Catfish Cleaning Pools and Cat Burglars Stealing Appliances

A record number of mortgage defaults and foreclosures has lead to thousands of homes that owners and lenders are not maintaining. Sometimes this means the house fills with mold that can be highly toxic. Unfortunately, some idiots simply paint over the mold and sell the home As Is. That's illegal, but it happens here in Florida. One lender actually replaced the carpet in a home, but refused to turn the electricity on. Without air conditioning, it only took a month for black mold to grow on all of the walls . . . but the carpet looked great. Bottom line . . . they save a couple hundred buck on the electric bill, and it cost them $2o,000 in mold remediation!

Catfish - On the sometimes funny side of the default and foreclosure problem are swimming pools, where local communities are placing catfish in the pools to control the algae. Actually, it's not very funny because these swimming pools become mega-sized breeding pools for mosquitos. What is not funny is . . . the catfish will clean up the algae in the pool, but that does nothing for the mosquitoes breeding in these pools. At least the pools look good, and one shot of chlorine will take care of the mosquitoes. The catfish they are using are commonly known as "plecos" or "plecostomaus" but they don't eat mosquito larvae. To control the mosquitoes local officials might want to think about the mosquito fish in Florida, a guppy type fish. In any event, what I am trying to point out is . . . the problem with abandoned homes is out of control and there is no serious effort to manage these homes properly.

Cat Burglars - Stealing appliances from foreclosed homes is now almost a hobby for some. A team of 2-3 guys can have a refrigerator, range, washer and dryer out within 20 minutes. One problem are homes that are simply not secured properly. Another problem are the banks refusal to use electronic lock boxes. We still don't know why, but banks insist we use cheap $25 combo boxes. The only problem is once the code is out, anyone can get in. Now to show you how dumb these banks are. They often use the same combination on all of their properties. So once you know a half a dozen combo codes, you can get into a fair share of the foreclosed properties. Even if you don't know the code, you can usually call the listing agent and get the code with nothing more than telling them you are a real estate agent showing the property to your client.

Cat-ostrophic - This is the cat we will be talking about when the banks finally realize they are toast because they are seeing 70-90% losses on their mortgages. Ouch.

Looking for a home in Florida? - I'd welcome the opportunity to assist you with a purchase of a home or condo. For additional information please call me 772-260-5448 or visit our website http://www.floridahomes.pro/

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