Foreclosed Property Owners Trashing Homes On The Upswing In South Florida

In South Florida, the Sun Sentinel reports:

• Some South Floridians who lose their houses to foreclosure try to get even. They'll strip the plumbing, ruin the carpets and rip out doors. At a home [...] in Cooper City, listing agent Craig Green found the top of the toilet tank missing, the door to the dryer ripped off, the garage filled with junk and a wall in the master bedroom with a large hole in it. Jim Banford, broker-owner of Real Estate Asset Disposition Corp., saw roofing tar in the toilet of a house [...] in West Palm Beach. A 2-foot fish and cement were poured down the toilet at another of his listings nearby.

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• Exasperated lenders are getting wise to the ruse and offering "cash for keys" deals, essentially paying homeowners as much as $2,000 not to take out their frustrations on their properties before leaving. Roughly half of all foreclosed properties are returned to the bank with substantial damage, according to a national survey of 1,500 real estate agents by Campbell Communications, a marketing and research firm in Washington, D.C. "Until you see and smell these properties, you don't really understand the problem," said Tom Popik, a partner at Campbell Communications and a market researcher in the mortgage industry for 15 years.

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• In Davie, a homeowner who lost the property in Foreclosure left behind a caged dog."Your eyes would water when you went in there," said Jane Caro, an agent for Prudential Florida WCI Realty who toured the home. "The lender had to put new drywall in because the smell wouldn't come out."

For more, see Ex-owners around South Florida trash foreclosed homes before leaving.