Foreclosures Have Turned Into A Boon For Clean Up Firms

Posted in Foreclosures, August 1st, 2008 |

One man’s poison has turned out to be another’s meat. Foreclosures have turned into a boon for clean up firms who are on their toes busy with work. The evicted victims leave behind a lot of junk that need to be sorted and sifted by companies engaged by the banks to do the dirty work.

Trash and junk is now turning into cash. Junk haulers and clean up companies are thriving in the Inland Empire clearing up the debris from foreclosed houses. In fact the pickings are so good that competition is becoming hot with parties vying with each other to win the bank contracts.

Close on the heels of the clean up squads come the real estate agents to overhaul and spruce up the units before putting them on the real estate shop shelves for sale or on auction market.

Frances Valdez deals in such cleaning up operations. She commented that there is plenty of work in Fontana and Rancho Cucamonga and also in Colton. She recalls coming upon a house full of shoes, clothes, dishes, beds and other odd pieces of furniture. Within few months business is piling up centred round these discarded stuff. Valdez is the owner of Dynamic Hauling and REO Services based in Riverside. For cleaning each house her charges range from $200 to $1,300. All the stuff of the previous owner is cleared out and the property is given a cosmetic change. Work is grueling. She has taken on three full time employees to keep pace with her growing business.

She gives a graphic description of her tragic findings. In one of the houses she saw the remains of a hurriedly left behind meal. Obviously the Sheriff knocked asking them to leave when the family had just sat down to a meal. It is heartrending but foreclosures have made it unavoidable.

The foreclosure clean up squads are nicknamed trash-outs but the work is keeping many like Lisa Carvalho and her husband gainfully employed. She and her husband have set up their own concern – Casablanca Associates Inc. It is a real estate mortgage company having its own clean up crew. Their business is steady. She notices more advertisements coming up asking for clean up services. The demand is rising with more foreclosures rushing on to the centre stage.

According to ReatlyTrac the San Bernardino-Ontario-Riverside area ranked second in the national foreclosure race.