Unoccupied Property Issues

The longer a property sits vacant, the more susceptible it becomes to vandalism, water damage, unauthorized entry, and a host of other expensive maintenance related problems. These costs have become huge burdens for banks, investors, and insurance companies, as well as emergency services and local city governments. The sooner these conditions can be detected, reported, and repaired, expense liability can be drastically reduced. A secured and well maintained home will not only sell faster but can realize up to a 10% higher sales price!

Whether or not the utilities are turned on in a property, the need to monitor for gas leaks, water presence, smoke alarms, and vandalism remains of paramount importance. Vandals have become clever, and cutting the power to a property before the theft of internal assets—including copper wiring and pipes—has become commonplace. Early notification of these events needs to occur before any significant damage can occur. Those properties utilizing sump pumps rely on the availability of electricity. If power is lost, cut, or wiring is removed from a property, the resulting water damage can have serious repercussions. Normal monitoring services are typically not activated due to cost and complexity, thus making the detection and reporting of events under these conditions difficult, if not impossible, to perform.

Without periodic and expensive interior inspections, detecting that a problem exists is a significant issue. Preventing the problem from becoming a major repair item is even more so. These factors augment an already plaguing problem for maintaining houses in a state of readiness for conveyance during the REO phase of default.