Commentary: Oh, serpents! Thought you said it had servants
For sale: Nice house, large kitchen, several thousand snakes included. |
They say there are snake pits on Wall Street.
Chase has learned there are snake pits on Main Street too.
Last year, the J.P. Morgan Chase banking unit foreclosed on a home near Rexburg, Idaho, that is infested with garter snakes.
They slide through the yard, the crawl space, the walls, the ceilings, even across the floors. Sure, they're harmless, but there are perhaps thousands of them. They give off malodorous secretions when alarmed, and can even leave the well water tasting a bit like the way they smell.
More from MarketWatch.com: • Why Housing Is in a Depression • Be a Nosy Neighbor at Nearby Open Houses • Foreclosure Data Improve as Mortgage Market Mends |
Two families have fled the house in scenes reminiscent of horror-film classics. One turned to a local TV station in 2006 to document the infestation, complaining of not being able to sleep at night. The video is still available on YouTube and is doing absolutely nothing for sales. Watch the video on snakes in the house.
The next family appeared on TV's "Animal Planet" earlier this year. They said they were told the previous owners came up with the snake story to explain why they stopped paying their mortgage. But, it turns out, the story was true.
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Search "Idaho snake house" on the Internet and several intriguing posts emerge. Zillow.com offers a sales description that mentions "a large kitchen with center island," but nothing about snakes on the kitchen floor.
The house, built in 1920 and remodeled about five years ago, has somehow become a hibernaculum, where snakes gather en masse for winter. It's so famously infested that Chase has taken it off the market.
Earlier this year, the five-bedroom home at 675 W. 5000 North was listed for $109,200. That's about $66,000 below its market value. But somehow there were no takers, even in a region known for its Snake River.
Chase is now in the unenviable position of having to be delicate with snakes that continue to live in the home despite a defaulted mortgage. Once a house has been featured on "Animal Planet," you can't just burn it down or otherwise slaughter its reptilian residents. You have to be nice to snakes. It's just good business.
"We have contracted to have the snakes trapped and released," said Darcy Donahoe-Wilmot, a Chase spokeswoman in Seattle.
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"We plan to seal the foundation and install a barrier around the foundation to help prevent future access," she said. "A report will be issued by the contractor to be provided to any potential buyers."
Possible buyers might include some guy with a flute and a turban, or maybe a slippery salesman looking to replenish his line of proprietary oil. More likely, though, Chase is going to be stuck with the Idaho snake house for a long time.
Protesters recently appeared in Ohio at the annual meeting of Chase's parent, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., to complain about the company's foreclosure practices. There have been similar protests at all major banks, as if these institutions actually love foreclosing on homes.
Banks currently have about 1.9 million homes on their books or in foreclosure proceedings, according to RealtyTrac, a real estate market researcher.
Imagine all the disrepair, the pet-fouled carpets, the mold, the bugs, the rats and the snakes.
Foreclosures have slowed in recent months, but that trend is largely attributed to legal delays, including banks' dubious use of "robo-signers" on court documents.
Yes, major banks have major problems. But they're still swamped with more foreclosures than they can handle, and Americans are still slithering away from their homes like it's not a snake-like thing to do.
The Mortgage Bankers Association recently reported that about 8.3% of homeowners missed at least one mortgage payment in the January-March quarter. In a healthy market, that figure holds at about 1.1%.
Foreclosed homes made up 28% of all U.S. home sales in the quarter, according to RealtyTrac. And 2011 is on track to be another record year, with about 1.2 million foreclosures expected. This dashes any hope for a housing market recovery any time soon.
The snakes are just starting to awaken at the Idaho snake house. Chase can't chase them out just yet.
"Hopefully, in a few weeks," Donahoe-Wilmot said. "The contractor feels there is not yet enough activity to perform the capture."
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This story was all over the place. Snakes... bankers... forclosures... guy with a flute and turban? Wow!
The house is EVIL, that's why the snakes are attracted to it, but it's not as evil as the BANKS that carry the mortgage.
if they bank is stuck with a place like they should seek out people like me. id live in that place regardless of the amount of snakes and if its mostly garter snakes who cares id love to live their with out the barrier they are planning. im a snake person who thinks that is a bad @#$% house!! i've own alot of garters and lived in a town that had water as dark as coal come out the tapsand a sulfur pit on the outskirts. that smell is nothing
Haveing been raised with goats on the property , it became very evident that snakes of all kinds will not stay on property that is populated with goats . Why do you not just put about 10 goats on the land and let them do their thing ?
snakes have many natural predators. We had rattle snakes and mice. One feral cat started coming around, we fed it. Then a few more. Soon we saw cats hunting the smaller rattlers, even brought a few into the house and played with them.Cats soon depleted their natural food supply, killed and ate the smaller ones, and the snakes were gone. A young willow tree also benifited, cats ate the gopher that had been eating the roots.
I'm surprised that they still couldn't find a buyer for that house. I've been noticing that there ARE people in this world who keeps snakes as pets.
too bad that area's already infested with mormons
What is the hell is wrong with Yahoo tonight, nothing I click is working?!!!!!!
Banks, and what they are doing to us. Have you ever thought about this.... We pay the banks to use our money for them to make money. If 10 people put $10,000 in the bank the bank would have $100,000 loan out. Because we all know they use our money to make money. If they gave out a loan they get interest back anywhere from 5.0% to 21% percent depending on the borrower etc. To make this simple say they are only getting 10% back on $100,000 we put in. They make $10,000 in interest +. Banks pay us less the 1% interest for keeping our money in their banks and then charge us for banking fees of all kinds. But being one of those 10 people that put $10,000 in each we only get less than $100 dollars in interest per person.. They make $900 to our $100- per $10,000 using the money we put in their banks that they loan out and that is only at 10%, they make more on bigger loans. If you have any banking fees, by the time you pay them we lose even more of a percentage of that interest. The tellers always ask me if I want to open all types of new accounts when I cash my checks. I explain this all to them and tell them when ever they see me come into the bank don't EVER ask me if I want anything from them because it always ends up costing me money. So now they don't. If I had a better safe than the banks I wouldn't use a bank. F@%K them piece of S*IT son of a ....... I've seen to many good people lose there houses and not be able to get another one. Karma is a b*tch and what comes around goes around. Everyone and anyone who has been affected by what the banks have done I wish them well and I hope they are able to get their lives back together as soon as possible. Nobody should ever have to go through what the banks have taken from them. Nobody. I thought this was America and we took care of our own, not F them in the A$$!!!
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