Posts Tagged ‘Bank Owned Property’

Bank Owned, REO, Foreclosure; they all mean the same thing. The last person who owned it couldn’t keep up on the payments and it reverted back to the bank in a Trustee Sale.  Now it’s up to the bank/lender to sell it to someone new and there’s a lot of competition out there these days since Lender Owned Active Listings have grown 68% in Just 5 Months!

There were 8,544 lender owned homes offered for sale as active listings on ARMLS as of September 30. As of April 30, 2010 there were only 5,090. This is a 68% growth in just 5 months. In recent weeks we have seen prices start to fall almost as steeply as we did during 2008 as a result of our market getting a huge supply in such a short period of time.

COUPLED WITH INSANELY LOW INTEREST RATES- YOU CAN BUY A HOME for just $200,000 for as little as $7000 down (FHA) & @ barely over $1000 a month (principal and interest).  At the peak of the market, it would have cost you nearly as much as 3 times for the same home (if not more) !!!

For the buyer out there today; there are deals to be had- especially if they don’t mind rolling up their sleeves and doing a little rehab work.  A year ago today there were barely half the amount of REO (Bank Owned, Foreclosures) homes on the marketplace- just look at the top row of the chart above to see those stats. Gone are the bidding wars for these homes, which do make the Short Sales less appealing. 

Typically the Short Sales that are occupied are in better shape than their vacant Bank Owned counterparts, but waiting for the unknown can hurt their appeal in comparison of getting an answer on average within a week on a Bank Owned Home. 

DO YOU NEED HELP NAVIGATING IN THIS MARKET??? CONTACT US AT 480-243-4242 OR START SHOPPING NOW HERE.

We are also happy to send you a custom list of homes that fit what you are looking for, just ask us!

What is the default process?  I’m going to try to explain what the information on this chart means but… it is when someone starts getting behind on their mortgage payments and they are usually at least 3 months behind before the following occurs:

Basically, there are only 4 results that can happen when a person isn’t able to stay current on their mortgage payments:

• NOTS= NOTICE OF TRUSTEE SALE is sent to the homeowner.  This notice gives them 90 days to do something otherwise the bank will try to sell them home at a Trustee Sale. (Please see resource tab of website for more information and a slide show re: what happens at Trustee Sales) Most lenders will either issue a postponement or a cancelation of the Trustee Sale (aka Foreclosure Proceeding) as long as someone contacts them and tries to work out an alternative solution.  Unfortunately the majority of homeowners facing this do nothing and put their heads in the proverbial sand and ultimately do lose their homes, which only adds to this crisis.
• REINSTATEMENT OF LOAN= This means that the Lender will allow the borrower to add the missed payments to the end of the loan and allow them to become current under the original loan terms.  In this situation one normally needs to show that it was a one time problem that caused them being late.  It’s also commonly called a Forbearance.  For most this isn’t an option. 
• LOAN ADJUSTMENT= By proving a hardship, one can request what is called a loan modification in hopes of getting the payments reduced to where they are affordable.  Financial information must be sent to the Lender with an application to be considered.  The government has stepped in and have some programs (HAMP and HAFA) intended to help those in need but in my opinion, they aren’t enough.  This process can be tedious and time consuming and many give up.  In some opinions, these are just temporary Band-Aids because to get principal reductions to what the current value is has not happened with anyone I have met or heard of .  The recent stats are that 58% that do get approved for these loan modifications end up in default again as well.  I had one client recently that fought with her Lender for a year and they extended her loan to 40 yrs and reduced her interest rate but changed the loan from an interest only and in the end it only reduced her payment $100, which wasn’t the help she had asked for.  Typically the Trustee sale is either cancelled or put on hold by the Lender during this process.
• SHORT SALE= Default process is over because the borrower sells the home short with the Lender(s) approval.

 SHORT SALE VS FORECLOSURE GUIDELINES (Published by CDPE February 2010)

There is another option called “Deed in Lieu” which is basically the homeowner giving the house back and is considered a Foreclosure without having to go thru the legal proceeding of a Trustee Sale.  If the home doesn’t sell to a private 3rd party (many investors pick up great bargains) at a Trustee Sale (aka Auction), then title goes back to the bank and they have to remarket the home.  That’s where the term REO (Real Estate Owned) comes from, sometimes called a Lender or Bank Owned Home.  Those homes get marketed normally on the MLS, here’s a link to the Bank Owned Homes in our area.

If you have any further questions about this process, feel free to call us at 480-243-4242 or go to our Get Started Tab and enter in your information so we can see if we can help you or someone you know who is in DEFAULT on their Mortgage payment(s). We do everything we can here to help those that need it!

When we take out our buyers to look at both Short Sales and REO’s, we need to set our Buyers expectations between the two because there is a difference in how long they take to close escrow. 

• Short Sales do have a longer time frame involved due to negotiations than other homes on the market unless they’ve already been “pre-approved”; on average about 3 months but it does depend on who is handling the negotiations, who are the banks or lenders involved, and how many lien holders there are all impact the time frame. 
• Bank owned properties (REO’s) take usually less than 2 months start to finish just due to the fact that they already have determined and processed what they want for the home. 
• There are also a lot more “regular” or “equity” sales out there recently because the “flips” are now coming back due to FHA temporarily removing their 90 day seasoning rule.  It has made it more attractive for investors to purchase either bank owned homes or homes on the auction block, aka Trustee Sale Homes. Those also move faster than short sales.

We’ll be happy to further talk with someone interested in buying a home on more specifics because these are merely estimates; each home out there has it’s own story to tell.