Foreclosed homes bring stinky pools and health warnings!

Saw this article today from Florida Association of Realtors and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about the number of dirty pools in Florida due to foreclosures and it struck home.

From what I've seen it is not just foreclosures that end up with that as an issue. As you know if you read this blog at all, we now do a large number of short sales and distressed properties and it seems like the VERY first thing to go when homeowners are cutting back and considering having to short sell is....the pool guy!!  :-)    And a lot of the property management companies that banks use to sell their REO property may have the lawn mowed but never hire pool care.

The OTHER thing I have learned is that, particularly down here in Paradise, you stop putting chemicals in the pool and even if you run the pump night and day it will be green in about a week to ten days. When they let the electricity go off and then the pool doesn't run - well the pool looks like pea soup in as little as 4-5 days. And if there is no cage then it starts looking like a science project with polliwogs and toads and snakes and mosquitoes pretty darn quick.

I AM amazed though that I find home LISTED for SALE where the power is ON but because the owner fired the pool guy no one is putting chemicals into it and even though it's running it's green.  What we find is that, regardless of how well priced it is - if the pool is green it is SO much harder to sell.  So I am always encouraging sellers, even those upside down on the loan, if they are serious about selling to keep the pool up but quite honestly I now almost always have a bag or two of shock in the back of the car and some chlorine tablets.  At the last short sale we closed (and it was for three quarters of a million dollars on Siesta Key) the buyer asked for the number of the pool guy so he could continue on the "contract" with them. I opened my trunk and pointed to my chlorine tabs and said that the pool guys last day was.....TODAY! Me!

Here's the article - the situation really ISN'T funny if this pool is next door to you:

http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/n3-061008.cfm

- Mike W.