To supplement my Real Estate practice here in LasVegas I have a Remediation Company called the Touch-Up Man. (robsellsvegas.net) My company gets REO's and Foreclosed properties ready to sell. There are a lot of Bank Owned properties here in Vegas. When you drive through certain neighborhoods you see sign after sign - FORECLOSED - AUCTION - BANK WILL SELL - In some areas prices of homes have dropped to under 80 dollars a square foot. When I bought my first home here in 1993 it went for 80 dollars a square foot. That was seventeen years ago, so most homes in this town are worth what they were seventeen years ago. Somebody said to me a long time ago a house is no longer an investment, it is a commodity. I should have listened to that piece of wisdom. Now I work with banks and Realtors fixing homes up and getting them ready for sale. Some properties are completely trashed - the owners take everything including the kitchen sink - literally. They take the sinks, the toilets, the air-conditioners, the water-heaters - all the appliances - the kitchen cabinets - flooring - switch plates - ceiling fans... and on and on and on. Some people like to stink their places up with trash and animal droppings. One house I finished last month had animals living in it for three months and the place stunk so bad you couldn't open the door or the whole neighborhood would start stinking. On the second floor there was a pile of trash in the master bedroom about four-feet high - I'm not exaggerating - four-feet high, with beer cans strewn all over the top of the trash like ornaments on a Christmas Tree. This place was so disgusting I had to put Vics Vapor Rub under my nose to mask the odor. The whole thing is sad. There was another house where the people walked out and left everything they owned. There was a big ashtray in the middle of the bed and a bunch of empty containers of pain medicine. I guess when they ran out of the pain killers they put out their last cigarette and walked out the door - at least that's what it looked like. It made me feel sick. It could happen to anybody. Most people who loose their job are about a month or two away from going broke, and unless they have somebody like a family member to help them out they can loose everything. I'm no Bleeding Heart, and I believe and working hard and being responsible - but next time you or one of your clients getS real excited about landing a great deal on a Foreclosed Property you might want to take a moment and think how it might have gotten there. Sometimes a little humility can be a good thing. Rob Basichis - REPORTING TO YOU LIVE ON THE FRONT LINE OF THE FORECLOSURE CRISIS. It up to us to get our cities cleaned up. If you wait on the government it's never going to happen. All of us in the business have to get involved.
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