[quote=Scarlet]In my area three empty shadow inventory homes are being watched by the builder. I know him and he has not been paying, but in an effort to make things easier on himself with the bank(maybe), he keeps them tidy.
Another empty one is owned by someone now out of state and a nieghbor keeps a close eye on it. Probably just out of the desire to keep it from becoming a vandalized eyesore that hurts his house value, but I don’t know for sure.
Another has been empty for seriously three years! Again nieghbors watch this one and one even parks his car in the drive so it looks occupied. I called Countywide on this and a few months ago and they said “not for sale”!
There are many others that I have no idea if anyone does anything but they all seem to be holding up OK. Then again this is a safe area with little crime.
*PS, None of these houses show up on RealtyTrac or the MLS.[/quote]
Hmmm… I guess this can happen in a few cases…or they (the banks) may pay a few bucks for somebody to come in once a month to open&close doors/windows, run water and such. I can understand neighbors pitching in to not let it go to shambles and hurt the area…But like you mentioned, in a nice area with low crime, I can see this happening more often than not. But there are plenty of shadow foreclosure in higher crime area….It still befuddles me to what heights things are kept quiet and covered up, waiting for… I don’t know what? They have to get rid of them sooner than later…