I think that if I owned a bank of any kind, I would require a person who bought a house to live in it for at least five (5) years before they could think of selling it unless facing hardship. Here's why.
Con-man buys a falling down house from the bank and covers over all the major damage and faults of the house with 'lip-stick' style repairs. He does such a good job that the house passes the city inspectors.
Prospective buyer looks the place over, but cant see the hidden damage, cant FEEL the hidden damage because of cheap shoring-up type repairs hidden neath the 'lipstick'/sheetrock, and decides the house is in reasonable state of livability. Buyer pays bank after believing the house in in good enough shape, minus some simple things he/she can fix by themselves, also with assurances from the inspectors that the house is indeed ship shape.
Real-estate flipper/con-man laughs all the way to his bank with the payout and promptly moves on. Where is he? No one knows...... (sound of wolf in the distance and tumbleweeds blowing by)
Six months to a year later, wife falls through the back porch that looked like sturdy tongue in grove wood, but turned out to be heavily painted trim board on top of thin plywood that held water instead of letting it through, NOT allowing wood to dry and promoting ROT. OH, all of which was laid on top of rotten planks from the original porch. The porch was at ground level so it was impossible to see how this was done. That was the saving grace as she didn't have more than 10 inches to fall. Even the inspector missed it.
Furthermore, upon removing the wood near the wall of the building, finding out the the wall had ZERO support because the beams were either NOT PRESENT or ROTTED AWAY and were covered with NEW SIDING to hide this fact. Oh and nothing under this thing was pressure treated except for the 4x4 lumber they used as sill beams, vastly inadequate to carry the structure, all of which is on top of rotting railroad ties instead of concrete blocks. A modern add-on with absolutely NOTHING done to code. All of this is now sinking slowly into the soil and will require a major rebuild at owner expense.
It's one of those things you learn in life one way or another. Thankfully, I have it in the budget, and it all flew apart while we had a little money. Bye-bye summer trip... You know, its also weird how all that crap started flying apart at around the same time. When it rains it pours.
Basically Real-estate flippers are the new 'carpetbaggers' And should be avoided at all costs, or made to live in what they plan to sell for at least five years. No owner occupancy = foreclosure. It's probably not the best way to combat this, but this bullshit needs to be stopped.
This would make them have to repair things right, or at least closer to right, because it's the roof over their heads.
the only thing lower than this type of individual is a slum-lord.