Are the Bank Owned Homes ruining our neighborhoods?

What is happening to our neighborhoods?

With foreclosures and short sales on the rise in the Elk Grove area, more and more homes are sitting vacant and neglected.  Realty Trac is currently reporting the following statistics for the Elk Grove area on its website:

Zip Code - 95624 - 707 Pre-Foreclosure Homes and 448 Bank Owned Homes

Zip Code - 95758 - 1075 Pre-Foreclosure Homes and 640 Bank Owned Homes

Zip Code - 95757 - 452 Pre-Foreclosure Homes and 269 Bank Owned Homes

Driving around these neighborhoods, you will find dead lawns, front and back lawns tall with weeds, garbage cans out, fences broken, newspapers piled up, trash left on driveways, green pools.  Several of these neighborhoods are new - built in the past few years - and the homeowners were very excited when they moved into their new homes.  Now they return after work to their neighborhoods where they not only see their property values decreasing but also the house next door becoming an eyesore.

In a quick search of the MLS in these neighborhoods, I found the following -

As agents we all know, that the front appearance of a home is cructial to selling our listings, but how much control do we have when the property has been sitting vacant for months and the former owners have let it go.  When we receive it as a REO hopefully the bank is allowing us to go in and get it cleaned up, the lawns mowed, the trees and landscaping trimmed, but by then the lawns are normally dead already.  We can turn the water back on and hopefully set the sprinklers to start trying to green up the lawns, but the property has now been an eyesore for several months. 

There was a recent article in the Sacramento Bee concerning this problem.  Entitled "Growing Like Weeds - Blighted Look Makes Sales Even Harder", it discusses the number of increasing calls to Code Enforcement Officers on vacant homes.  To read the article, click here.

In the Elk Grove area, there is at least one neighborhood that is trying to do something about this, the Franklin Reserve area, in the 95757 zip code area.  "The Human Rights/Fair Housing Commission will be sponsoring a public forum in conjunction with the Elk Grove Police Department on Tuesday, October 2nd @ 5:30 PM in City Council Chambers to address the issues raised by the Franklin Reserve Neighborhood Association. The forum will provide information on the tools available through local government and the judicial system to address issues such as vacant and neglected homes, absentee owners of rental properties, and neighborhood crime." - this excerpt was taken from the Franklin Reserve Neighborhood Association website.   Hopefully this forum will come up with solutions to the ever increasing problem that our neighborhoods are experiencing. 

Neighbors and Real Estate agents all have to take responsbility for our neighborhoods.  As we list REO properties for Countrywide Home Loans we are trying to make certain that the homes and lawns are getting cleaned up as soon as possible and that there are not broken windows, broken fences, and garbage blighting the property.  In my neighborhood alone, there are 3 REO listings and at least 1 home owned by an absentee owner that has been vacant for almost 2 years now.  2 of the REO listings are being maintained by the agents and banks, 1 currently is not and the home owned by the absentee owner has been being maintained by the neighbors for over a year now, as the owner does not seem to care how neglected this home is.  

Most banks require the agents to inspect their listings and assignments from the banks at least once a week, but as the number of Bank Owned/REO listings grow, not all agents will get this done, so homeowners can help.  Neighbors can help by calling the real estate agent who has the property listed and letting them know if there are any problems going on with a particular home.

The good news is not all Bank Owned Homes or Short Sales look like the above properties.  Here is a sample of a few of the ones I found in the MLS during my quick search of Bank Owned/REO & Short Sale homes:

What else can we do as a community to help insure that our neighborhoods do not turn into blighted areas over the next few years as the numbers of Bank Owned homes continue to increase?

For information on our current REO listings, go to:

4447 Excelsior Road, Mather, CA  95655

For information on the Elk Grove area, go to:

My historical perspective of life in Elk Grove, CA

Lori Mode and Bruce Durham, Keller Williams, Elk Grove