We bought our home several years ago. We were told the holes in the yard were from neighbors taking the shrubbery.
Posted on 09/24/2009 6:45:15 AM PDT by Portnoy
We are not exactly sure what is going on with the producers over at NBC News and the TODAY Show, but the quality of people they are digging up for their news and interview segments has certainly been lacking.
Yesterday, The TODAY Show featured a segment detailing the latest “trend”: people in foreclosed homes are stripping them bare and selling the contents before turning the property over to the banks, going so far as even selling the toilets for $20.
In this video clip, NBC Reporter Kerry Sanders is talking with Zorene Brodek (sp?) who justifies her actions:
Sanders: What about the banks? Foreclosed Homeowner: Well, It’s their tough luck. They (the bank) are the ones who gave me a loan that was really ridiculous in the first place, so they are stuck with it.
See the entire clip HERE
Many banks will pay you a couple thousand bucks not to do this, which is more than you’ll get for the stuff.
I don’t think this is really a new trend. I had a neighbor that did this about 20 years ago. They also dug up the shrubs when they left.
Actually, it's common in some countries to remove everything down to the barewalls when you move ~ Nederland, for example, where the government owns about 90% of the land, has a housing industry that works with an overwhelmingly "rental unit" base. When they move, so do the kitchen cabinets, the floor, the light fixtures (tape off the hot lines), and I've heard of areas where they remove the interior walls leaving nothing but brick, block and timber to look at.
The FHA/VA review sheet includes notations about what must be conveyed at sale ~ but in these foreclosures, it's not an FHA/VA inspection that has to be passed to convey ownership. Under those conditions it may well be the case that removal of all fixtures ~ and I mean ALL FIXTURES ~ may be permitted by law. Be good for someone to dig all the info up for each state and territory and let us know what we can strip when we walk away from the mortgage.
Yep, the stuck a gun to your head and forced you to act like a moron and sign without reading or understanding.
I’ve also heard of people pouring cement mix down the toilets/drains, supergluing lightbulbs into the sockets and other such shenanigans.
In some places it’s customary for the neighbors and friends to dig up the shrubbery.
Sad. No one wants to take responsibility for their stupid decisions anymore. If the bank hadn’t given her the loan, what would she have done then?
A friend of mine started a business after he got layed off. He cleans houses but markets his business to banks and real estate companies. He goes in and cleans foreclosed houses after people are evicted. He is just a run-of-the-mill cleaning service but has “foreclosure restoration and cleaning” in his busines profile.
BRILLIANT!
Sued, of course.
That's racist.
These people should be branded on the forehead and made unemployable social pariahs.
Actions should have consequences. They signed loan documents for a mortgage they knew they couldn’t make in the hope the ponzi scheme would continue increasing 10-15% a year.
You would think that this would, in some way, be illegal and punishable through the courts.
The owner of the home did not strip it. The person who stripped it was a person was NOT the owner. The owner was the bank. The person who stripped the home is nothing but a vandal.
This was done in a foreclosed home in a small town in Maryland, They sold all the fixtures, but left 3 stolen cars in the garage.
The banks should prosecute for destruction of their property. There should be a blacklist of scumbags who do this sort of thing.
People like this should never be allowed to be homeowners. I hope the banks learn a lesson from this, never give a loan unless the buyer has a downpayment of their OWN money or the money of a close relative (NOT taxpayer money). The only exception to this should be the VA loan.
Nope, he’s not a vandal until the final t is crossed and i dotted. If the bank hasn’t gotten a judgment when this is done it’s just “rehab” ~
Really is sad, destroying value to get a tiny return. It reminds me of a report I saw a couple of years ago when the copper value was through the roof, about the growing numbers of people tearing down infrastructure to sell for scrap. The road to Somalia, and an example of why community and shared resources should be valued over extreme individualism.
Now that’s style.
Good point.
Funny movie from a while back - “Moving” with Richard Pryor, Dana Carvey about a family moving to Boise, ID from NJ.
No doubt this thugess also lived in the house for perhaps up to a year after stopping payments. Mooch and a thief.
got a friend doing the same thing, shortly after he started he saw how much stuff people were leaving and started selling the stuff on ebay.
he now has a second hand store selling all the stuff his company has hauled out of houses.
You can't have stuff that's not yours!
“latest “trend”: people in foreclosed homes are stripping them bare “
Not new, but of course to the lamestream media it is. They never have any full story when it happens and then they get it wrong.
