Sean,
i am not sure that there is a straight forward answer on this one, but why have ths sales slowed DRASTICALLY all over the state of California? Tons of properties are postponing, and we are left with only 3 or 4, or in some cases ZERO, homes that even have a hope of going to sale on any given day. Did I miss some government action? why the slowdown?
thanks!!!
seeing the same thing. I have no inside information, but here is a guess:
lenders have been swamped with escrows due to the expiring tax credit, escrows are slower and more complicated these days, HAFA must be delaying some trustee sales, and the uptick in sales going into the end of the tax probably hung up some properties destined for trustee sale, too.
just guesses on my part
It appears that the number of properties going to sale has decreased statewide each week throughout the month of April. This decrease in the number of sales coupled with the decreasing lender discounts at opening bid may make it feel like there is a much smaller pool of sales that are actually good purchase opportunities. The good news is that it appears that the number of filings of Notice of Trustee Sales has actually increased substantially from March to April. All of this will be outlined in Sean’s CA Foreclosure Report.
As a side bar, I have recently seen a number of folks with sale dates get loan mods approved and sales cancelled as well as folks that have had months of postponements actually go to sale. Either way it is good news for investors. If they are going to modify lets get them off of the auction list. If the mod is not going to be approved lets move on with the sale so that homeowner can get their life restarted. A life in a perpetual state of limbo is a recipe for insanity. Maybe this is the calm before the storm??
Here’s another reason for slowed trustee sale:
Foreclosure prevention/delay fraud by debtors.
The scam I’ve discovered is quitclaim a share of ownership to another party, real or fictitious, and then have that other party file for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. That triggers an immediate and automatic stay on creditors’ collection or foreclosure actions, and it lasts until the bankruptcy case is concluded or until the creditor wins relief from the stay.
Looking at listings going to auction, a non-trivial minority of them have funky transfers of ownership during the default period or after the NTS is recorded. Some of these might be scams run against the owners, which get the most media play, but I think many are scams run by the owner. I’ve identified two such cases in the past day.
The scam is criminal, a violation of federal bankruptcy law, involves perjury on the bankruptcy forms, can rise to the level of a conspiracy (in the sense of criminal law) if two or more parties are involved, and usually involved title fraud. It can spill into mortgage fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud, too.
But it works, at least for a couple of months and for as much as a year in one of the cases I have identified - and that was a total scam in which party filing for bankruptcy had their case dismissed within a month. But the Bankruptcy court did not complete its reports and fully close the case until a year later.
TerryJo … that website (yours?) has a tip-off sentence that should give everyone pause … “at a fraction of the cost” … meaning someone (lawyers et. al.) is getting front-end from the distressed homeowner to push this "sue your lender" game. Not sayin' that many lenders don't deserve to be sued ... but hold on to your wallet tightly before considering fronting any … just sayin 