Buying Foreclosed Homes A Struggle Unless Occupants Are Booted

"Foreclosed apartments increasingly are drawing interest from buyers who want to keep the current tenants, often to protect them and sometimes because reliable tenants are valuable. But mortgage companies say it is simply easier to sell an empty building, and more profitable to follow the same procedure in every case: Clear it, clean it, and sell it."

"Buyers such as O'Brien could help to limit post-foreclosure evictions, a growing problem in Boston and other Massachusetts cities. Almost a third of Massachusetts foreclosures in 2007 involved multifamily buildings."

"'We're looking to stabilize neighborhoods that we're afraid are reaching a tipping point of abandonment,' said Joe Kreisberg, president of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Associations. He said he expects some local community development groups to announce initiatives to buy foreclosed apartment buildings in the next few months."

"The question is whether lenders and other companies that own these buildings will agree to sell the buildings with tenants still in them. O'Brien has been turned down twice. According to local real estate professionals, others who have inquired about buying foreclosed properties in Boston also have been turned away."