Cranford-based Group Buys Homes Covered in Clutter

The Cranford-based Union Property Group has launched a new service buying, cleaning and selling homes previously owned by hoarders. Hoarders are people who compulsively collect and refuse to discard possessions. After a while, a hoarder's house becomes so cluttered that sometimes it is difficult to even move inside it.

"(Union Property Group's) business is buying houses that are in bad shape, and hoarder houses are in bad shape times 10," said Chris Consorte, one of Union Property Group's owners.

How bad of shape are they in? What has Consorte found in them?

"Newspapers, floor to ceiling, 20 years old," he said. "Books. Old typewriters, electronic equipment that hasn't worked in years. One thing you always find is pieces of luggage all over the place, just filled with junk. Canned goods from the 70s. It also depends on the person. One house was owned by an accountant, so there were hundreds of boxes of files. Another was a plumber, and the house was filled with nuts and bolts and pipes and fittings. It depends on what a person did and what they liked."

Consorte also acknowledges that, while there may be some treasures hidden amongst the clutter, that's more the realm of an antique dealer.

"We just interested in property," he said.

Consorte said UPG usually deals with heirs and executors of hoarders' estates, since compulsive hoarders rarely part with anything willingly. Many times, the executors don't want to deal with the amount of work required to get a house into saleable condition, so that's where UPG comes in.

"We're offering a service," said Consorte. "We're taking a problem off of someone's hands."

Union Property Group launched the hoarder service in June 2010. Consorte says UPG has had good success with the hoarder homes; they've made offers on about 75 percent of hoarder homes, compared to 50 percent in total. UPG gets calls for an average of five houses a day. About one in five houses needs "serious work," but they encounter only one true hoarder house every three months or so.

It's a good niche and makes for good profit, as UPG usually buys the homes for less than market value and, by the time their contractors have cleaned them out and fixed them up, they look as good and sell for as much as any other house on the market. Consorte says UPG will pass on houses, not because of the work needed, but because the seller wants too much money.

"Sometimes it takes people a while to realize the problem is bigger than they thought," he said.

Consorte doesn't think that Union County has a particular problem with hoarders; that's just where Union Property Group operates. He says it's difficult to manage a project remotely, and as a Union County resident, he likes working close to home. Unfortunately for hoarders and their estates nationwide, there aren't many options like those offered by UPG.

"I think we're unique," said Consorte," and that's why we started this."