Vacant foreclosed residential properties are easy targets for vandalism and theft.
Thieves and vandals salivate over half-built homes and vacant properties owned by banks. As an example, a foreclosed Seattle home was the target of thieves over a three-week span.
Looters ravaged the house stealing appliances, fixtures and even the garage door. The bank lost an estimated $20,000 in appliances and building materials.
These types of properties are also magnets for criminal activity. The New York Times detailed how foreclosed homes become hideouts for dug dealers, addicts, prostitutes, gang members and squatters.
For financial institutions and property developers left holding the bag when the financial crisis hit the housing market, these types of things are unacceptable.
How to Secure Foreclosed Properties
To protect foreclosed properties, it’s very important to explore your private security options.
Having a physical presence, such as security guards, helps to deter criminal activity. As a rule, it is not cost effective to station in-place security guards at each site. Instead it’s better to have residential security guards.
Generally, you have two officers to a car that drive to all of your properties and do walking inspections. Proper foreclosed property inspections should include:
For banks and financial institutions with foreclosed properties in multiple geographical locations, it’s best to hire a nationwide security guard company to patrol your properties.
Working with a single nationwide security company reduces the administrative time and costs that you typically deal with when you use several security guard companies. Additionally, you get better, consistent service that makes it easy to reallocate security resources to different properties.
At National Security Service, we can help you patrol your foreclosed properties. To find out more on how we can help you, visit our Residential Security Patrol Webpage or call us at 888-386-4068.
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