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HDI In The News / November 2014

Hoarding Makes Home Sales Tougher - The Record, New Jersey - September 28.2014

November 23, 2014


By KATHLEEN LYNN
STAFF WRITER | 
The Record

Charlie Castronovo cleaning out a three-bedroom colonial in Clifton that he and fellow investor Louis DePalo purchased. Hoarding, a psychiatric disorder, poses special problems for everyone involved in a transaction.

The 1949 colonial overflowed with stuff — piles on the beds, stacks along the walls, mounds in the basement. Clothes, junk mail, yellowing newspapers, a Family Circle magazine from 1999.

Peeking through were hints that someone once took pride in this three-bedroom home in a middle-class Clifton neighborhood: Ornate, gold-upholstered furniture was covered in plastic, to keep it clean; elegant figurines were lined up in a built-in bookshelf.

But on a recent day, only a narrow path led through the mess.

"It just seems like they didn't throw anything away," said the home's new owner, Louis DePalo, as he and two workers hauled junk into a giant trash container in the driveway. DePalo recently bought the house along with a fellow investor, Charlie Castronovo; the two plan to clean, renovate and resell it.

The Clifton house offers a window into the world of hoarding — which was recently classified as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association and was spotlighted on the A&E reality series "Hoarders."

It's estimated that 2 to 5 percent of the population suffers from the disorder, which is believed to have a genetic component.

Hoarding is often brought to a crisis point when a homeowner has to move, and it is a major obstacle in a real estate market where "Get rid of clutter" is usually the first advice real estate agents offer sellers.

"Getting a hoarder to actually clean up and prepare a house for a sale is almost impossible, to tell you the truth. If someone is a true hoarder, there is an illness attached to that, not just someone being lazy," says Ron Aiosa, a Coldwell Banker agent in Butler.

While family members might be tempted to just sweep the mess out of the house, that kind of radical cleanup can be deeply traumatizing, and the hoarding behavior will be repeated, and may even intensify, experts say.

Linda Stamker, a real estate agent with Prominent Properties Sotheby's International Realty in Fort Lee, recalls working with a buyer who purchased a home in Tenafly that was crammed with old newspapers, broken lamps and broken furniture.

On the day of the closing, Stamker and her buyer arrived for a walk-through.

"The woman was in the house, still emptying it, but you could see she just couldn't part with her things," Stamker says. "The buyer was flabbergasted, and we realized there was no way we could close." They postponed the closing for a few weeks; but even then, when they returned for the closing, there was a full trash container in the driveway, two men emptying the house and the owner still clinging to her stuff. Stamker demanded that the owner leave the house so the workers could finish the cleanup.

"In the end, we did close that day, but we had to keep money in escrow to be sure she would remove the trash bin from the property," Stamker recalls.

Some professional organizers and geriatric social workers have become experts in dealing with hoarding behavior, and some real estate agencies, including Abbott & Caserta Realtors in Ho-Ho-Kus, have teamed up with such experts to work with sellers overwhelmed by their stuff — whether they're hoarders or just seniors who have collected too many belongings over decades living in a home.

Pamela MacLeod of Organized from A to Z in Englewood has worked with a number of clients who suffer from a hoarding disorder. Many, she says, feel deep shame and embarrassment.

"Moving is very stressful for almost anyone, and when you add hoarding challenges, the client is usually over-the-top overwhelmed and downright paralyzed," MacLeod says.

The stuff "keeps the world at bay, it keeps loved ones and friends away — but paradoxically, it also makes many people feel comforted, safe and protected," she says.

To break through these defenses, MacLeod tries to connect the work of clearing out the house to the client's ultimate goal, such as the desire to sell the home.

"I'll say, 'I get that you feel more comfortable holding on to 10 of these items. Help me understand how that's going to get you closer to the goal of moving closer to your daughter in Massachusetts,' " she says. "These are the kinds of questions that make the light bulbs go on. It's not my job to tell the client what to do."

Even if the homeowner agrees to clean out and is facing a deadline, such as a closing date, it can easily take a week or two to get the job done, MacLeod says. The stuff generally can't just be dumped; it has to be sorted through.

"Most of the time, it's not just trash; it's collectibles, books, memorabilia, clothing, children's toys from kids who are now grown," MacLeod says. "People have attachments to all kinds of things."

MacLeod and other experts say it's important to treat people in this situation with respect and patience, and without judgment.

