Foreclosed Home Security: How to Protect Vacant Homes from Burglary
It doesn’t take an analyst to recognize that home foreclosures, already high, will reach unprecedented heights in 2009. This also means a massive spike in crimes that inevitably accompany home foreclosures. These facts make the situation clear:
Bloomberg reports that foreclosures rose 81% in 2008 (1).
The White House forecasts almost 3 million jobs lost in 2009 (2).
The FDIC states that job loss puts 32% of homeowners over the edge into foreclosure (3).
This article answers two questions:
1) What can banks, corporate insurance agencies and property preservation companies do to protect their foreclosed home investments from burglary, theft and vandalism?
2) What can homeowners living in neighborhoods with high foreclosure rates do to protect their property values?
Table of Contents:
>> 3 Types of Crime at Vacant, Foreclosed Homes
>> 8 Security Challenges for Vacant, Foreclosed Homes
>> 10 Ways to Protect Foreclosed Homes and Neighborhoods from Crime
>> 2 Other Relevant Security Resources
>> Citations
>> Foreclosed Home Crime News and Resources
>> 3 Types of Crime at Vacant, Foreclosed Homes <<
Understanding what types of crimes and criminals foreclosed homes attract enables prevention.
1) Foreclosed Home Burglary
Many items of value remain in foreclosed homes. Recessions spur those with latent, money-motivated criminal tendencies into action. Appliances are typically the highest value items remaining in foreclosed homes, but criminals with the right contacts can find buyers for cabinets, sinks, granite counter tops, toilets, pipes, windows and just about any thing else that reciprocating saws and pry bars can remove. Copper, despite the drop in price-per-pound, continues to attract specialized thieves as well.
2) Unlawful Occupation in Foreclosed Homes
Some criminals treat foreclosed homes as “safe houses” for all manner of illicit activity. Teens use foreclosed homes as “party houses” where they can drink and use drugs without supervision. Drug dealers and drug users alike search out foreclosed homes for conducting their trade – as do prostitutes and gangs. Vagrants commonly use foreclosed homes for temporary shelter.
3) Graffiti, Vandalism and Arson in Foreclosed Homes
Foreclosed homes attract non-commercially motivated destruction from graffiti and vandalism. Arson is another dangerous crime associated with high foreclosure rates – sometimes it’s commercially motivated by angry former homeowners.
>> 8 Security Challenges for Vacant, Foreclosed Homes <<
Securing foreclosed, vacant homes – and neighborhoods with high foreclosure rates – presents a number of significant challenges. Here are the eight vulnerabilities that we have identified.
1) No Electricity for Foreclosed Home Alarms and Surveillance Cameras
It’s typical that foreclosed homes have all utilities disconnected. The lack of electricity renders the fundamental tools of security – lighting, security cameras and alarms – ineffective.
2) Foreclosure Address Data Readily Available
The ready availability of foreclosure addresses makes it simple for criminals with commercial and non-commercial motivations to select their targets.
3) Geographically Disparate Sites
A bank’s holdings are spread out across a vast geographic area making routine security checks difficult.
4) Internal Theft: Contractor Access to Keys and Data
Insider thieves smell huge opportunity with foreclosed homes – they have access to keys, addresses and they’re familiar with routines. Internal contractors have proven to be especially damaging thieves.
5) Previous Owner has Motivation and Access
Previous owners are notorious for stealing or vandalizing their former property in acts of vengeance. There are many “gray area” periods in which the bank technically owns the property but the former owner still has access.
6) Neighbors Intimidated or Unmotivated to Report Crimes
In many cases neighbors become intimidated by criminal activity at foreclosed homes and fear of potential reprisal keeps them quiet. Sometimes it’s general disgust and lethargy that prevents homeowners from aggressively observing neighborhood activity.
7) Fewer Neighbors Nearby to Report Crimes
Neighbors are the best security a home has – with many neighborhoods decimated by foreclosure the potential observers drops below an effective level.
8) Foreclosure Signs Must Stay Up
Often times, local laws require that foreclosed homes post signs and/or board up the windows. These are clear signals to criminals that a home is a target for their desired activities.
>> 10 Ways to Protect Vacant Property and Foreclosed Neighborhoods from Crime <<
Despite the challenges inherent in securing vacant, bank-owned foreclosed properties we propose ten ways that banks, insurance agencies, property preservation companies and concerned neighborhood groups can protect themselves from crime.
1) Solar Powered, Live Video Surveillance with On Site Deterrents
Live remote monitoring – coupled with remote-activated deterrents – prevents crime before it starts. This video below demonstrates the preventative force that remote-activated sirens have on two potential vandals:
Solar powered live video surveillance with remote-activated deterrents stops crime without the use of outside power sources.
2) Maintain the Foreclosed Property
External maintenance sends a strong signal to prospective thieves. Remove mail, clean up trash from the yard, cut and water the grass, make windows opaque and perform other measures that make clear statements that someone still cares about the property. For neighbors of foreclosed homes it’s often advisable to take on some of this responsibility if the bank owner hasn’t stepped up.
