Wednesday, September 2, 2009 A Reno, Nev., company is promoting the idea of shrink-wrapping vacant homes in South Florida, according to a story on The Real Deal Miami.

Fast Wrap promotes shrink-wrapping as protection and weatherization for such things as boats, motor homes, furniture and shipping containers.

The process could protect unfinished South Florida construction projects from molding wood and rusting metal in the subtropical climate, according to the story, which said Fast Wrap recently opened a branch in Dania Beach, "conveniently close to a slew of foreclosed homes."



"It has the same shape of a house -- we have heat inhibitors, UV inhibitors -- it looks like a plastic house," Fast Wrap's Mike Enos said in the story. "Once it's wrapped, not only do we keep the neighborhood out of it, we keep any undesirables out of it as well -- an uninhabited residence attracts a lot of nuisances."

Enos told The Real Deal that his company has wrapped three homes in the past several months and is working with a group in Pennsylvania to begin wrapping 240 homes in the Northeast.

As for the appearance issue, Enos asserted a wrapped house would look better than a deteriorating, abandoned one, and most of those wrapped would be incomplete homes in construction developments.

Hat tip to the Wall Street Journal's Developments blog.