foreclosed upon them. One man’s poison has become another man’s meat. While foreclosures are causing havoc across the nation with countless number of repossessed properties this in turn has created many kinds of jobs.
The foreclosure is a judicial process by which the lender realizes unpaid dues of the borrower by seizing the units. The banks are not in the landlord business and as such they try their best to sell the houses. With so many foreclosed houses in the fray supply has far outstripped demand and the real estate market is understandably slumping at an alarming rate. New houses are not coming up. The construction industry with all its ancillaries of interior decoration units, furniture and fittings manufacturing etc have been badly affected. Jobs are disappearing.
But on the other side new kind of opportunities under the category of Repo jobs are sprouting. One has just to look around to find Repo jobs galore.
Vacant houses are causing eyesores attracting crime and disease. Taxes also remain unpaid. As such the lenders are under great pressure to take on the responsibility of repossessed houses. The present infrastructure of banks is well below what is expected of them to perform. As such they are hiring out agents to do the Repo jobs. One group walks into the houses and does the preliminary cleaning up task. These are no small Repo jobs. Each bit of left behind toy or stale food has to be cleared out. The Repo jobs involve emotional strain and physical stamina to stand up to the stench of rotting food or even dead bodies of pets left behind chained. Sometimes Repo jobs mean cleaning up faces smeared on the walls as an act of frustrated revenge. Another kind of Repo jobs mean securing the house. The doors and windows are barred and locks are put on the gates and main doors. Other Repo jobs are cleaning up of overgrown gardens. Weeds are pulled out and grass trimmed. There are specialists dealing with the Repo jobs of cleaning stagnant pools breeding mosquitoes. Special types of fish are released to feed on the mosquito larvae.
The next kind of Repo jobs relate to the selling of the house. This is a very difficult task considering the mood of the market. Banks are appointing agents for these kinds of Repo jobs. Firstly there is aggressive marketing of the houses offering heavy discount. For the banks it is so costly to maintain and pay taxes for these houses that they are often offering discounts of more than 50%. The marketing strategy includes holding auctions and or organizing bus tours for potential buyers to view all the houses for sale within a certain region. Some bust tours are free with a lunch bonus thrown in. Buyers are being awarded with fancy television sets. The most popular of all is the launching of websites selling their wares. Repossessed houses can be seen at the click of a mouse.