3) Organize and Fund a Community Watch Initiative
We’ve written extensively on the power of a watchful community. We highly advise banks, insurance agencies and property preservation companies to establish or revive and grow a neighborhood watch program. We wrote Effective Neighborhood Security: 10 Strategies for Community Security Organizers as a guide for residents AND outside agencies seeking to reduce crime through empowered, active, aggressive neighborhood efforts.
4) Change the Locks Immediately
Property preservation companies typically change locks – ideally this happens as soon as legally possible to prevent former owners from illegally entering. Former owners often enter their former property to remove possessions, appliances, furnishings, and other items for sale that are no longer theirs.
5) Motion Activated Solar Powered Security Lighting
Motion activated solar powered security lights are commonly available on the market. Test several and then install them across your vacant properties. For neighbors of foreclosed homes we suggest installing and pointing lights on these properties to reduce any safe feelings criminals may have.
6) Establish Relationship with Area Police Department
In Atlanta, police formed a special unit just for patrolling foreclosed homes. Even if your area doesn’t have this level of police concern, it’s best that your organization contact and continue communications with area police. Appoint a single person responsible for building and maintaining a solid working relationship with the police and their response and concern will improve.
7) Contact the Neighbors and Enlist Their Help
If your organization is unable to organize, promote or reinvigorate a neighborhood watch then at a minimum you should drop by neighbors’ houses personally. This puts a face to a foreclosed property and makes people aware that there could be criminal activity. Further, it shows that your organization has an awareness of the potential for increased crime. On these visits you should inform them of what you’re doing to keep your property – and theirs – safe.
8) Suppress Address Publication and Signage Until Ready for Sale
If at all possible keep foreclosure data – especially addresses – off your website, out of news stories, and out of data bases until ready for sale. Lists of foreclosed addresses serve as “shopping lists” for thieves and greatly simplify their efforts. Though this will at times work against the need to market and sell your properties, it will prevent some potential crime by thieves who understand efficiency.
9) Realtors Record Visitors and Conduct On Site Security Checks at Close of Showing
Be aware that potential thieves may case properties before breaking into them – under the guise of interested buyers. They often work in teams and while one distracts the realtor the other unlocks a window or door for later access. Make sure that realtors showing foreclosed homes conduct security walk throughs at the end of a showing and that they record names – and ideally license plates – of all visitors.
10) Monitor the Local News for Reports of Burglaries
It’s easy in this digital age to plug into a flow of news that pertain to foreclosure burglaries – and foreclosure announcements – in your region. Google offers a free “web band” scanner service called Google Alerts that monitors the news for you. All you have to do is tell them what terms to look for in news stories and give them your email address.
For example, try monitoring for these terms:
[your city and state] foreclosure
[your city and state] foreclosure burglary
[your city and state] foreclosure vandalism
Let Google monitor the news in your area and then take appropriate precautions when foreclosure rates and foreclosure crimes increase.
>> 2 Other Relevant Security Resources <<
Recession Crime: 21 Ways to Protect Yourself from Recession Theft in 2009
2009 will be a record year for theft, burglaries and robbery. People from all walks of life are more likely to give in to their criminal impulses during times of increased economic pressures. An understanding of the coming crime wave of 2009 is vital for businesses seeking to stop crime before it starts. This article first investigates the facts and figures behind the crime wave of 2009 and then outlines 21 methods for protecting yourself from becoming a victim.
A Model Home Security Plan: 10 Tips that Prevent Burglaries
“Neighborhood security requires – above all else – community participation. You’re only as safe and secure as your neighbors make you, which is why true neighborhood security requires an organizer. If you are the neighborhood’s security organizer, on your HOA’s security board or simply a citizen determined to make your community safer this article presents tools, theories, concepts and tactics for bringing true safety to those who matter most – your family.”
>> Citations <<
(1) Foreclosures in U.S. Rose 81%, Topping 2.3 Million Last Year Bloomberg
(2) White House forecast sees more job losses in 2009 Reuters
(3) Job loss puts 32% of home owners over the edge into foreclosure (PDF) FDIC
>> Foreclosed Home Crime News and Resources
Foreclosure Homes Invite Crime
There Goes the Neighborhood: The Effect of Single-Family Mortgage Foreclosures on Property Values
THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: DECEMBER 2008
Fannie Mae Contractor Sold Appliances from Foreclosed Homes
Police fight a rash of vacant home burglaries
Man arrested in attempted burglary at foreclosed home
Foreclosure Fraud…How Desperate Times can Lead to Desperate Measures
Proposal: Give Foreclosed Homes to Cops
Sacramento police arrest two sets of boys in burglaries
Police Respond to Burglary
Bank-owned home values cut in half
Foreclosed homes in county open door to crime
Empty, foreclosed homes invite criminals
High number of foreclosure properties in U.S., LI: Vandals move in
How to discourage burglars from breaking into foreclosed homes?
Warnings to Combat Burglaries Carry New Urgency During Recession
Louisville man’s burglary case to go to grand jury
