Ct Government Looks Other Way As Thieves Strip Vacant Houses Of Recylable Metals

Posted on by Listify Me


Ct Government Looks Other Way As Thieves Strip Vacant Houses Of Recylable Metals

For some time now vacant homes that are listed for sale are being robbed of copper pipes, wire, radiators etc. and sold to Metal Recycling facilities.

Why you ask? Well obviously there is a market for it, and a bad economy that drives it. It is the same thing over and over in everything we do…Supply and Demand! Who that market belongs to is the question. It belongs in part to the criminals who cash in on the precious metal and most likely to the gangsters running the facilities. Why I wonder has this gone on so long? It can’t possibly be that nobody has ever thought about tightening up the process before. Obviously the state is making money on the centers prospering; but isn’t it missing the boat if this problem is not addressed? In the long run everyone loses when the housing market comes to a screeching halt.

As it stands now a photo I.D. is all that is required to cash in on the goods. Do you think a criminal may know how to make a fake one of these? Wow!!!! The further I dig into this the scarier it becomes. How is it possible that this system has been left ungoverned when there is a solution to the problem so simple that a 2nd grader could figure it out? Are you going to tell me that with all of the homes that currently sitting vacant and stripped that nobody has figured out how to stop this?

The ‘flip’ side of the problem (no pun intended) is that the bank-owned properties become unsellable to low income, financed buyers if the bank is not willing to make the repair.

When this is the case the home price plummets and becomes an investor/flipper’s dream. I do get the fact that appraisers will understand that the property was sold as a foreclosure or REO and that the low price of the home will not necessarily affect the prices of the homes for sale in the immediate area. I also understand that the flippers will rehab the home and ultimately that will keep the local home prices, up or at least keep them where they are currently. If you have never seen a person with steam coming from their ears just talk to one of my ‘flippers’ who had acquired one of these formerly stripped homes.

The rehab had been completed, the property was listed and a ready willing and able buyer was under contract and headed for the closing table when it became known that the final walk through didn’t go smoothly. You see there were no lights. Perhaps the power was off? The water wasn’t working either. Oh wait the property had been stripped again!

Perhaps nothing has been done because the state and town stand to receive sales tax from the flipper’s purchase and then again months later for the rehabbed home sale. The state may be turning a blind eye because of that additional tax income and it understands that newly rehabbed homes will bring up the area.

Dorothy is not surrendering here! What about the sellers who have to move out and relocate before their houses are sold and then their homes become a target of this scheme? It will cost the homeowners thousands to repair. If not the homeowner the homeowner’s insurance company initially takes the hit. Consequently the cost will be passed on to the consumer in the form of rate hikes.

These increases will affect the entire neighborhood! It could be the difference of a seller making a small profit on their home to it becoming a short sale. It is a problem for the honest citizen who is trying to do the right thing. The banks are already making it next to impossible to do so.

As you probably figured out I am a Realtor and an experienced one. Guess what? I am tired of showing properties that have been freshly stripped of their guts and finding my vacant listing stripped and unsellable too. It has happened to two of my listings AND to three houses I have shown in the past week.

Still nothing is being done! Given the millions of dollars worth of real estate being stripped hourly across the country do you think maybe something should change here? Let’s think about some very elementary solutions to the problem. I am sure or at least hopeful that there will be someone way smarter than myself that will come up with better answers but for now let’s think about some first things that could happen immediately.

First of all the ID presented to the front line at the recycling center would need to be a valid drivers license which checks out to be valid through a system similar to a police scanner. That simple step right there will keep most of the felons away! For the rest of the hoodlums which are still undiscovered and are in fact free of outstanding warrants; an address of the property from which the goods came from would need to be disclosed.

If all procedures are followed properly the cash will be dispensed and a receipt will be given to the seller. By the way, in lieu of an actual address there will be no recorded responses that sound anything like, ‘I found it in the woods, a dumpster’ or ‘Somebody gave it to me’. It must be verifiable to belong to the depositor. I believe a simple step like this will put a dent in the business. Lastly, just in case there is anyone at the center working on the inside, there will be random audits of weights sold and cash dispensed at all metal recycling centers.

While I go on with this rant on my quest to solve the world’s problems before happy hour, I have a question. How is it possible that most of the houses I show in impoverished areas by state aide ‘life timers’ who choose to suck off the system instead of using it as temporary assistance to get back on their feet get away with it by doing nothing but giving up? From what I can tell the system is set up to fail. It simply goes like this, if you give up on everything the state will pay for everything for you. So what’s the motivation to work, rehabilitate and contribute?

My solution is pretty straightforward. Anybody without a valid handicap or disability over the age of 18 will not receive one penny, food stamp or benefit until a document with 20 hours of community or volunteer service is logged on it per week and signed off on. Of course there will have to be an agency that will be formed to regulate this. Weekly sign-offs, bi-weekly or monthly makes no difference here.

Do you get my point? I am already creating jobs and I haven’t even run for president yet. A minimum of 20 hours per week will be the requirement. I believe that once recipients have actually worked for their benefits that a feeling of accomplishment will inspire a work ethic within the individuals A realization that a paycheck can come from something that they like to do is attainable. They will gain the confidence in themselves to become productive citizens. Picking up trash and other community service type jobs will no longer be their work of choice. Call me crazy but it is back to the basics, the way it had to be once, right?

Hopefully I will spark conversation by writing this that may inspire somebody else to become as agitated as I am and demand something be done about these problems. Perhaps things can change for the better. It will have to be one step at a time of course. I am a ‘Pay It Forward’, ‘Good Karma’ ‘What comes around goes around’ type person. I believe that doing the right thing may become contagious if it is initially a mandatory thing.

Sincerely,

One tired West Hartford Realtor, who chooses to remain anonymous for fear of targeted ransacking of my vacant listings.

 

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