Realtors frustrated with vandalized foreclosed homes

One of those homes could be right next to you.

Some national reports show one in seven homes are so badly damaged that they don't even qualify for mortgage financing, all because of vandals and thieves breaking in to destroy the homes.

Issac McCoy says his southwest Little Rock neighborhood is pretty quiet for the most part.  Every once in a while, it can get a bit rowdy next door.

"I see kids spraying on the walls or something. I try to run them off and they come back the next day," said McCoy.

The ruckus next door is graffiti all over the fence. Like many on the market in these tough economic times, the home next door is going through foreclosure, and thieves and vandals are taking advantage of it.

"They took the paint out threw it out here on the slab out here. You can see the footprints here," said Wendell Jackson with Unlimited Properties.

Inside the fence, Jackson shows the damage.

"We lost a unit out here. We've had to replace that. You can't raise the price more than what the market will bear and so we have to keep the price the same and we absorb," said Jackson.

So in the end, Jackson is losing money, and it's not just here but across the county at foreclosed homes his company is trying to sell.

"And the longer it sits, the more it costs," said Jackson.

So until a buyer comes along, Jackson hopes an alarm system will cut down on vandalism.

McCoy hopes it does.

"It's kind of hard to go to sleep. You hear stuff outside and you don't know what it is," said McCoy.