I wrote an article a couple of months ago which detailed the rise in vandalism & theft across the greater Phoenix and Scottsdale area. As the number of vacant homes have risen steeply along with the spike of foreclosures and total listings, so too have the targets for the scavengers in our midst. The point made was that placing a “For Sale” sign in the overgrown and underwatered front yard of a clearly abandoned house is nothing short of ringing the larcenous dinner bell. Copper, appliances, cabinets, ceilings fans, light fixtures, A/C compressors and anything else that fits in the bed of a ’74 Ford is walking out of vacant properties. Between the absentee owner of record and the agent charged with selling the home, it is imperative that someone removes the telltale signs of lifelessness from the property to deter such criminal enterprise. Far too often, door hanger advertisements are stacked five deep on the knob. The lawn is deceased, but the weeds have never felt better. There are papers in the driveway and not even the thick layer of dust on the front window can prevent prying eyes from determining that the interior holds no furniture.
I maintain that if banks would employ agents who are not already carrying 200 REO listings, they might find someone who will actually pay the property the attention it needs to secure its dwindling equity. Of course, the asset manager for the bank is just as overworked with hundreds of open files stacked upon his desk, so there really isn’t anyone who gives a whit about any one particular house. This is toxic to our market. As these properties are further devalued through negligence, the phenomenon further erodes values of the surrounding areas. It really isn’t all that difficult to make a property a harder target.
However, trimming up the yard and routinely visiting the property (to show signs of life at the home, if nothing else) won’t really cut it when agents insist upon advertising “Vacancy” to any knucklehead with a computer who is looking for a temporary flophouse or a lightly-used dishwasher. I found this snippet in the PUBLIC remarks section of the MLS today:
“Reduced 9/25/WOW. NOW VACANT!!”
I am going to type slowly so that everyone understands this basic tenet of the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service:
T h e r e i s a R e a l t o r r e m a r k s s e c t i o n f o r s h o w i n g i n s t r u c t i o n s.
Y o u d o n ‘ t h a v e t o in f o r m t h e e n t i r e p l a n e t t h a t t h e h o m e i s v a c a n t!
The bank, or absentee owner in this instance, may not care if the house is ransacked at this point, but the neighbors will. It doesn’t make the jobs of us agents any easier, but that doesn’t concern me much. Realtors are like cockroaches. We’ll survive a nuclear holocaust. I do worry about homeowners across the Valley, though. The guy down the street who might be forced to sell because he lost his job does not need his value further degraded by a crummy comp that is even crummier than it needs to be.
The banks are sticking it to a lot of people for the second time, and it needs to stop.
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Some agents are simply amazing aren't they? I always have my husband help me with my bank owned listings to do little things so it isn't so obvious that a home is vacant! Why bring so much attention to it? Just further proves my point that there are two types of people in this world, thos who "get it" and those who do not!
Paul - As long as you have thieves with 74 Fords, you don't stand a chance. Those things can hold more than 10-yard dumpster. BTW, it really doesn't matter how slow you typed. Agents who do this sort of thing generally can't handle words with more than 2 syllables. You lost them at the top.
Nick is a cockroach. Also, great post. It sounds like you are describing the house next door to me (dead yard, papers stacked up, looks abandoned), although there is a tenant living there.
Banks don't know how to sell real estate.
Banks are not responsible owners.
Banks are not desireable neighbors.
Banks are arrogant and obtuse.
Pity is, they are behaving the way they do with our money.
I learned from "Family Guy" that Twinkies also survive a nuclear holocaust. Though Im not a fan of the cream filled sponge pastry, it is comforting to know there will be nourishment for us at the coffee counter at the office the days after a bomb goes off.
Nick - You just need a tougher exoskeleton.
Cristal - You are correct. Many banks and their agents do not get it, and it's maddening. I don't bemoan the harm they do themselves, but it infuriates me to think of the harm such neglect and apathy does to the market at large.
Erik - I fear you may be right. If it requires me pointing out that writing "VACANT" in the public remarks for all online shoppers to peruse, instructions on bottled water might be prove confounding to such "agents." Some days I think their should be a shoe tying test in the licensing requirements.
Jason - Now just take it a step further and picture said tenant as the owner trying to sell the property in that condition. I fully understand financial constraints, but providing the basest level of maintenance is not all that hard.
Lenn - Exactly right. Not to belabor the point, but banks also make poor decisions as to representation. I'm not picking on REO agents here, many of which are excellent, but the workload placed on a relatively small pool of agents is absurd. It seems that you either don't list bank properties (by choice or by circumstance), or you list them all. Kind of like going to the ER and getting stuck with the intern who is on the back side of a 48 hour shift.
Derek - The Twinkie may survive, but unfortunately, so will Joan Rivers and Ziggy Pop. We just might make it through the initial blast and subsequent fallout, only to hang ourselves by our shoelaces.
