Mike Bell’s Blog – Real Estate and Bank Owned Properties in Silicon Valley

A response to the recent WSJ Blog: Are Banks Holding a Shadow Inventory of Homes?

We don’t believe it.  Shadow Inventory, yes.  Banks holding back, not likely.  Basic market research, and our own experience as an REO brokerage tell us otherwise.

Let’s start with the series of foreclosure moratoriums between October ’08 and April ‘09.  First, major lenders and GSE’s stopped filing notices of default, then the federal government mandated it.  REO processing basically came to a halt for 6 months.  Standing inventory that was previously stagnant started to sell off quickly.  Agents used to complain about REO inventory; now we started complaining and speculating about the lack of it.  Multiple offers, buyer competition, number of listings down, number of sales up.  The market shifted for a moment and we all started theorizing: were these signs of a market recovery, were the banks holding back, etc.?

In April the wheel started to turn again as mortgage companies resumed foreclosure activity (see WSJ: Banks Ramp Up Foreclosures), hence the spike in notices of default.  The notices of trustee’s sale won’t follow for another 3-6 months.  We can’t compare these data in real time; we need to account for lag.

REO is a long process, and requires momentum.  You can’t grind to a halt and expect to restart at full speed.  It will take time to get the inventory to market: 5- 9 months to the trustee’s sale (foreclosure), another 2 to 12 months before the occupants vacate and the bank can take possession, and another month to trash out, clean up, etc.  A current notice of default might not become an REO listing for 18 months or more.  Inventory that was in process during the moratorium season is only now coming to market, and slowly.

One of our most reliable forecasting indicators is the amount of BPO activity, which mostly escapes attention.  Lenders order BPO to get a first glimpse of a property value and evaluate market strategy.  When BPO activity increases, REO activity increases.  Not coincidentally, our BPO activity was slow during the moratoriums, but has increased dramatically in the last 45 days.  We believe that there is a lot of REO inventory in process, and it will make it to market in due time.

In Silicon Valley, the current foreclosure cycle has been waxing and waning for over 24 months.  Our client lenders have been continuously adjusting, however slowly, to better accommodate the overwhelming volume of defaults.  They are increasing staff and focusing their resources on cutting loses through more efficient default servicing, and more successful loan mods and short sales.  In our opinion and from our perspective, deliberately holding back inventory so as to manipulate values would be counter-productive to cutting loses.

Lenders make loans.  They need to make a lot of loans to recover some of their enormous losses.  You can’t make loans on Shadow Inventory.

What Is The FED?, Part One.

When we think of “The Feds” we think of the federal government, like the guys who busted John Dillinger and Bonnie & Clyde.  So when we hear the term “the FED,” aka The Federal Reserve, it sounds like some government agency.  But that’s just a clever disguise.

The Federal Reserve Board is a private organization.  It’s like a private Central Bank that loans money to the federal government, then charge interest on it. The government borrows the principal; the American people pay the interest.  That’s why we pay income tax: interest payments on the federal debt, paid to the Federal Reserve.  It’s a trap that we can never escape.

But the government doesn’t repay the principal; they just borrow more.  Meanwhile, the interest keeps compounding, and the Federal Reserve Board can adjust the rate whenever they want, without notice.  Did we mention compound interest?

This deal is rigged, sort of like an interest-only, monthly adjustable, reverse amortized loan, built to fail.  The American economy is like a home loan in default.  The government is the landlord and the taxpayers are the tenants. The landlord owes more than the house is worth and is using the tenants’ rent to try to make the interest-only payments, but is falling behind.

Sound familiar?  If this was a home loan, it would trigger a notice of default, followed by a trustee’s sale and foreclosure.  The tenants would get locked out by the sheriff, quite to their surprise (just paid their rent) and would have no place to go.  The landlord would be nowhere to be found, having fled with the rent.

Is the government in foreclosure?  Maybe they’re asking the FED for a loan mod.  Maybe they’re just walking off with the rent.

OK, so let’s say you are a first-time home buyer and home prices have finally reached a place where you can afford to buy.  You’ve got some money for a down payment, and you’ve been pre-qualified for a home loan.  Maybe you’ve even made offers on short sales that seem to go nowhere, and you’re getting frustrated waiting for something to happen.  You’ve found a foreclosure that you like.  Sure it needs a little work, but it’s in your price range and you’re not afraid of a little sweat equity.  After all you’re pretty handy with a hammer and a paint brush.

Here’s the challenge: bank owned properties typically need repair, but the seller (bank) wants an a-is offer and will neither make the repairs or pay for them.  Meanwhile, your lender (also a bank, maybe also the seller) will likely require repairs before they will make the loan.  Seems kind of self-defeating, and it is by conventional methods.

You can’t afford the repairs because you’re using all your savings for the down payment.  So what do you do?

Build the repairs into your offer.  Ask your lender or Realtor for a list of typical items that the lender will require, then go and perform a thorough visual inspection of the property.  Estimate the amount you’ll need and add it into your offer price, then ask the seller to credit you for repairs.  You have to keep it reasonable, though, say within 3-5% of the offered price.  Most bank sellers will entertain this kind of offer, and it can even work for FHA and VA loans.

The point is to ask for these concessions up front.  Once you have presented your offer, it will be nearly impossible to ask for additional concessions.  The easier you make it for the seller, the more likely they are to agree.

VA loans are just as likely to succeed with REO as any other conventional loan, they just take a bit more work and preparation.  They can also be competitive, but the competition is fierce for well-priced homes.  That may change some over the next few months, since we expect the available inventory to increase.  Since February the national foreclosure moratorium clogged things up, but that’s started to loosen.  So, patience and persistence will pay off.  Hang in there.

With a VA loan, try to get a termite report in advance.  The idea is to structure your offer to allow some buyer money to pay for repairs.  If you know what the cost will be, you can ask the seller for a specific credit for VA required repairs in your offer, say in lieu of a credit for closing costs, then add the amount to your offer price.  Most REO sellers will consider this an attractive offset.  If you include the report and the Section I estimate, it would be a compelling offer.  Sometimes the listing agent will have a report already, if not call in some favors and get your own.  Of course this could get spendy if you have to do it over and again.  Keep an extra watch for listings that are seasoned for 60 days or more because there will be less competition, but your VA offer should stand well among multiple offers.  Seller will almost always ask multiples for a ‘final highest and best’ counter offer, so you might get a second shot at the price.