Active Use of Foreclosure Field Services Helping Neighborhoods
The slow foreclosure process has plagued many areas across America. An abundance of vacant homes are quickly turning into safety hazards and eyesores – and also severely taking down property values. Property preservation companies, specialists in foreclosure trash outs and maintenance, routinely clean up and secure these unoccupied properties, but, often, no one is employed to perform this vital service and neighboring residents are left to watch the area deteriorate.
Enter Pasco County in Florida, located along the Gulf Coast in Florida. As reported recently in “The St. Petersburg Times,” the county has bought – or is in the process of buying – 170 foreclosed properties within its borders. It plans to spend millions for property preservation services and foreclosure contractors to rehabilitate those homes, not only helping to save neighborhoods, but also giving the biggest business opportunity in the state to mortgage field service companies.
There is no doubt that Florida was one of the hardest-hit states by the housing crash of the past few years. Even now, one in four of all mortgages in the Sunshine State are either past due or in the foreclosure process. That’s why, back in March, Pasco County received almost twenty million dollars in Federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds to help deal with the record number of foreclosures.
While many other local governments really haven’t known what to do with the money, Pasco immediately put it towards buying up these homes, fixing them up and reselling them. The property preservation specialists and contractors have gotten four and a half million dollars of that money to fix up the homes that the county bought – nearly doubling many of the appraised property values in the process. Real estate investors have been watching what the county has been doing – and are jumping into action. More foreclosed homes are being bought by these investors, who bankroll fixing up the properties and getting them back on the market for a profitable resale. As a result, home prices have been holding steady over the past eight months.
It’s clear that buying and fixing up foreclosed properties is good business – not just for a property preservation company, but for the real estate market, the residents and the overall economy. It’s an effective solution to what will be an ongoing problem for quite some time not only in Florida, but all across the country.
Article Directory : http://www.articlecube.com
