We already know that flippers are flooding the streets in search of profits, so it’s inevitable that we’ll see them competing…..with each other! Don’t be surprised if we see surges of new listings, especially around recent high sales – here’s a youtube video:
17 Comments
A Carlsbad city attorney bought an almost $1M house? How much does a Carlsbad city attorney make? I don’t think city attorneys, even senior ones, make any more than $150k/year. A $1M house would be severely stretching it unless they came in with a substantial downpayment or the spouse has a good income as well.
You’re going to have start wearing a disguise…You know you’re well known when people recognize you driving by. And you weren’t even in your truck.
Demand must be crazy if flippers are able to buy a house at auction for 700k and resell it for 950k.
Bankers take note. You’re getting ripped off…
Flood the market and make as much $$$ as you can before the rest of the banks know what’s going on.
Bankers take note. You’re getting ripped off…
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This is exactly my point WRT the auctions. IMHO, if the taxpayers are going to be covering losses and guaranteeing bonds, etc., then the banks should be forced to take back the homes (instead of letting them go to flippers on the courthouse steps), then selling them on the open market to the much, much deeper pool of buyers who have access to mortgage loans.
Taxpayers are effectively subsidizing billions of dollars in profits for these flippers. Many of these people being the very same flippers who were causing the problems on the way up. I’m sure we’re also subsidizing flippers who HELOC’ed everything out of their “investments” during the bubble, then took off with hundreds of thousands of dollars in HELOC’ed/cashed out loans. They can now walk away from their “underwater” mortgages, and use the tax-forgiven money for speculating/flipping all over again.
Bankers take note. You’re getting ripped off…
No, they ripped themselves off when they made the loan.
Banks are in the business of renting money and getting paid back. When they don’t their best move is to dump the property and take the loss. Same thing happens at all auctions. But banks don’t have the time or talent to become flippers or used equipment dealers or all the other resellers of someone else’s potential treasure.
Taxpayers are effectively subsidizing billions of dollars in profits for these flippers.
Banks sell at auction to dump the houses fast. They take a risk by not selling the house as a REO, since any lien, tenant or structure issues aren’t their problem when selling at auction. The flippers are taking these risks, but mitigate them by doing a lot of homework. There may only be a few houses where the bank would make more money by going to REO, but that would also be a lot more upfront work on their part on every house.
The bank might not even be losing that much money by selling at auction either. If they aren’t the second lien holder on the loan, the auction amount may be close to the first lien amount. All they have to gain is additional money for the second lien holders, and why take the risk for them?
Sure seems like a lot of supply, for that street at least. Are there buyers to soak those houses up? Or are the flippers playing musical chairs. Seems a bit risky, unless you have deep, deep pockets. Some flipper is bound to get burned, sooner or later.
Yeah Mike #7, seems like the same game of musical chairs all over again from my far-removed vantage point, but then again Big Jim hasn’t mentioned that the retail buyers are predominantly speculators so maybe not…
Wow, I don’t think there was much of a market for 950k+ homes in Rancho Carrillo. Good luck.
If the banks had set up the online auction site in conjunction with GSE loans to pre-approved bidders like I’ve been saying over the past few years, they would definitely get more than they do by selling at the courthouse steps.
While the risks are there WRT title issues, etc., they are greatly exaggerated by those whose incomes rely on these below-market, cash-only, narrowly-attended auctions.
Narrowly-attended? Have you been to the courthouse steps?
“Hey, this one’s sold, buddy. Take off!”
*Chuckle* Cracked me up to hear that appraiser yell that to you, Jim. I bet you’re a favorite of other agents, appraisers, title people–nearly anyone in Real Estate Land, huh?
DISCLAIMER: *This last sentence does not include one particular real estate agent named Janae* (And I need to add: No real estate agents were hurt in the making of this bubbleinfo video.)
Jim, I’m being “kidnapped” from the Central Coast by my family today as it’s my birthday weekend. They all promise my birthday adventure will not entail: skydiving, bungie jumping, plane riding or other petrifying adventures high on my list to avoid.
My sister tells me I will never guess where the are taking me. (Let’s hope she doesn’t remember some childhood misadventures of mine against her when I was, say, six!) The only information I’ve been able to discover is we will arrive at (so far unnamed) hotel somewhere in N. CA.
If she asks what I’d like to do, I’ll quickly jump up and down: “Open houses in Real Estate Land, baby!” My two kids will then look at each other and simultaneously roll their eyes…
Seriously, my sister and I are extremely close. She’s probably been planning this for at least three months. And that’s what I’m afraid of! Personally, I think the destination has something to do with our childhood–around the Bay Area, but I’m clueless what it might be.
Jim, if I survive the next two days, I’ll be back on Monday to catch up on bubbleinfo. Mahalo for a great week of JtR videos. It’s so awesome to have you back. Aloha!
Re: ca renter #4, yes, many of the people now at the trustee sales walked away from huge debts. One of the groups I know of was behind a failed townhome development, and another was a hard money lender that was convicted of defrauding investors. They are the ones now making tens of millions of dollars every month.
Narrowly-attended? Have you been to the courthouse steps?
KK | January 16th, 2010 at 1:34 am
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Yes, absolutely. As a percentage of the entire pool of buyers in San Diego County, the people showing up at the courthouse steps represent a very, very small portion of those buyers. If the banks want to minimize their losses (which are now the taxpayers’ losses), then they need to take back these properties and make them available to the entire pool of buyers, especially those who need a mortgage in order to buy. There is no reason for the flippers to be making that money instead of the banks.
And I would abolish the NAR rule that banks cannot sell their own inventory. It’s none of the NAR’s business what the banks do with their own assets. Whatever saves the banks/taxpayers money is what should be done.
Thanks for your input, IRE. This is one of the things that’s really getting to me. No accountability, and the liars and gamblers are making money by taking the other side of their bad bets…and leaving the taxpayers and responsible buyers holding the bag.
Just another “free market” subsidized by the taxpayer. Nothing new to see here. Move on. Move on…