I swear I read here about a company that will pay you to go look at vacant houses. photo them etc. Does anyone know that company?

That is not mystery shopping. That would be a different field.

The one I read about, it may have been here, was someone complaining about the company either ripping them or taking advantage of shoppers.

There is a company that pays people to sit in vacant houses while the auctions are held on them. I have never done that, but I do know some people here do.

[www.mysteryshopforum.com]

Was a thread about a company that was suggesting such work but it had all the earmarks of being a scam.

As Dee Shops points out, there is a company that has you 'house sit' a vacant home for one or two 'open houses' for a home that was to be auctioned. The company is Pinkerton Compliance. Over the past few months, however, they have had fewer and fewer jobs available. At least in my area there are serveral factors involved in this: First, Pinkerton seems to work with one house auction company and many more have sprung up. Second, banks are slowing down on foreclosures both because the courts are bogged down and because once they are the owner, zoning is coming after them to get the properties up to at least minimum community standards. As long as 'Joe the long gone owner' still has the title in his name, zoning and the homeowner associations are out hunting for Joe, not the bank. Once the bank takes over the property, under our state's laws, they only have to pay a few months of the past due home owner association fees, not the full amount outstanding.

When banks do take over the property, they typically hire a third party compnay to manage the sale. That company will then pay a small fee to a real estate agent to arragnge to secure (lock up, or board up) the property, take photos, recommend repairs, get bids for repairs,and provide what is called a "broker price opinion." That starts the process that may eventually culminate in listing the property for sale.

Yes. My point is that in my area there appear to be many 'walked away' properties that the banks have not or are not interested in foreclosing on until the market improves overall. Some of these properties have fallen into such disrepair that they are likely to need to be razed. When a real estate agent does get one of these properties from the bank, in my market they are often not able to move them because either the repairs were too expensive for the bank/realtor to consider with the current crashed value of the neighborhood or the bank having some misguided notion that they need to 'break even' on the property. Eventually a lot of this stuff goes to auction with starting bids of $1000 or $10,000 and on occasion even $25,000. I have 'house sat' some where from my background I counted around $130k in repairs to be done in a neighborhood where intact homes are being sold as low as $80k. No economic interest there in even taking the property as a gift.

The type of work you're referring to is called "Field Services". It's when the third party hired by the bank goes by once a month or so, takes pictures of the home, and checks up on the status of the home, the interior, damages, ect. Each inspection doesn't require much, but you're also not paid very much. Often, you get between $4-6 per inspection. If there is more involved, then you will be paid more.

The downside to this is depending on the climate you live in, the home may be infested with mold. I do this type of work on occasion. There is one home where there are mold spores litrally growing on the wall due to all the moisture. I'm paid $35 to go in there, wipe the windows and vacuum the floor once a month. It's definately not something for the faint of heart and you want to have very good ventilation when going into these homes. Investing in a mold mask is something else you may want.

Sometimes these homes are not in the best of neighborhoods. Occasionally, you'll have to deliver a note to some homes where people are actually still in the home, which tell them to call the bank immediately. You still have to take a picture of the home even if people are living in it. Sometimes you don't make contact with the home owner, you just take a picture of the home as required in the instructions. There is then a quick short form that you have to fill out for each home. I've had neighbors come up many times asking what I was doing taking pictures in the neighborhood sitting in front of their home (As you don't sit in front of the home you're taking pictures of)

There are many companies that do this. Going to google and typing in "field services" or something similiar will get you a list of companies..Or, like mystery shopping, type in "Get paid to take pictures" and you'll get a whole list of scammy sites that will charge you to get the same list of companies. They charge anywhere from $19.95-$89 for the same information.

This kind of work isn't for the faint of heart. When you do get a dispatch, you typically get 48 hours to go take the picture and get it submitted, so the turn around time isn't very long.