Paul- Our Regional Multiple Listing Service has a section for private remarks only visable to other agents. This is a great place to put the Vacant info also. My area has not seen the deluge of REO's as with other communities but we have had a few. I have not heard of any vandalism or theft, I would say we are blessed in that respect!
This falls into the "geez, what are they thinking?" category. Dumb!
Every time I see the foreclosure signs and empty houses it is scary to think what the homes exterior will look like in the near future. Screaming through the MLS that a home is Vacant doesn't seem all that smart, especially when you can hide the comment so only Realtors see it. Let's just hope that somebody figures it out because, as you said, we don't need vandalism and unkept properties bringing down the value for those homeowners who need to sell.
Some of the banks will allow the water to be turned on and the lawns maintained but some of the cockroachesagents don't want to deal with the reimbursements. My feeling is maintain the damn thing and get it Sold Fast. I go by my REOs twice a week at a minimum to pick up the junk left on the door and I usually can get a neighbor to park a vehicle in the driveway to deter the Rats that come out at night.
It seems to me, if you take the listing that you should take the responsibility to care for the listing. Around here in Northern VA, we have several agents that are known for their lack of any type of actual care for the property, such as electricity so that you can turn on the light to see that a step is missing from the stairwell into the basement, etc. Until the lender or asset manager demands better, these agents will continue to succeed at doing next to nothing.
LORI - You are fortunate. We are ground zero for overspeculation and foreclosure, though. Hence, we are ground zero for predators targeting the low hanging fruit. We also have had such a high level of new construction (until it ground to a halt recently for lack of buyers) that thieves have been targeting those building sites for copper. Now that some builders have gone belly up, you have otherwise honest subcontractors scavenging job sites to recoup nonpayment. All in all, it's a mess. We need to get out ahead of the apathy to staunch the ebbing tide of value.
KELLY - Absurd beyond description. If the owner actually cared, there would is a potential lawsuit here. Not only would the agent carry some liability should the property be broken into, but an ethical complaint could be filed for unauthorized disclosure to the general public that could deleverage negotiable power. Interested buyers would obviously be aware that the house was empty upon physically looking at it, but the rest of the general public has no need of that information.
ERIC - Your last line says it all. There are people out there who really do need to sell. Agents who are spread too thin to stay on top of their listings are ultimately hurting these folks by driving prices ever downward through neglect and indifference. Property's ugly? We'll just chop another 100k off the price. Who cares who it hurts?
CAMERON - I have dealt with a couple REO agents like yourself who actually service their listings, and the difference is night and day. On those rare occasions, the bank had increased negotiating power and actually saw deals close. One property was actually broken into very early in the escrow period, and the listing agent met the police, filed a report, convinced the police to send a squad car by every few days, placed additional locks on the properties, put a radio inside to deter trespassers ... that agent allayed the buyer's fear of repeated targeting and got the deal closed. My kind of agent.
AJ & JODEE - That about sums it all up. Hard to expect the agent to care if the bank doesn't. Still, I would hope for more out of our fellow agents. It's a reflection upon all of us.
Paul, On our side I was just reading on the Collier Sheriff website that they are getting concerned about people who might try to "squat" in our vacant properties. I don't remember seeing too much about people stealing out of them....good Lord! What's weird is the car burglaries that are on the rise...biggest thing missing...cel phones...now there's a big ticket item! Sheesh!
People have been squatting in a number of the vacant properties in my nearby city, but lately the copper pipes have started growing legs and walking off too. It's a shame, because this is happening mainly in the urban areas where the police are far too busy with other crimes than to have to babysit vacant properties, as well.
Paul,
I have the lawn mowed every two weeks check on it at the very least monthly to make sure the property is not beaten up by the village hoodlums. Depending on where it is located I may not place a sign on the property to keep that neon sign form drawing attention to it. Not to mention we do a trash out of the property to help it show better. I don't even place a combo lockbox on the home I use an electronic lockbox and still have issues with someones 74 pickup truck paying a visit to the home.
I see Realtors putting vacant in the public remarks section all the time and I think great news for burglars, keep up the good work.
Even if they didn't put "vacant" in the public remark section, won't the pictures show as vacant anyway?
Banks have to be the worst to deal with, they don't care what the property looks like. You would think they would know that just spending a few thousand could turn into serveral thousand more in sales price just by improving the look. It's a shame because we all pay one way or the other. The wreck down the street goes for dirt cheap because it's junk which makes the entire immediate area decline, which fuels more foreclosure.
If I trusted them (the banks) to come through, I'd consider sprucing up, cleaning up, paint, carpet whatever with deferred payment............ not contingent but deferred. Something like pay me at COE or 6 months, but I don't feel like I trust them.
Wow Paul Unbelievable. I have to pay more attention to see if agents are opening themselves up to liability here. I am sure they are.