Foreclosures Open Up Junk Business Opportunities

October 9th, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosed Properties

Business is business and understands no taboos. The recent foreclosure crisis has opened up junk business opportunities. The hauling of junk and scavenging through piles of rubbish has becoming booming business and bringing in dollars during these hard days of the foreclosure crisis.

The suburbs of California are choc-a-bloc with foreclosed properties and each unit spells an opportunity for Ramon Mercado. He is the proud owner of a company that hauls trash having a staff of 20 persons. It made its debut towards the end of 2007 after being named Miss Junk. Miss Junk kicked off as a general service for removal of junk but soon found a niche for itself taking on bank jobs for foreclosure cleansing up.

Mercado is a former realtor and he could anticipate the trend of the foreclosure tide and jumped in with this business to make the most. Currently from Miss Junk he is earning $150,000 per months – ten times in excess of what the company took in at the beginning. He added, “Foreclosures are the biggest, most profitable jobs we do.”

Cary Eckert of RealtyWorld is a broker who has dealings with Miss Junk. Eckert’s company is going through lean days with nine employees. Currently it is busy with six foreclosure related assignments.

Dustin Owens owns OMAC Hauling firm serve Southwest Ohio. He too has seen a boom in business. He says that since the last two years there has been a flood of foreclosures. Right now there is no end in sight. He started his firm in 1992 and calculates that 80% of his present jobs are about cleaning up foreclosed houses. It is profitable since his gains have gone up by 12% from the previous year.

The task however is not easy. It requires sifting through the trash of foreclosed houses that had once been homes. It is physically hard work and emotionally telling. Ramon of Miss Junk laments, “Sometimes it feels disrespectful going in and getting rid of people’s personal things. Some of my guys have a real hard time with it, but someone has to do it, and we are learning how to handle it.” His staff has often stumbled upon the signs of a hasty departure – unfinished meal on the table and shoes scattered all around. He said, “It’s like they were just there, and now they’re gone.”

But life has to go on and the truth is that the poison of the foreclosure is meat for another.