Michigan Foreclosures Up for a Cleaning

Clean-up drives are finding a new location in Michigan’s foreclosed homes.

Last year, John Terrel decided to add a new division to his Clean Team company called Real Estate Rescue to clean up foreclosed homes and make them more marketable. Terrel observed that a lot of these homes were left in a bad state, prompting lenders=’ and realtors’ need to have someone clean up the trash.

“Trash-outs”, as it is now called, means getting rid of all unneeded materials from the foreclosed homes. Clean Team removes everything from toys to high-end machinery until nothing is left but bare walls and a home ready to go on sale. Clean Team also provides other maintenance and cleaning services such as cleaning carpets, washing windows, and painting jobs. It would assure the absence of squatters. One can avail of Clean Team’s services starting at $295. So far, the company has taken care of 45 commercial properties in Southeast Michigan.

According to Karen Marcinak of Real Estate One, Clean Team has proven to be dependable with every transaction. The service has allowed realtors like Marcinak to put saleable foreclosed houses on the market.

Presently, Michigan foreclosures have decreased 15.07 percent compared to last year. However, the state is still at the 7th spot in the ranking of percentages of homes facing foreclosure. According to RealtyTrac, one in 376 Michigan homes received a foreclosure filing last October. This means a total of 11, 393 filings, an 8 percent increase from September. The top spot went to Nevada with one in 76 troubled homes receiving a filing.

The figures are not that much of good news, but for Clean Team, this would mean good business for coming months, especially since the foreclosure problem does not seem to be stabilizing anytime soon. In fact, the new clean-up division makes up 35 percent of Clean Team’s profits.