ALL of the homes we looked at this year to buy were stripped. All. We looked at over 50 homes. Not one wasn’t missing appliances, cabinets, even the toilets in some cases. Million dollar homes stripped by either the owner or thieves.
I needed an appliance part and went to Appliance Factory Outlet on Sante Fe drive in Denver. Backed up to their loading docks were Mexicans and yuppies alike selling what was no doubt their ill gotten gains. I was approached to buy appliances at ten to thirty cents on the dollar.
“supergluing lightbulbs into the sockets”
That happened to the house we are in right now. The previous owner was foreclosed on.
She is exactly correct. However, liberal socialists in power pretty much forced the banks to do this under "minority homeownship" laws and anti-red lining laws. Expect banks to never lend money to the likes like you anymore in the future. And no complaining about it.
I thought it interesting that he removed ALL the appliances, even some barely a year old, and hauled them away.
Not asking yet (that will come later) but I think he must have hit some mold.
He'd been far ahead in this game if the last owner had gutted the house as he left.
stupid is as stupid does.
by stripping out the fixtures, these people are reducing the value of the house and increasing the debt they will STILL OWE after the bank sells the property.
I bought a brand new house and the appliances were part of a package.
New fridge. washer dryer, all major appliances were part of the package. I took all this stuff when I bought my current house. I took everything that I could unplug. I did not take things that were permenantly wired in. (dishwasher, oven)
I got a neighbor that does the same thing. However, you friend needs to change the name of his service to get with the 21st century, it is now called “home remediation services”!!!!
You ought to see all the crap he puts into garage sales, stuff left behind by those evicted. Everything from tools to appliances. The banks do not care and have told him so, they just want the property presentable.
If it was in the house when you bought it and it helped to establish the price you paid then it is a fixture and part of the house.
There is wiggle room on the Frig, Washer & Dryer.
****extreme individualism****
So now you are labeling theft and destruction of property “extreme individualism”?
Sounds like a commie catch phrase.
Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s moral. I agree with the other posters. Jerks like this probably wouldn’t be in the home in the first place without taxpayers backing the loan. Don’t worry, if the bank goes bankrupt due to all the bad loans and destruction to the homes, we’ll get to bail them out, too. Of course, the bank might also survive with a smaller cut for investors, but who cares about them, right?
This sort of stuff is way beyond ridiculous, and I’m tired of footing the bill. So long as these losers have the right to reach into our pockets to pay for their misdeeds, we’ll continue a downward slide!
In the short two years of my current mortgage it has been “sold” or otherwise aquired by a different company three times.
BANKS MUST STOP MAKING LOANS TO DEADBEATS.
Being poor does not excuse lawlessness (unless you’re a socialist).
You’re sticking up for that criminal home squatter that was forclossed on!
Anyone that didn’t put down a minimum of 20% to purchase should be thrown out on the street!
I’ve asked a couple lawyers...because it happens quite often around here.
It’s not illegal. Especially when it comes to things like appliances, or cabinets, etc. The home owner may have had those put in, and they are free to sell anything in the house until the bank takes possession.
Even toilets! It's the service that's of interest to the market, not the can itself ~ you can get a serviceable can for $100 over at Home Depot.
If it's someting you plug in or wire in locally (not at the main) it's not a fixture.
I used to see this all the time when I had my housecleaning business years ago. Other favorites include pouring cement into pool equipment and ripping toilets and sinks from the walls.
We bought our home several years ago. We were told the holes in the yard were from neighbors taking the shrubbery.
So what would a 20% downpayment have done to change their circumstances in this market?
Get a grip ~ home prices dropped 40 to 50% in the Obama bust. That's enough loss to have well established people who had substantial equity just walking away from their homes if they lose their jobs.
****BANKS MUST STOP MAKING LOANS TO DEADBEATS.****
Tell Barney Frank that.
I agree with you by the way.
more involved than just selling scrap for a few bucks....full out rage against the Capitalist machine...they strip all the wiring, pour concrete in the plumbing, and in some cases set them on fire (gotta deny The Man his ill-gotten gains, ya know)
I know someone who knows someone whose cousin went to prison for doing this, which sadly seems to be the exception and not the rule.
Right now the market is such that used plumbing really doesn't get you anything.
To me it sounds like you’re jumping at shadows and falling into a bunker mentality.
Don’t get caught up in PC like quibbling over magic words.
There’s nothing wrong with individualism, that’s why I added the ‘extreme’ bit. It’s the English language. Stealing things from the community is placing the interests of the self over the interests of the nation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.