Word: banking
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...Consider that courthouse auction. When a homeowner loses a house to foreclosure, the property is publicly auctioned on the county courthouse steps in an atmosphere that's often chaotic and crowded with lawyers, bank representatives and onlookers. A folio number is called and the bidding begins. Within a minute, the whole thing is over and the house has a new owner, who has to pay for his purchase with cash, sometimes...
...increasingly popular way to get at a house before it goes up for auction is to try for a short sale, a transaction in which the mortgage lender agrees to take less money that it is owed. A bank can easily spend tens of thousands of dollars to move a house through the entire foreclosure process, so as default rates soar, more are willing to negotiate with real estate agents representing a bid that's technically too low. (Short sales are becoming so commonplace that Beitler added a chapter about them in the upcoming second edition of his book...
...easiest, yet least lucrative, way to invest in foreclosed homes is to buy one after it has been repossessed by the bank. Many lenders list REO ("real estate owned") homes on their web sites, and large auctions run by outside companies are gaining serious traction, too. These are outfits like Hudson & Marshall and Real Estate Disposition Corporation (REDC) that come to town, advertise like crazy, then auction off hundreds of bank-owned properties in a hotel ballroom in a single day. In the current climate, business has taken off: Hudson & Marshall is selling 40% more homes now than...
...only lenders subject to regular visits from the feds are actual banks and savings institutions, from national brands like Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo to your neighborhood savings bank. They are so closely regulated because taxpayers are on the hook for insuring the safety of their deposits. And so far this year, they've stayed out of big trouble. "The banking industry is in pretty good shape," says Bert Ely, an Alexandria, Va., banking consultant and expert on the S&L meltdown. "What came out of the aftermath of the S&L crisis was a very concerted effort...
...those investors have turned shy, and banks and thrifts, which sell some loans and hold on to others, have begun regaining lost market share. Countrywide, the biggest mortgage lender in recent years, is trying to join them by moving more of its business to a bank it bought...