Foreclosure Cleaning Companies Help to Keep Neighborhoods Safe: Here’s How

When a home goes into foreclosure, it not only affects the family that lived there, it affects the community at large. Why? Because there’s no one there to maintain the property. Who’s going to cut the grass, trim the hedges, pick up newspapers, fix the broken fence, etc.?

After all while, a property starts to look unlived in, which invites a whole host of other problems, eg, vagrants camping out, teenagers causing mischief, vandals looking to spray paint or “tag” a property. This is why home foreclosures are magnets for crime on every level - from graffiti to drugs and prostitution.

And, this is why many neighborhoods are taking it upon themselves to hire foreclosure cleanup companies to clear up abandoned and/or foreclosed on homes. They want to keep their neighborhood safe.

Why Foreclosure Cleaning Companies Keep Neighborhoods Safe

Foreclosure Cleanup Companies Give Properties a Lived-In Look: Many times, when previous homeowners leave a property, they may leave behind trash, old furniture, clothing, toys, lawn equipment, etc. This screams to undesirables, “I’m an abandoned home. Come and have your way with me.  

According to the Las Vegas Sun article, Clean up foreclosed home, or city will:

Anger over the blight caused by foreclosed and abandoned homes is evident in the number of complaints reported by the Southern Nevada Health District.

Foreclosure cleaning companies alleviate this by giving foreclosed homes a lived-in look; or at the very least a well-maintained one. Trash and debris gets hauled away; yards get mowed; locks get changed; hedges get trimmed; etc

Because foreclosure cleanup companies perform so many services - from lawn care and maintenance to trash hauling -- it removes at the outward, most obvious signs that a property is not occupied.

This means it has less of a chance of attracting undesirables.

Foreclosure Cleanup Companies Provide Locksmithing Services: As mentioned just above, these companies provide many services. One of them is changing locks.

To explain why this is necessary, once a home officially reverts back to the bank as a foreclosure, one of the first things they do is change the locks. This prevents previous tenants - and anyone they may have given a key -- from accessing the property.

Foreclosure Cleanup Companies Provide Ongoing Property Maintenance: Many foreclosure cleanup companies do more than provide one-time cleaning services; they can provide ongoing care until a property is resold or rented, eg, lawn maintenance, winterization, etc.

Many foreclosed homes are sitting on the market for months on end, or longer. This means they need ongoing maintenance to prevent reverting back to looking like an unlived-in home. In a robust economy with a thriving real estate market, a home typically sells within 90 days. If it's on the market longer than that, it's considered to be a "slow mover."

But, in a struggling economy like the one we have now that has a glut of homes on the marketing, it can take a home six months or more – before the bank even gets around to giving it attention and recognizing it as a “foreclosed home for sale.” Add on another three to four months for the realtor to get it back in shape and on the market to be resold, it can be over a year before a home is reoccupied.

In the meantime, it can be a sitting crime magnet.  And, this is where having a foreclosure cleanup company on hand can help keep neighborhoods safe while waiting for new homeowners to move in.