Foreclosed Homes Being Stripped of Innards

By: Diane Tuman, Zillow Content Manager | July 22, 2008

Atlanta police view burglarized home. (Photo Courtesy CNN)

Police in Atlanta are seeing the effects of homes vacated by owners due to foreclosure: the insides are being gutted by thieves who rip out copper piping, water heaters, air conditioning units, stoves, refrigerators, cabinets, the kitchen sink, and even toilets.

Affluent Atlanta neighborhoods are now being targeted with thieves being seen carrying full bags full of copper, or pushing baby carriages and shopping carts full of stripped building materials.

As we said before, if you see something weird, it’s probably related to foreclosure.

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Categories: Foreclosures

Comments

4 Comments so far

Jonathan Blackwell on July 22, 2008 6:35 pm

This creates a problem moving these properties. Traditional loans are not going to work on stripped properties because lenders will not lend on collateral in disrepair. Generally, the only way to go when this happens is to get a FHA 203K or other renovation loan/ You could also pay cash, but for most that isn’t an option.

http://www.gogreenwithfha.com
Hitting the Links | Redfin Boston Sweet Digs on July 27, 2008 4:13 am

[...] Thieves are stripping homes of everything that can be carried out the door. [Zillow Blog] [...]
Board-up Specialists in Demand | Zillow® Blog on September 17, 2008 12:54 pm

[...] the homes from being taken oven by squatters and theives. There have been many recent cases of foreclosed homes being stripped of their innards and stripped of everything else. As long as cases like these keep happening (and they likely [...]
Loan Modification on May 6, 2009 3:39 pm

FHA 203(k) is a possibility; nonetheless, would you buy a home that has clear evidence it has been burglarized recently? Foreclosure or not, for my family’s safety I would not.