Sorry guys- been a long time. I’ve been SLAMMED with these REO Listings from Countrywide. I’ve sold 8 in the last 3 weeks, all with multiple offers ABOVE asking price, all within the first 3-4 days on market. Yes, the below $250k priced homes are flying off the market. We’re down to a 6 month inventory from a 14 month supply months ago in this price range, and it’s considered to be at a ‘balance market’ level. I’m not kidding- the below $250k REOs are flying right now- if they’re priced right. Email me if you want the best deals. I’ll try to update my market charts this week for you guys…

I meant to post this weeks ago, but got really sick and forgot all about it. Inside sources tell me that the lenders are going to be freezing your lines of credit. What this mean is, if you have a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) or any other LOC (Line of Credit), whatever balance you have open now will become the MAX you can access. So, if you have a $100k HELOC, and have only tapped $10k, the rest of the $90k will now become unavailable. This is obviously an attempt to keep the lenders from being over leveraged on properties. What I’m advising people to do is to yank out as much as you can NOW, and then use it to capitalize on our strong buyer’s market. You can easily get a great return on that money, and it’s powerful to use for purchasing property! Countrywide has already frozen all of their LOCs- and I’m sure the rest will follow suit. Will you take advantage of the opportunities here???

Well, let’s get this white elephant out of the living room. Bank of America agrees to buy Countrywide Financial for $4 Billion in stock. Wasn’t is just a few months ago B of A infused $2 billion into Countrywide as a "line of Credit’ Loan?  huh- seems like we, the public, were led astray to avoid the panic from setting in. So, essentially, they just paid $6 billion to take down the company. As one of the Nation’s top tier lenders, you would think they could get the beast under control. Yet, I’m still seeing most of their foreclosures get taken back as REO at the foreclosure auctions here in Phoenix. I’m seeing most of their short sales go unapproved when they have solid, ready to close buyers at nearly full price. They’re taking back the majority of their foreclosures without addressing the internal problems of loss mitigation. You would think they saw this coming, and would’ve made corrections long ago. I’m not too surprised at all. They needed to completely revamp their lending standards, as well as their loss mitigation standards. Loosen up their regulations, and start dealing more freely with buyers/sellers before they take back the REOs.

My prediction is that there’s going to be a large surge of REO inventory within the next 6-12 months, banks finally realizing they need to dump their properties and get them off the books. REOs will be picked up for pennies on the dollar (more so than they are now). It’ll be interesting to see how B of A handles their inventory of non-performing notes and REOs as well. Maybe they have figured out how to deal with the current problem, and start pushing deals out for the investors to enjoy. At the same time the Fed is cutting rates and pushing money back into the economy. So if B of A loosens up their lending standards somewhat, we’ll have a stronger buyer’s demand, as well as strong supply. Watch this to get an idea of how the Federal Reserve works.

I’d really like to see the numbers of outstanding liens/debts they have on the books now- see how much of a bargain Bank of America walked into for their $6 Bill. If they know how to deal with loss mit and REO’s properly, they can easily turn this nightmare around and take in some very large profits. My guess is that is exactly what they’re thinking, and changes are hitting the cubicles of loss mit reps’ desks already. The next few months will be very interesting. Are you ready to pick up more REOs?  Contact me ASAP to find the best deals!