In real estate It wasn’t too long ago that the biggest game in town for vandals was to strip vacant homes of copper wire and copper plumbing. With copper prices down and so many vacant homes being sold by banks in expensive neighborhoods, the newest game is to strip a house of anything of value as shown in the above picture.
A home in Encinitas – costing $13 million to build and furnish was foreclosed by the bank. It failed to sell at a bank foreclosure auction with a starting bid of $2.3 million. The home left unguarded by the bank, is missing an estimated $1 million worth of fixtures, from antique doors to top of the line toilets.
The 16,000 square foot Spanish hacienda style house is on 1.24 acres in rural east Encinitas. Suzy Brown, an electrical engineer who built the house, surrendered title after not making payments for more than a year and moved out March 22.
“It’s like a car up on blocks,” sheriff’s Detective Steven Ashkar said. “It’s been stripped.”
There are a string of burglaries targeting unoccupied homes in the East Bay Area according to police reports. The thieves are going after “staged” homes, full of expensive furniture, bedding and decorations. .They could be possibly driving, looking for homes for sale, looking for for-sale signs in the yard. Another ploy is to go to an open house that is unoccupied, unlock one window or door for easy access so they can come back to clean out the house.
They could also be going online and looking at homes for sale in particular areas, and doing the virtual tours with the Internet,” explained Orinda Police Sergeant Andre Charles. They could also be going online and looking at homes for sale in particular areas, and doing the virtual tours with the Internet,” explained Orinda Police Sergeant Andre Charles.
Continuing on:
Police in Indio, in Southern California, arrested three people accused of breaking into a dozen houses for sale in nearby communities. They recovered more than $250,000 worth of stolen goods, including artwork.
A home stager in Emeryville, Calif., says thieves took about $11,000 worth of furniture and accessories she had brought to spruce up the homes, “Its devastating,” she says.
So if you are going to sell a home that you don’t live in, be sure and have an alarm system and set it. Tell your real estate agent to inform everyone that nothing is to be removed from your home. Depending on the value of your home, you might want to contract with a security company to guard your home. That’s what the bank did in Encinitas, after they lost a million dollars worth of property.