"Ending foreclosure profiteering" or...buying houses in bulk

[WhiskeyGirl]

During the real estate bubble, older urban neighborhoods across the nation, from Atlanta to Baltimore to Cleveland to Sacramento and countless communities in between fell victim to a devastating plague of predatory lending and mortgage fraud.

But the bursting bubble has not brought relief to suffering neighborhoods. On the contrary, communities already hard-hit by mortgage fraud and subprime foreclosures are now enduring the next wave of profiteering: the selling of vacant and foreclosed real estate to speculators.

A few of the purchasers are doing a service by fixing foreclosures up and renting them out. But far too often the foreclosed homes stay vacant and derelict as they're flipped from one buyer to anotHouses are being re-sold at tremendous mark-ups — sometimes upward of 1,000 percent — under "rent-to-own" contracts, whose holders bear the responsibilities of homeownership but few of the rights. These foreclosed houses are purchased in bulk, sight unseen, by investment companies far away from the community.

Houses are being re-sold at tremendous mark-ups — sometimes upward of 1,000 percent — under "rent-to-own" contracts, whose holders bear the responsibilities of homeownership but few of the rights. These foreclosed houses are purchased in bulk, sight unseen, by investment companies far away from the community.

In hard-hit foreclosure zones across the nation, servicers have so much real estate to dispose of that they auction it in bulk for as little as a few thousand dollars a property. These fire-sale prices too often attract buyers who exhibit little concern for neighbors or neighborhoods.

read more here - http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2009/sep/17/ending-foreclosure-profiteering