Hammer Time: Repossessing Germans
The 2006 Jetta came with everything but a willing buyer. This time, it wasn’t the VW’s fault. Like the 12 Kias that came before it, the Jetta was a repo, complete with its own customized owner-inspired design. A few tears in the floor where stereo wiring used to be. Gashes on each corner to test out those European bumpers. Then of course, they had to blow the damned glovebox into a thousand pieces of plastic using an M-40. The poor Jetta may have already suffered enough from modern day German electronics and a Euro denominated price tag. But like an errant animal, kid, spouse, or Wall Street executive, it was the owner that made it a truly bloody mess. No sale @ $9800. The big question: is this Jetta the harbinger of hundreds of thousands of repos– new SUVs, pickups and cars sold to anyone with a pulse via easy credit and no money down deals– yet to come? You know; once lenders stop allowing deadbeats to drive them for free, rather than take the hit to the bank’s balance sheet.
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NPR recently did a piece on a business that essentially gussies up a house after it's foreclosed. The business comes in, mows the lawn, cleans the place up, and as expected, many of the houses are thrashed.
There is a certain type of person that takes joy out of trashing something his or not hers. It does not matter to them. There word is there bond to steal, rape and pillage and for those caught in the loss of value they take great joy in seeing the tears in there eyes as the true owners see their rentals value trashed. From my grandfather an owner and landlord. These are the folks that were awarded mortgages so that we could move them from poverty to better digs.
Foreclosures often have not stupid folks attached. They realize the flier they took will fail, or in the alternative, got hammered by uninsured medical bills. Once you realize you can't pay, but that it will take 10-24 months to get you physically out, many stop paying, and live rent free for a year. They will strip the house of any valuable fixtures, and sell them. (it's not vandalism). Of course, your credit is permanently nuked, so it's not "free" but a years worth of mortgage and taxes make a decent nest egg. Just make sure the money is not in your name (or the mattress) so you don't have to worry about a judgement execution. Some of the "professional tenants" can stretch this for quite a while. I walk across a Chrysler dealer lot a few times a week. It's on my way to the post office. I see the repos in the back of the lot. They are not flashy or high end. Normally some sort of Pacifica, low end pickup, or mitsubishi. It's a sad sight.