With Homeowners In The Red, Some See Green

Workers With Foreclosure Foresight Are Profiting From Boom Town Gone Bust Near L.A.

(CBS)  Realtor John Occhi doesn't bother dressing up anymore. What he's selling these days is decidedly dressed down.

"The vanity and the toilet, it's all cracked… Some cockroaches here… You've got a broken window over here," he said while surveying one home near Los Angeles.

John now only sells foreclosed homes in a boom town gone bust, reports CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy.

"This is one ugly house," he said.

He sells twice as much real estate as he used to because despite the garbage and graffiti, cheap houses move fast.

"It's not the Nordstrom mentality; it's the thrift store mentality. What you see is what you get," John said.

Foreclosures are also big business for those who board up and those creating the sign of the times.

Dom Rendon has avoided layoffs at his sign company in Stockton, Calif. all because one word - "foreclosure" - now makes up half his business, taking up lots of room in his shed.

Did he ever think this word could become 50 percent of his business?

"No. Never could have imagined it," Rendon said.

In Stockton, one out of every 31 homes is now in foreclosure, which means even burnt-out lawns in front of vacant homes have some folks seeing green.

Nick Terlouw got his bright idea from team emblems painted on NFL football fields.

"Then I thought why can't I paint grass for all these foreclosure homes because I'm in the No. 1 market for foreclosures," he says.

Homes with shabby yards are hard to sell. So banks hire Nick and his water-based dye to bring the lawn back to life. It's made the neighbors a little nosy.

Rose Marie Akinn said she has never seen anything like it.

"Never in my life," she said. "That's why I was looking. I didn't know what you guys were doing."

It takes Nick about five minutes to spray a small yard. He makes around $250 bucks per yard.

"Let's just say I am doing very well," he said. "For me green is gold."

All because of a little foreclosure foresight.

[demwhit]

I would like to find out the name of the companies that are willing to work with people to modify or restructure their existing loans. How does the Fed.Gov. work with indiv. people? How can I qualify?
My housepayments are terribly high and I need to get them lowered. I am also caught in a bad loan.Please help. Thank you.

[neonink]

and one man''s trash is another man''s treasure.

[runningralph]

One door closes, another opens. Free enterprise.

[whitemale08]

Quit trying to conclude these news stories with ''happy-endings''...ok.

People need to here the full "doom and gloom" so that our leaders do not underestimate the gravity of the ''crisis''.

I''m tired of this ''fuzzy-talk'' about how ''there''s a glimmer of good news'' out there; there is none...period.

And write articles about how a dangerous ''shadow banking society'' has completely corrupted the private Federal Reserve System and is using the ''tax-payer'' to bail out over a Quadrillion in Derivates krap garbage.

THIS SERIOUS; NO MORE FLUFF PIECES!!!!