Most of the foreclosure stories in the press today focus on what happens to the homeowners. Here’s an article that looks at the other side.

Flip side of foreclosures
For buyers, losing their house is devastating. But foreclosures create steady business for specialized real-estate agents and workers who prepare homes to sell again.
BY JENNIFER BJORHUS
Pioneer Press

The $700,000 craftsman-style house is barely three years old — 3,500 square feet and full of oak woodwork, with two fireplaces and a Jacuzzi, all on just under an acre of woods in Ham Lake.

But what most interests Craig Murphy is the eviction notice tacked on the front door. It tells him the owners were officially given the boot a few weeks earlier. Inside, the house looks clean — no hostile owners, no need to haul away abandoned belongings. They even left the appliances. That's good news for Murphy, a specialist in handling foreclosed houses. He can pretty much get the locks changed and move on to his next assignment.

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