Foreclosure Crisis Aggravated Due to Missing Fixtures of Houses

The region of Avondale experienced a home sale at $165,000 while the original price of the house was $416,000. The reason behind such a drastic fall in the prices is the aspect of fixture theft in the various regions as the thieves are making a profit out of it.

John Lincoln, the real-estate agent selling such houses to the buyers commented that, “These are fixtures that are supposed to be part of the house. They basically took $30,000 out of the kitchen and left.”

The special agent, Julie Halferty working on the Phoenix FBI Mortgage Fraud Task Force observed that no one can be blamed for these missing fixtures as it is very hard to signify if these fixtures have been stolen by the family members who left the house of by the neighbours.

Kim Baker, the Tempe real-estate agent assumes that, “Without question, probably 85 to 90 percent of houses on the market under $200,000 have been stripped. “Appliances are the most commonly poached item, but plumbing fixtures and faucets, ceiling fans, light fixtures, water heaters and air-conditioning units are fair game.”

Even the FBI agents find it hard to conclude the amount of home fixtures being removed on a regular basis, but these occurrences have seriously gained in number. There were an approx 600% foreclosure Phoenix and more than half of the homes being sold were owned by the bank and stripping the houses off their fixtures is a common happening.

Tom Farley, the Arizona Association of Realtors, , executive director feels, “These crimes are happening with enough frequency that it has caught the attention of law enforcement, Realtors and lenders across our state. “Many Realtors are taking photos of the interior of the home as soon as they take a lender-owned listing to document the condition of the property in case of vandalism.”

The Attorney’s Office in Maricopa County went public with five fresh prosecutions against those accused with foreclosure stripping. Hopefully this announcement will educate more people about the trouble they can get into regarding foreclosure stripping. Lincoln emphasized that, “Take a look at Craigslist. It’s full of things that have been stripped out of houses.”

Halferty observed, “It is so blatant. People would advertise that they were selling cabinets in a foreclosure sale.” Lincoln feels that this the incidences of foreclosure stripping is highly rampant in the regions in and near the Valley. He observed that, “Mature neighborhoods aren’t seeing this as much as the newer neighborhoods in places like Avondale and Tolleson.”

Jay Butler, the director of realty studies in the ‘ Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness at Arizona State University at the Polytechnic campus’ observes that, “People are having to look at 20 or more houses before they find one that is suitable.”

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