Rescuing Homeowners

Several new businesses have started up to address the particular problems of the housing mess. Designer Home Tending of Utah is one such company; it finds responsible tenants to live in empty homes. The tenants pay rent to the Designer Home Tending, and has to move in with fine furniture and keep the house clean and well kept. “It really helps a homeowner who has a house sitting vacant and abandoned,” owner and founder Cathy Cardenas says. “A house sells 30 to 60 percent faster, and if you’re the homeowner at least you get your utilities paid.” By moving someone in, the empty home is again furnished, making it easier for buyers to see how they would distribute their furniture through the space. It’s like getting a free management company that watches over the house while the seller is relocated in another state.
Designer Home Tending gets paid through rent from the home tender, while the home tender gets to live in a luxury house at a bargain price—although they have to move whenever “their” house sells. After testing the home tending concept in Boise, Cardenas moved the company to Salt Lake City, but it now operates in 10 major Western cities. ‘When you walk into a vacant home, all it says is “desperate,” Cardenas says. “When you walk into a house that’s tended, you can see yourself living there.”
On the more urgent front of rescuing homeowners from foreclosure, SaveUtahHomes.com works several angles to try to keep delinquent homeowners in their homes instead of on the street. “Homeowners who are behind on house payments are a target for unscrupulous investors and loan sharks that are attacking them from every angle,” owner Ryan Wright says. He started the company in 2002 and won a Best in State Award earlier this year. Wright’s staff works with homeowners by trying to modify the lender’s loan terms, obtaining a new private loan to eliminate the debt that’s piling up from missed payments, sells the home to a private investor who then leases it back to the troubled owner or arranges a short sale which preserves the homeowner’s credit. The service is free. Wright’s income comes from commissions paid by lenders for saving them the expense of foreclosure. The last thing lenders need in this climate is more vacant homes to resell. SaveUtahHomes.com is one of several firms which have risen in recent years to answer the need. –www.utahbusiness.com