Foreclosure Stripping Alive & Well In Chicago Suburbs

In suburban Chicago, Illinois, SouthtownStar reports:

• Now appearing in the Southland: the amazing disappearing kitchen! It's not magic, though. It's homeowners leaving their foreclosed houses bare, stripping and selling everything they can to pay bills or stick it to the bank that's giving them the boot. [...] From ceiling fans to furnaces, light fixtures and water heaters, some homeowners are taking whatever they can. And since they're usually unskilled and doing this in haste, they're damaging things along the way.

• [Real estate agent Patrick] Zomparelli recently sold a foreclosed house in Orland Park for $89,000. Its entire kitchen had been removed, leaving only the paint outlines of where the cabinets once were. Someone had tried to take the tub, damaging it in the process. They even took the carpet, Zomparelli said, leaving a home that would have sold for much more if left intact.

• Rich Hofeld, owner of HouseMasters home inspection services, said his employees see items stripped from about 20 percent of foreclosed homes they inspect. "Often, the plumbing is gone, the water heater, furnace," said Hofeld, who is the mayor of Homewood. "I can't say that it's people who've lived there, or someone who came along after they moved out."

For more, see Foreclosure stripping leaves some suburban homes bare.

See also, Chicago Sun Times: Evicted owners stripping homes of all valuables (FORECLOSURES: 'They took everything' -- some homes stripped bare by ex-owners). foreclosure fixture stripping apple