Foreclosure Alley

Just out of curiosity, what is your reaction to this video and/or the preservation vendor doing the job?

I posted this comment yesterday at one of the sites where the video is located but I feel it bears re-posting here.

Not every preservation company operates in the same manner. We do trashouts on a routine basis in order for the banks & listing agents to put these foreclosed homes on the market.

We donate everything we possibly can and do this for a couple of reasons.

One, there is likely to be someone out there who can use what was left behind. Look at the fire victims right now who are having to start from scratch because they lost everything in the fires. All of their hopes and dreams are in ashes now and they will need to replace at least the basics.

We donate in every way we can possibly think of from baby furniture, clothing, toys, and tools right down to pots, pans, linens, and small appliances that are in working condition.

Two, we do have to take the real trash to the dump. Every time we go, we see a steady stream of other preservation vendors lining up with their trucks full. Southern California's landfills are filling up and some are closing down because they've reached their capacity. We add as little as we can to the landfills.

There is no way to change the fact that trashouts are necessary to the real estate industry.

But by utilizing the services of conscientous preservation companies and encouraging homeowners, who have been foreclosed on, to take their valuables with maybe them will we see an end to the waste. [or, as someone suggested, donate what they can to charity and put the rest at the curb before they leave. It's surprising what people will take from the curb.]

Unfortunately, many of those homeowners cannot even afford a moving truck by the time they leave their homes.

It's amazing what people leave behind. But if anyone truly has a need for something, just let me know.

BTW ~ We DO NOT make a profit off of the usable items. My conscience would never allow it. I don't have the storage space for yard sales and, frankly, can't stand sitting around all day haggling with people over a buck. Trash goes to the dump, usable items go to charity.

We have, on two occasions, had a Salvation Army truck show up at a trashout. They are limited, however, in what they will take. Baby furniture is NOT something they will take due to issues of liability for child endangerment reasons due to faulty, broken, or missing parts.

If anyone can provide me with charitable foundations willing to schedule pickups, I'd be happy to donate anything in good condition. I'm open to suggestions and ideas.

Linda

OK OK WE GET IT ALREADY.

You are the BEST.

I think you milked it dry, you got all the free advertising you could get.

To be honest, I could care less what happens to the trash after it is removed from the subject property.
Trust me, the free market will determine the highest and best use of this rubbish. The metal will be salvaged, some will be sold as second hand goods, some will probaly end up in someone's home as used furniture. That is your problem and not ours.

The job though is to take the stuff out. I really do not care what happens to stuff, I wan't it out so I can do my job, which is to market a property. What the company does with the property, I do not care.

Like the guy said though, it is difficult to get a charity to commit to pick up when scheduled, he has a job to do and a tight schedule.

I would be peed off if I went to a property and was told that the job was not complete because the furniture was to nice to throw away and the volunteer did not show up? I likely would not call you again for a trashout. I just want the crap out. Don't need the story behind it, the stuff involved, just a clean property.

I agree--the job is to remove all of the items and that's what they did. I don't care what happens to the property and the homeowners obviously didn't care, either.

This would be a great topic in the new REO property preservation thread on this site...

Interesting. I'm merely expressing an interest in this and explaining that not all preservation vendors are alike and asking for ideas and suggestions. I'm surprised at the responses that donatable items are considered useless and should go to the landfill.

I'd like to mention, too, that it doesn't take us anymore time to separate the trash from the treasures. We load them on the back of the truck, behind the trash, for drop off first and I would never delay a job waiting for a donation truck. I've also never left anything at the curb. The properties are clean and free of debris when I leave.

I DO think A & M Team is right, however. I just discovered the Property Preservation Forum over the weekend and, since this is the first weekend I've been able to most in awhile, keep forgetting it's there.

So, with that being said, is there any way I can move it? Or can a moderator move it for me?

Linda

Nobody said that those items are useless--we just said we didn't care what happened to them. We've got enough to worry about than whether or not a used piece of furniture was donated or sent to the landfill.

Thanks for clarifying, Northtxbroker. I stand corrected. I can see your point and I know your job is to make sure that the property is ready for showing.

I can appreciate that because we share the same goal. The sooner we get the property ready for showing, the sooner we can turn it back over to you and move on to other jobs.

Your job is not an easy one either but it interests me to read the posts regarding brokers and agents and watch the interaction between the members. It's one of the reasons I enjoy this forum.

Thanks!

Linda

Linda, Thanks for sharing and thanks even more for caring. I know that we are all overwhelmed in the REO industry. It is refreshing to hear that someone actually takes time to make a difference in more than their own bank account.

Quite frankly, it is enlightening to read these posts. Every now and then someone sticks out that makes me want to pay it forward. Today you were that person.

Happy Holidays.

Wow, that was a clean reo in the video and filled with decent looking stuff. The news crew probably used that reo to garner sympathy for the ex homeowner.

I wish all my reo listings looked like that one.

The trashout company owner claimed he invented the word trashout; I doubt it.

The trashout crew in the video wore uniform shirts.

The trashout crews I use look like they just came from the methadone clinic.

Come on Linda, are you sure you do not have a big screen tv from a cleanout in your living room?

I asked a trashout man why he did not save the good items.

He said that he tried to, but at the end of the day he was left with a big pile of stuff to save so in the dumpster it went. Time is money.

Agent99. Thank you. We do the very best we can. Always. And it's nice to get positive feedback such as yours. My crew and I appreciate it very much.

BPODrone ~

No. Sorry. No big TV's of any kind here. I don't have the room and I hardly ever watch TV.

When I first started out with my ex-partner, my bookkeeping business funded about 90% of all our operating costs.

As we came across items we knew we could sell, we fixed and cleaned them, then put them in our garage and ran ads on Craigslist. We never sold anything for a "profit" but used the cash for new job expenses. We would never have been able to grow otherwise. This way we were able to continue working while waiting for client payments to arrive and we were eventually less dependent on my bookkeeping business.

I never liked the idea of selling things that didn't belong to me and I couldn't stand using my garage as a storage, which was literally filled to the rafters with everything my partner deemed was "good". In most cases, it was trivial junk and ended up going to the Speedway for the City's Recycling Days bi-annual event.

When we split the company [and moved away from each other], I called the Salvation Army and had them take as much as they could handle. Thanks to them, we had very little to take to the landfills.

Now we donate everything we possibly can, even if it means taking a few minutes to clean the items up or throw a few loads in the washing machine. Items that are in great shape to begin with get dropped off at donation stations on the way to the landfill so they never even make it to my house to begin with and never have a chance to accumulate.

Accumulation is the main reason why I don't keep anything. I'm not materialistic and love having the space in my home, office, and garage to move around.

Linda

[quote=BPO Drone]Wow, that was a clean reo in the video and filled with decent looking stuff. The news crew probably used that reo to garner sympathy for the ex homeowner.

I wish all my reo listings looked like that one.

The trashout company owner claimed he invented the word trashout; I doubt it.

The trashout crew in the video wore uniform shirts.

The trashout crews I use look like they just came from the methadone clinic.

Come on Linda, are you sure you do not have a big screen tv from a cleanout in your living room?

I asked a trashout man why he did not save the good items.

He said that he tried to, but at the end of the day he was left with a big pile of stuff to save so in the dumpster it went. Time is money.
[/quote]
[b]Thanks for the video and Wow! a lot of things that you will feel bad to trush out.
I did a lot of trush out in Vallejo area, you don't even want to touch anything insidethe house![/b]