Abandoned Houses Provide Opportunity

In their work, the contractors come across the everyday debris of human life, from old microwave ovens to couches and a child’s cherry-red tricycle. Sometimes they discover abandoned pets.

As the foreclosure crisis continues to strike many areas of the country, mortgage companies, with the burden of an ever-increasing stockpile of abandoned houses, have been hiring Landscape Contractors to perform inspections and maintenance.

With homes taking months or even years to wind through foreclosure in the backlogged courts, they are becoming vulnerable to vandalism and decay. After a few months, mold and mildew creep in, while algae overtakes swimming pools. Other times, wiring or plumbing simply give out.

Local and state governments have also become concerned about the upkeep of foreclosed homes because they drag down real estate values in neighborhoods and provide havens for drug users and gangs. Over the last year, municipalities in affected areas have stepped up code enforcement by levying fines on mortgage companies for the degradation of homes they are repossessing.

Nearly 3 percent of homes that were once occupied by their owners in the country were vacant in March. That is up from less than 2 percent three years ago and is the highest since the Census bureau began publishing the number in 1956.

As a Landscape Contractor, when you first visit a vacant home, you will change the locks on at least one door so the mortgage company can have access. Then you will board up broken windows, cut the grass and record significant damage. Depending on the extent of the destruction, mortgage companies will commission the you to repair the home.

In most cases, you do not interact with the homeowners, but sometimes they are present during evictions that are conducted by county sheriffs.

Be aware that the rising price of diesel fuel, wood and other supplies can cut sharply into your earnings. These expenditures cannot easily be passed on to lenders, however because most work is done under contracts or, in the case of some loans, at rates set by federal agencies.

To find out more information, LOL spoke to Cheryl Lang, president of Integrated Mortgage Solutions, a company based in Houston that contracts with landscapers. While the mortgage crisis has become big news across the nation in the last year, IMS has always had to deal with the problem. “There has always been foreclosures and abandoned homes,” said Lang. “This is not new for us. What is new, however, is the volume.”

Lang estimates an overall increase of 30%, when it comes to abandoned homes. Some areas of the country have particularly become fertile for Landscapers Contractors. “It depends on the region,” said Lang. “Pockets of California, Las Vegas, Florida, Michigan, and Ohio have all been hit hard.”

So how do Landscape Contractors go about tapping into this market? According to Ms. Lang, her company has a nationwide network of contractors that do all of their housing inspections and maintenance. Any experienced landscape professionals interested in adding this to their business can go to the IMS website and apply to be on their list. “We are not looking for rookies though,” she said. The link is: https://www.imstoday.com/site/AboutIMS/ContractorApplications/tabid/103/Default.aspx

Source: New York Times