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Column: Eyesores fill region, but help is on the way

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Shannon Behnken

sbehnken@tampatrib.com

Published: November 1, 2009

Shannon Behnken

This month marks one year since the foreclosed home across the street from me was supposed to be sold at auction at the courthouse.

We neighbors were actually looking forward to this. After months of watching the weeds and mold grow freely, we were ready for a new owner to take over. The once-beautiful house was going downhill fast, after all. Someone had even ripped the air conditioning unit off the side of the house.

But the sale didn't happen. The lender canceled and never rescheduled. In fact, it made no more steps toward taking the home back. Meanwhile, the deteriorating house sits empty, dragging down property values and bugging the neighbors.

Unfortunately, this isn't the only home in our south Hillsborough County neighborhood in this predicament. Several other homes have slipped into foreclosure and become eyesores over the past year.

There are thousands of vacant homes sprinkled among subdivisions throughout the Bay area. If you're not dealing with mortgage problems yourself, you - like me - are likely living among foreclosures and empty homes.

"It's a big problem," said Jim Blinck, manager of Hillsborough County's code-enforcement operation. "We have cases where the foreclosure lawsuit was filed a year ago and there's still no sale date."

Blinck feels bad for the neighbors who make complaint calls to his office - sometimes 50 a day - about abandoned homes. He knows what it's like, too. There's a vacant home beside his house.

"Two guys were living there, and they just walked away one day," he said. "I've been cutting the yard."

It used to be that when a homeowner defaulted, the lender foreclosed and sold the home. Selling these homes has become a difficult task, though, so some lenders don't want the homes. Once a lender takes possession, it is responsible for taxes and fees, such as homeowners association dues.

Real estate experts expect these vacant homes to eventually be gobbled up by investors. But the price has to be pretty low to make it worthwhile for an investor to improve the homes and sell them again.

Investors and others are buying some of the empty houses, but it's not easy finding diamonds in the rough, said Paul De La Torre, a real estate agent with ERA Polo Group. Some of the abandoned homes are in such bad shape that nobody wants them, he said.

If you think the outsides of some houses look bad, he said, you should see the insides. He describes homes with mold growing on the walls and flooring popping up because of humidity. Some homeowners deliberately trashed the homes before leaving.

"One guy let his dogs roam freely in the house for days and relieve themselves," De La Torre said. "Then he locked the doors and left. Another guy plugged his bathtub and turned the water on, flooding the house."

Most of the homes will eventually sell, but De La Torre wonders whether some will have to be bulldozed or at least gutted.

The county will soon get a little help. A new ordinance kicks in Monday that will require lenders to register homes with the county as soon as the foreclosure lawsuit is filed. Registration costs $100, and the money will go toward taking care of homes with code violations.

"It's something," Blinck said.

Back on my street, neighbors decided to take the situation into their own hands. We took turns mowing the lawn. One neighbor even pressure-washed the mold off the driveway.

Recently, a lawn service started stopping by periodically. It was the first sign of life at the home in a year.

Maybe the lender is finally taking it back, we thought, and maybe it's going to be sold.

But it still sits, and we still wait.

Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804.

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