Do people really live this way?

A few days ago I was assigned two new bank-owned homes to sell for two different banks.  Both properties were located in Camarillo and both left me walking away saying to myself..."how do people live this way?". Below are pictures from both REO Homes in Camarillo.  

The picture above is not just wet marks on the carpet.  It is dog-urine-soaked carpet!!! Literally!  The entire upstairs was just like this.  You could barely breathe inside the home.  I got sick from just having to walk through and take the pictures.  

The picture above is similar.  The tenant had just vacated this home a few days before this picture and the entire home was filled with dog feces and dog urine. Now there are the obvious problems for the dog and this being an inhumane way to keep a pet, but I just can't figure out what causes someone to think that this is an acceptable way to live. 

It is normal for most homeowners, once they have begun to miss payments and realize that they may not own the home for much longer, to stop maintaining things.  They stop watering the grass! They stop mowing the lawn! They don't pull the weeds! They down replace light bulbs! But these examples of distressed homeowners goes beyond what is normal. There are solutions before you get to this point.  A Short Sale in Camarillo would have stopped most of this destruction from happening.  Not only that, but the Short Sale can help to not devastate your credit and ability to borrow at competitive rates in the near future. 

It is always my pleasure to sell homes for banks in situations like these because I know I am improving the community.  Many banks have begun to rehab properties before they come on the market and this is another reason why values have begun the process of improvement.  A few years ago, the banks would have just tried to sell these assets "as-is".  Find a cash buyer who would buy them on the cheap, rehab them and then flip it.  But that "on the cheap" purchase was dragging values down.  Now, the "on the cheap" value doesn't exist because the banks are taking the time and resources to allow these properties to be sold on the open market.  The banks make more money!  The community makes more money because the bank is using local contractors to do the rehab! And, the neighborhood values are improving because they are able to sell these properties at higher values.  

Don't let your home get to this point.  Use the process of the Short Sale to get out of your situation.