"You have to value how important their stuff is to them," says Marcie Cooper, a social worker who is founder of the Hoarding Disorder Institute in Fair Lawn, a private company that trains professionals on how to deal with hoarding. "They have a very unique way of looking at their possessions." For example, she had a client who had saved 1,000 ATM receipts. When Cooper asked if they could at least recycle the receipts that were older than three years, the client refused, saying, "I will have lost that day."

Others will keep items of little value — old newspapers, rubber bands, twist ties — because they might need them in the future. "They have a lot of 'just-in-case' items," Cooper says.

'They feel responsible'

Both MacLeod and Cooper say many people feel more comfortable donating or recycling things, rather than just dumping them, because they take comfort in the idea that the items won't just end up in a landfill.

"They feel responsible for their things," Cooper says.

"Many clients like to think that someone else will use the item," says MacLeod. For example, one client agreed to let go of 24 plastic bins of baby clothes when MacLeod pointed out that the clothing could be useful to young families.

But sometimes it's impossible to get the owner to clean out a home that has to be sold. When that happens, the homes go on the market "as is" — though that restricts the pool of potential buyers, since many house hunters will be completely turned off and unwilling to look beyond the trash.

"Quite often, [the buyer] will be an investor who understands what needs to be done and is capable of getting that house cleaned out and then making the necessary renovation for a flip," says Aiosa, the Coldwell Banker agent. "Of course, that always comes with a discounted price, and it should. This buyer is taking on the workload, and the truth is, many deficiencies show up after all the garbage is removed."

Castronovo and DePalo, the investors who purchased the Clifton house, have bought, cleaned out and renovated three houses that were crammed full of stuff. In the case of the Clifton home, they saw "a solid house" with three good-size bedrooms.

A middle-aged woman had lived there with her aged mother; after the mother died, the stuff began piling up, Castronovo says. There was so much stuff that the front door was almost blocked closed; the basement was stacked floor to ceiling.

A recent walk-through during the cleanup showed half-empty bottles of Gatorade and water on tables, makeup and toiletries piled on dressers and piles of junk mail and newspapers everywhere.

In the end, it took Castronovo and DePalo, plus two helpers, four days and four trash bins to clean out the house.

Email: lynn@northjersey.com Twitter: @KathleenLynn3


© 2014 North Jersey Media Group
Tags:
  Real Estate  |    Residential Real Estate  | 

 

Hoarding Makes Homes Sales Tougher - The Record, New Jersey Spetember 28, 2014

November 23, 2014


By KATHLEEN LYNN
STAFF WRITER | 
The Record
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[Charlie Castronovo cleaning out a three-bedroom colonial in Clifton that he and fellow investor Louis DePalo purchased. Hoarding, a psychiatric disorder, poses special problems for everyone involved in a transaction.]
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MITSU YASUKAWA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Charlie Castronovo cleaning out a three-bedroom colonial in Clifton that he and fellow investor Louis DePalo purchased. Hoarding, a psychiatric disorder, poses special problems for everyone involved in a transaction.

The 1949 colonial overflowed with stuff — piles on the beds, stacks along the walls, mounds in the basement. Clothes, junk mail, yellowing newspapers, a Family Circle magazine from 1999.

Peeking through were hints that someone once took pride in this three-bedroom home in a middle-class Clifton neighborhood: Ornate, gold-upholstered furniture was covered in plastic, to keep it clean; elegant figurines were lined up in a built-in bookshelf.

But on a recent day, only a narrow path led through the mess.

"It just seems like they didn't throw anything away," said the home's new owner, Louis DePalo, as he and two workers hauled junk into a giant trash container in the driveway. DePalo recently bought the house along with a fellow investor, Charlie Castronovo; the two plan to clean, renovate and resell it.

The Clifton house offers a window into the world of hoarding — which was recently classified as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association and was spotlighted on the A&E reality series "Hoarders."

It's estimated that 2 to 5 percent of the population suffers from the disorder, which is believed to have a genetic component.

Hoarding is often brought to a crisis point when a homeowner has to move, and it is a major obstacle in a real estate market where "Get rid of clutter" is usually the first advice real estate agents offer sellers.

"Getting a hoarder to actually clean up and prepare a house for a sale is almost impossible, to tell you the truth. If someone is a true hoarder, there is an illness attached to that, not just someone being lazy," says Ron Aiosa, a Coldwell Banker agent in Butler.

While family members might be tempted to just sweep the mess out of the house, that kind of radical cleanup can be deeply traumatizing, and the hoarding behavior will be repeated, and may even intensify, experts say.

Linda Stamker, a real estate agent with Prominent Properties Sotheby's International Realty in Fort Lee, recalls working with a buyer who purchased a home in Tenafly that was crammed with old newspapers, broken lamps and broken furniture.

