Making Money Fixing and Securing Foreclosed Homes
July 22nd, 2009
In these difficult days when there are hardly any jobs Kevin Chandler and his partner is busy making money by fixing and securing foreclosed home in St. Paul. They have got used to the horror of what they come upon – trash, filthy graffiti, rodents, ripped pipes, leaking water moulding walls – all parting shots from the previous owners and roaming vagrants. Some scenes have been poignant reminders of a hasty retreat – half eaten meals on the table, freshly watered flowers and toys on the floor.
In all this chaos Chandler and his colleague Bart Crockett are seeing immense possibilities of making money by repairing the units conforming to the safety standards of the city.
Initially the duo took on routine refurbishing assignments like extensions and upgrading. But when the housing crisis worsened in 2008 they found an increasing demand for patching up foreclosed houses in not too desirable localities. Here they come upon neglect after neglect. Chandler said, “Many of them hadn’t been touched for half a century. There was bad plumbing, faulty electrical, botched repairs. Many were built without proper permits. A lean-to had been added here, a bathroom there, an unheated porch you had to go through.” As per the law the work involved upgrading the work to satisfy the building standard code of the area.
Chandler and Crockett soon became alive to the fact that this niche of immense possibilities had not been focused upon as yet. The new owners were the banks and other lenders who did not want to spend money unless forced to do so. The other owners were too poor to invest in repairs. Some banks opted for quick fixes before pushing the units into the market.
The two partners reasoned that if the did a good job of the work looking into the security factor as well as usual cosmetic repairs they would earn a good reputation. This would not go unnoticed in circles where clients had better standards and fatter wallets. Chandler said, “In St. Paul, I think we’re the only ones doing it this way. The storm chasers come and go. We’re here to stay.”
Building inspector Ken Eggers said that in St. Paul there are about 4,000 empty houses comprising of 5% of the total number of foreclosures for sale. This marks an increase of 40 to 50 houses from what it was ten years ago. Out of these 4,000 he said, 1,907 have been repaired as per norms. Simultaneously demolition measures have been stepped up. 95 houses were razed in 2008 as against 89 in 2006.
- Black Underclass Bearing Brunt of the Foreclosure Crisis
- The Consequences of not Paying Mortgages Can be Grim
- White Plains Foreclosure Case Ruling is Sending out Stern Warnings to Lenders
- Foreclosures are Victimizing Apartment Dwellers
- Fewer Foreclosures Among Low-cost Brooklyn Homes
- What is the Difference Between a Foreclosure and a HUD Home?
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July 28th, 2009 at 8:18 am
[...] York is fighting a tough battle against foreclosure decay. There are over one hundred derelict empty houses in Long Island – all victims of the [...]
November 10th, 2009 at 10:00 am
[...] three successive payments, she was told that the workout plan was canceled and her house would be foreclosed. It was indeed shocking for [...]
November 24th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
[...] increase, people are showing more interest in buying them. One reason could be the low price of the foreclosed properties. Also there is a wide selection available – a phenomenon that is luring people by [...]