Make Money Cleaning Foreclosures
With foreclosures at an all-time high you can often make money by cleaning these properties. When a property is foreclosed it often left with property belonging to the former owner or big messes from those vacating the property. The bank needs to get these properties in sellable condition by hiring cleaners. You can make money by doing simple jobs like removing trash, scrubbing the house, and in some cases doing light maintenance work like painting or gardening. In this article I'm going to show you the top 3 ways to find these jobs.
1. Check Craigslist Gigs - The free classified site, Craigslist, offers a "gigs" section for over 400 cities in the United States. Realtors and banks often list jobs to clean foreclosures in this section. The classified will usually list a phone number and an email address that you contact and express your interest. These classified listings will usually garner many responses so it is important to let yourself stand out by listing in prior experience.
2. Call Your Local Bank - Sometimes the best way to find cleaning jobs is to go directly to the source. Call your local branch manager and find out who is is charge of the maintenance in their cleaning foreclosures department. That person call usually contract work out to you directly or put you in touch with the company they outsource their cleaning to.
3. Check with HUD - The Department of Housing and Urban Development has some of the biggest inventory of foreclosed homes because of the high default rate on FHA loans. One great technique is to visit the HUD website and visit their home for sale category. In those listings you can usually find the name and contact information for the contractor responsible for maintenance on the home. Give the contractor a call and see if they have any work to farm out.
There are more and more people making money cleaning foreclosures so you will need to be aggressive in finding jobs. I recommend that you take before/after pictures of your work to show your clients the difference your work made. I also use those pictures as examples when I am seeking out new clients. Also remember that if you begin working with large banks and contractors they may require that you have been licensed and that your business in incorporated. If you are looking for more part-time work i suggest you stick with doing small gigs on Craigslist.