My New Blog

Hello, i am Dan Pearce, a real estate broker serving Lee and Collier Counties.  Thanks for reading my blog and I hope that you find this information useful and informative.  The News-Press had an article today about this and I thought you might find it interesting.

Mounting foreclosures (www.foreclosuresinswfl.com) have created a cottage industry in Lee County: the trash-out business. Here's how it works: When a lender takes back a home in foreclosure, or a landlord kicks out a recalcitrant tenant, the trash-out specialists are called in to clean up their mess. When a real estate agent is retained by a lender to sell a house, typically within 48 hours the lock is changed and an estimate is made on what the house would sell for in 30 days marketing time or less. Then a trash-out company is hired to get rid of any leftover belongings and make the property presentable for sale. The field is a godsend for people who find them selves looking for work..

There are no statistics on how many trash-outs are being done, but with more than 2,000 foreclosure actions filed per month in the Lee County in recent months, people in the field say there's plenty of work. There are 2,644 residences seized by lenders and offered for resale on the Multiple Listing Service in Lee County. For many of those properties, the trash-out teams clean out everything in the house; put it in Dumpsters and haul it to the landfill.

What they find sometimes is heart breaking. Kids toys, photo albums, different types of collections are pretty common. Not all the unusual items found in homes are such grim reminders of the former resident's desperation. Sometimes the crews find money, even abandoned pets. Other items left behind are just strange. At one house, there were 200 one-gallon milk jugs in the garage, all in perfect rows. All empty, all capped, all 200 of them. Many people operating trash-out businesses say it is a financial stroke of luck at a time when jobs are scarce and the prospects look grim.

Cape Coral is the foreclosure capital of the world right now and this is the perfect place for this kind of business. Lehigh Acres has many foreclosures also. Traditional real estate companies are also getting more involved in the business. As an agent that deals with selling and listing lots of foreclosed properties in Lee and Collier counties, there' is definitely an increase and a lot of business now is taking care of houses in some form of the foreclosure process.

Sales of foreclosed houses are picking up all over the state. If you look at the listing on this website, www.ForeclosuresinSWFL.com, you will see many of the homes listed there are either sold or are pending. Often, the houses have been stripped by vandals or by their former occupants. At one house I listed this week, someone has ripped the plants out of the ground and took them along with all the kitchen appliances.

Houses are moving here quickly and the bank appear to be aggressively pricing then to clear their inventory. If you are looking for a home, foreclosure or not, now is the time to buy in SW Florida. Home prices are lower than they were in 2001. Cape Coral, Lehigh Acres, Naples, Fort Myers, Estero and Bonita Springs are all great places to enjoy the beaches and the sun. Please let me know if I can help you with your listing or purchase of you piece of paradise,

Thanks for reading my website. Contact me, Dan Pearce, if you have any questions at 239-940-1747.