Find Foreclosed Homes
New Hurricane Season is Drawing Attention to Find
Foreclosed Homes (see the video
with good preventive advice)
http://offto.net/findforeclosedhomes
Tallahassee,
Florida: It’s that time of year when emergency management officials
stress the importance of preparing your home for the start of a new hurricane
season.
But what if a home has been foreclosed on and is sitting empty?
The Associated
Press Economic Stress Index provides a month-by-month analysis of
foreclosure, bankruptcy and unemployment rates in more than 3,000 U.S. counties.
The index confirms that some of the areas most likely to be stuck by a
hurricane are suffering the most in this recession.
In March, there were 281,691 homes in foreclosure in Florida and coastal
counties in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
Unoccupied, these homes would be defenseless in a storm. Nearby homes and
their residents would also be at risk from wind-propelled debris.
Who will secure all the foreclosed
homes if a storm does approach? No one really knows.
In some cases, a property management company hired by the bank could do the
work. Or it could be a real estate agent, a homeowners’ association or even
resourceful neighbors who clear debris from yards and board windows.
Yet no state laws mandate who prepares buildings before a hurricane.
Even officials from the Florida
Division of Emergency Management say that securing foreclosures isn’t a
concern, although they admit unsecured home could add to the damage if a
hurricane hits.
“There is a potential there for condemnable debris from a storm. All the
more reason why residents need to police their areas to make sure their
structure is properly prepared for a storm should one come calling,” Mike
Stone, Florida Division of Emergency Management spokesman said.
“There’s always a danger form any type of structure that’s not properly
prepared that’s facing hurricane force winds. So all the more reason why
residents need to properly prepare their homes if the plan to be, if you’re in
an area, you’ve policed your home, you know that you neighbor’s away, take a
look around their property too and make sure that area is secure.”
“Until we get through these foreclosure processes in the unfortunate case
where that has to be done, nothing from our perspective can be done because we
do not have legal title to the home,” Alex Sanchez, Florida Bankers
Association said.
Sanchez says once a bank takes over the foreclosed property, it has incentive
to make sure it’s protected during a hurricane.
“That’s our collateral so we have all the interest in the world as a
title owner at that point and time to protect collateral so we’ll do whatever
we need to do to protect the collateral.”
The issue of who cares for vacant homes during a time of crisis seems simple:
The legal owner is responsible for securing the property. But communities are
already struggling to get banks to mow lawns, much less put up hurricane
shutters - if they weren’t swiped from the foreclosed home, along with
appliances, copper wiring and air conditioners.
If the bank hasn’t yet taken the title of a home, the property is in a kind
of limbo. Local officials or homeowners associations may have no legal right to
trespass and secure it. And many hard-hit counties don’t have the money or
manpower to do it.
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“There’s so much inventory out there that the buyer can pick and choose,” said Susan Sirles Fidler, a Realtor at Re/Max 10, Oak Lawn. But she cautioned, “The stuff that’s almost free is almost free because it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg to put it back together. It’s not buyer beware as much as buyer be smart.”
