There is a local agent that specializes in REO and he makes sure the utilities are on. Rumor has it that it costs him nearly 100K annually (in this market) to keep the utilities on in his listings (currently approximately 170). While many of these homes are in poor shape, at least the utilities are on.

I recently inspected a winterized (REO) home. Pretty funny, because it is pointless as it really does not freeze around here. Anyway, there was a sticker on the kitchen sink notifying that the water was off. Of course, the toilets were loaded because they could not be flushed. Why don't they put the sticker on the toilet?