My friends call him "Repo Joe." The crews call him "Bossman." I call him boss, too. But I also call him "sweetie."

My boyfriend owns a company in South Carolina that evicts people and cleans up foreclosed houses so they can be put back on the real-estate market. In his 20 years in the business, he has seen it all and then some. I've only been working for him for two years, but it's hardened me, too (and I was a pretty tough New Yorker). I couldn't have picked a better time to join his crew. No one used to care about this kind of grunt work. Now he is pestered by people who want to work for him. People who want to get rich too, cleaning up after the American dream.

On paper, the business is pretty straightforward: A house is assigned from the bank that has foreclosed on the property. Find the house. Take numerous pictures before, during and after the cleanup process. Go to the next house. It sounds so simple; in fact the Internet is filled with get-rich-quick tutorials on how to make money doing it. What's not on paper is how you feel cleaning up behind a family's dead hope.

Continue Reading...