Company Connects Lenders with Surrogate Homeowners to Fill Vacant Properties

Many might argue that a model home is the most effective visual tool for closing a sale. A newly created online company, ""Myvacanthouse.com"":http://www.myvacanthouse.com, aims to help lenders - who may be holding thousands of foreclosed homes - resale the properties faster and protect these assets from vandalism by turning a vacant house into a model home.
My Vacant House provides an online portal to connect lenders with a surrogate homeowner, who will act as a ""live-in stager"" or property manager and stage the vacant home for sale, agree to maintain it in model condition, pay the utility bills, and pay a rental-type fee that could partly offset the lender's carrying costs.
As an added benefit, just by occupying the home, the surrogate homeowner can help reduce the chance that the property will become a target for vandals or thieves, a growing problem as more and more foreclosed homes sit empty for prolonged periods of time. The live-in home stager will also help ensure the home meets local property ordinances by caring for the lawn, maintaining the pool if necessary, disposing of trash, and ensuring the overall upkeep of the home - all of which can further reduce lenders' costs to sustain the property.
In exchange for their services, the home managers enjoy the benefit of reduced-price residences for rent, at a time when millions are looking for ways to cut back on monthly expenses. My Vacant House says its live-in managers agree to be ready to vacate on short notice when a buyer is found, and many then move on to become house sitters and stagers for another property.
Vacant and foreclosed homes are not just sometimes harder to sell - they can contribute to neighborhood blight and often lower the value of surrounding homes. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that there were 2.3 million vacant houses on the market at the end of 2008, and that number continues to grow as economic conditions recede further.
Valerie Szymaniak lives in Florida, one of the areas that's been hardest hit by the housing crisis, and she created Myvacanthouse.com out of her concern for the adverse impact vacant homes are having on surrounding neighborhoods.
According to Szymaniak, having the vacant house occupied by a live-in stager can solve many problems. ""The houses are furnished and kept clean, the yard and pool are maintained, and vandals are deterred. The homeowner’s insurance premiums may even go down, and the live-in stager will pay the utilities as well as a nominal fee to live there,"" Szymaniak explained.
The concept is not new. For decades so-called home managers or live in home stagers have been used to help sell vacant houses, and most real estate professionals would agree that an occupied home has greater emotional appeal and charm than an empty one - which means it usually sells more quickly and commands a higher price.
But until the launch of ""MyVacantHouse.com"":http://www.myvacanthouse.com, the company says there has been no nationwide, online service that acts as a central resource for linking banks who own foreclosed homes with live-in stagers or on-site home managers. My Vacant House says it addresses the vacant property epidemic on a grand scale, but applies its unique solution one house and one neighborhood at a time.
Szymaniak explained that the purpose of the service is not to make these vacant houses income-producing investments, but to provide a combination of modest rent payments and fee-free maintenance and home staging while the house is being marketed for sale.