I was speaking to a real estate agent from another state and he was venting about his experience dealing with a short sale. After 6 months in escrow and next to action from the lender he is told that the loss mitigation guy who was working the file had 3800 files to work. Let me say that again 3800 files!
I am not a rocket scientist, but logic tells me that if you truly want to move these properties you would bring in some warm bodies to work these files. There is no shortage of out of work loan officers and real estate agents who are more than qualified to process paperwork. The time they are sitting on the market is losing value at a greatly higher rate than it would cost to hire a few more employees.
So what could be their motivation for so little action?
- Could it be that they are delaying showing the losses on their books?
- Would their bonuses be directly impacted by that?
- Are they trying to withhold the full truth from their stock holders?
- Are they trying to break the housing market even more to get more of the bailout money?
- Are they just that incompetent?
No matter how you explain what the big banks are doing, their lack of action is causing the problem to get worse. The amount of time these homes sit and rot on the market is causing everyone else's homes to drop in value around them. They are making the purchase of one of these short sale, pre foreclosure or REO homes so painful that most buyers and real estate agents try to avoid them.
They are causing so much harm to others and entire communities by their actions or lack of actions; it may only be a matter of time before some legal types see a way to make a buck and go after them.
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