation? Do we replant the lawn? Put down some new sod? Install Astroturf?

No. We paint the dead lawn green!

Banks and lenders don’t want to pay for a whole new lawn. It’s expensive and they’re going to sell the home as an REO property at a bargain price. At the same time, communities don’t want brown lawns popping up all over their neighborhood to make it look like a ghost town. So, usually, the most cost-efficient and easiest solution is to paint the lawn green. There are whole companies that we subcontract that only paint lawns.

That’s specialization.

And it’s one of the tricks of the trade we teach our new franchisees at REO ResQ™. My brother Scott and I spent years cutting our teeth on trash-outs, maintenance and repairs of foreclosure homes, never knowing this would evolve into a huge business opportunity with this historic REO boom. We learned a lot of the unique solutions to property preservation problems – knowledge we’re now excited to pass on to franchisees we’re training to become part of the REO ResQ™. That way banks and lenders as well as REO agents and brokers can be sure our franchisees will provide them with the best in professional mortgage field services.

Foreclosures continue to skyrocket – and property preservation is one sure-fire business opportunity that’s going to continue for a long time. If you’re interested in becoming an REO ResQ™ franchisee – or want to hire one of our current ones – please visit us at www.REORESQ.com for more information.

Now, if we can figure out how to paint pools blue, we’ll really be onto something

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