CNNMoney:
The California suburbs around Los Angeles are filled with foreclosed houses - and in each one, entrepreneur Ramon Mercado sees opportunity.
Mercado is the owner of Miss Junk, a 20-person trash-hauling company. Launched late last year, Miss Junk began as a general junk-removal service, but it quickly settled into a niche assisting banks and realtors with foreclosure cleanups.
“We’ve seen our company grow exponentially because of this demand,” Mercado says. A former real estate broker, Mercado is generating monthly revenue of around $150,000 right now from Miss Junk, ten times the company’s initial monthly sales. “Foreclosures are the biggest, most profitable jobs we do.”
“There has been a definite increase in activity in this area,” says Cary Eckert, president of Realty World, a real-estate brokerage in Granada Hills, Calif., who has contracted Miss Junk for a number of jobs. This month is Realty World’s busiest yet; with only nine employees, Eckert is currently juggling six foreclosure assignments.
Dustin Owens OMAC Hauling, which serves southwestern Ohio, has also seen a business boom. “We have seen a flood of foreclosures in the last two years, and are not seeing an end in sight,” says Owens, who started his company in 1992. He estimates that 80% of his current assignments are foreclosure cleanups - and it’s paying off. His revenue is up 12% from last year’s $1 million. More.
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