Nov 17, 2008 9:22 pm US/Eastern
Foreclosures Fueling Cottage Industry Near L.A.
Workers With Foresight Are Profiting From Boom Town Gone Bust
LOS ANGELES (CBS News) ―
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A sign welcoming people forced from foreclosed homes hangs outside an apartment home development on Nov. 13, 2008, in Las Vegas.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
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.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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