Foreclosures in Ann-Arbor Cause Some Residents to Clean Up

Posted on April 14th, 2008 by saman

John Baker of Rainbow Group Property Preservation and real estate agent Susan Fecteau are working to get foreclosed homes cleaned up and ready for resale.

Baker who believed cleaning up foreclosed homes would be a simple part time job now works about seventy hours per week. Fecteau does pre-foreclosure counseling and haggles with banks in order to get them to short-sell homes.

The phenomenal increase in home foreclosures have seriously impacted the businesses of real estate agents, mortgage field servicing companies, title insurance companies, appraisers, maintenance companies and property management companies.

Mortgage foreclosures have increased dramatically in the past couple of years. This surge was brought on by company downsizing, mortgage rate resets and a tight real estate market. In Ann Arbor, over six hundred homes were foreclosed on and sold at auction. This is double the amount from 2006.

Revenue has increased each year for the past eight years for GTH Consulting, the company John Baker works for. The company cleans houses in Washtenaw, Livingston, and Hillsdale counties, along with others. The company started cleaning up properties in Detroit.

The President of GTH Consulting maintains ten thousand homes in its inventory and this includes three thousand foreclosures. GTH works with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to maintain and repair foreclosed houses that the companies own and have a desire to sell.

Individuals such as Baker see the very ugly sides of foreclosure quite often. Houses are often trashed and the interiors are destroyed, probably by furious homeowners that were forced out of their residences. A house in Howell County had dirty dishes in the sink and toys everywhere. In another home the television was on. Banks can sue individuals that do this but it is less expensive to just fix up the houses and sell them. Since there are numerous foreclosed houses on a bank’s books, the main purpose is to put the houses back on the market as quickly as they can and at a price that is competitive.

The job of people such as Baker is to clean houses, change locks, make a few repairs, get rid of junk and whatever else is needed to get the property ready for market.

The majority of economic and financial experts believe that the housing crisis will get much worse before it gets any better in spite of the rush of government programs to help distressed homeowners and lowered interest rates.

Though there has been some improvement in the Ann Arbor area recently, foreclosure is still a dim reality for most people. In Washtenaw County about seventy-five percent of homes are ones where the amount owed is higher than what it is able to be sold for.

High foreclosure rates have put real estate agents in an uncomfortable and unusual situation. Agent Nancy Bowerbank is often required to drive past homes she is selling in order to see if the homeowner has left the premises. In Michigan, a homeowner has a month’s leeway before they are able to be evicted from their foreclosed homes. Bowerbank has also had to negotiate on behalf of the bank with owners who have not vacated their foreclosed homes, perhaps offering them money. Though some people leave quickly some homes are completely gutted out.