On the day of the closing, Stamker and her buyer arrived for a walk-through.

"The woman was in the house, still emptying it, but you could see she just couldn't part with her things," Stamker says. "The buyer was flabbergasted, and we realized there was no way we could close." They postponed the closing for a few weeks; but even then, when they returned for the closing, there was a full trash container in the driveway, two men emptying the house and the owner still clinging to her stuff. Stamker demanded that the owner leave the house so the workers could finish the cleanup.

"In the end, we did close that day, but we had to keep money in escrow to be sure she would remove the trash bin from the property," Stamker recalls.

Some professional organizers and geriatric social workers have become experts in dealing with hoarding behavior, and some real estate agencies, including Abbott & Caserta Realtors in Ho-Ho-Kus, have teamed up with such experts to work with sellers overwhelmed by their stuff — whether they're hoarders or just seniors who have collected too many belongings over decades living in a home.

Pamela MacLeod of Organized from A to Z in Englewood has worked with a number of clients who suffer from a hoarding disorder. Many, she says, feel deep shame and embarrassment.

"Moving is very stressful for almost anyone, and when you add hoarding challenges, the client is usually over-the-top overwhelmed and downright paralyzed," MacLeod says.

The stuff "keeps the world at bay, it keeps loved ones and friends away — but paradoxically, it also makes many people feel comforted, safe and protected," she says.

To break through these defenses, MacLeod tries to connect the work of clearing out the house to the client's ultimate goal, such as the desire to sell the home.

"I'll say, 'I get that you feel more comfortable holding on to 10 of these items. Help me understand how that's going to get you closer to the goal of moving closer to your daughter in Massachusetts,' " she says. "These are the kinds of questions that make the light bulbs go on. It's not my job to tell the client what to do."

Even if the homeowner agrees to clean out and is facing a deadline, such as a closing date, it can easily take a week or two to get the job done, MacLeod says. The stuff generally can't just be dumped; it has to be sorted through.

"Most of the time, it's not just trash; it's collectibles, books, memorabilia, clothing, children's toys from kids who are now grown," MacLeod says. "People have attachments to all kinds of things."

MacLeod and other experts say it's important to treat people in this situation with respect and patience, and without judgment.

"You have to value how important their stuff is to them," says Marcie Cooper, a social worker who is founder of the Hoarding Disorder Institute in Fair Lawn, a private company that trains professionals on how to deal with hoarding. "They have a very unique way of looking at their possessions." For example, she had a client who had saved 1,000 ATM receipts. When Cooper asked if they could at least recycle the receipts that were older than three years, the client refused, saying, "I will have lost that day."

Others will keep items of little value — old newspapers, rubber bands, twist ties — because they might need them in the future. "They have a lot of 'just-in-case' items," Cooper says.

'They feel responsible'

Both MacLeod and Cooper say many people feel more comfortable donating or recycling things, rather than just dumping them, because they take comfort in the idea that the items won't just end up in a landfill.

"They feel responsible for their things," Cooper says.

"Many clients like to think that someone else will use the item," says MacLeod. For example, one client agreed to let go of 24 plastic bins of baby clothes when MacLeod pointed out that the clothing could be useful to young families.

But sometimes it's impossible to get the owner to clean out a home that has to be sold. When that happens, the homes go on the market "as is" — though that restricts the pool of potential buyers, since many house hunters will be completely turned off and unwilling to look beyond the trash.

"Quite often, [the buyer] will be an investor who understands what needs to be done and is capable of getting that house cleaned out and then making the necessary renovation for a flip," says Aiosa, the Coldwell Banker agent. "Of course, that always comes with a discounted price, and it should. This buyer is taking on the workload, and the truth is, many deficiencies show up after all the garbage is removed."

Castronovo and DePalo, the investors who purchased the Clifton house, have bought, cleaned out and renovated three houses that were crammed full of stuff. In the case of the Clifton home, they saw "a solid house" with three good-size bedrooms.

A middle-aged woman had lived there with her aged mother; after the mother died, the stuff began piling up, Castronovo says. There was so much stuff that the front door was almost blocked closed; the basement was stacked floor to ceiling.

A recent walk-through during the cleanup showed half-empty bottles of Gatorade and water on tables, makeup and toiletries piled on dressers and piles of junk mail and newspapers everywhere.

In the end, it took Castronovo and DePalo, plus two helpers, four days and four trash bins to clean out the house.

Email: lynn@northjersey.com Twitter: @KathleenLynn3


© 2014 North Jersey Media Group
Tags:
  Real Estate  |    Residential Real Estate  |