We have known Jim & Donna Klinge for over a dozen years, having met them in Carlsbad where our children went to the same school. As long time North County residents, it was a no- brainer for us to have the Klinges be our eyes and ears for San Diego real estate in general and North County in particular. As my military career caused our family to move all over the country and overseas to Asia, Europe and the Pacific, we trusted Jim and Donna to help keep our house in Carlsbad rented with reliable and respectful tenants for over 10 years.
Naturally, when the time came to sell our beloved Carlsbad home to pursue a rural lifestyle in retirement out of California, we could think of no better team to represent us than Jim and Donna. They immediately went to work to update our house built in 2004 to current-day standards and trends — in 2 short months they transformed it into a literal modern-day masterpiece. We trusted their judgement implicitly and followed 100% of their recommended changes. When our house finally came on the market, there was a blizzard of serious interest, we had multiple offers by the third day and it sold in just 5 days after a frenzied bidding war for 20% above our asking price! The investment we made in upgrades recommended by Jim and Donna yielded a 4-fold return, in the process setting a new high water mark for a house sold in our community.
In our view, there are no better real estate professionals in all of San Diego than Jim and Donna Klinge. Buying or selling, you must run and beg Jim and Donna Klinge to represent you! Our family will never forget Jim, Donna, and their whole team at Compass — we are forever grateful to them.
It could be just the area that I’m looking in, but Mr. Foreclosure has been making frequent visits to the neighborhoods that I’ve been watching in the last month. Just last week another SS that I had an offer on was visited by Mr. Foreclosure. I haven’t seen any sold to thirds in a while.
Processors are not following through cause every time they are ready Obama throws them another hurdle. Good thing the government can print money otherwise FNM, FRE, and the FHA would be having major cash flow problems right now.
JtR,
These are my anecdotal observations from LA:
A small group of lenders/servicers seem to be ramping up the actual sales at auction. BofA/Countrywide/Recontrust and JPMorganChase/Wamu are the most notable in this respect.
Perhaps as a result of the above, the total percentage of noticed sales actually taking place each day (as opposed to being postponed or cancelled) appears to be rising. Back in November and January it was around 7-8% of each days sales would actually happen, while 8-9% would cancel and 80-85% would postpone. Now I’m seeing about 10% sell, abuot 10% cancel and about 80% postpone. It’s a small change, but could signal the beginning of the end for the modification based cancellations and the beginning of the beginning for actually addressing the enormous backlog.
Finally, I hear stories of 5 year I/O and option ARMs recasting and people’s monthly paymets doubling due to amortization of the prinicpal, even with the floating rates at historic lows. Yes, many of these loans were already in default, but the recasts are forcing distress on the remaining borrowers who used these loans to buy into the frenzy of 2005-2007 and could cover the nut up to now. Not a tsunami by any means, but marginal distressed inventory, some of which will become short sales or conventional sales as owners buckle.
Your point, of course, that in a supply constrained market these may all simply amount to a drop in the bucket, remains fundamentally correct. But alot of RE is psychological, and if the over the summer the perception develops that RE is headed down again, the will more owners throw in the towl? Will more retirement aged, low cost basis owners head for the exits to cash out? Or will Uncle Ben’s greenback and tonic keep the party going indefinitely?
WftM,
I LOVE it when a bs shortsale gets foreclosed. Especially when the listing agent, who I have asked about the pending auction date, insists that there will be no foreclose because they have an agreement with lender.
I don’t think it’s the government stopping foreclosures here per se. It is the banks, hoping for loan mods. There are houses out there with $400k worth of loans that are only worth $150k on the open market (subtracting costs, that’s probably $125k net or less to the bank). It makes sense for the bank to not foreclose as long as possible if there’s any chance of payments being made on the $400k balance. Heck, an actual principal reduction (very rare) to $300k or $250k is better for the bank than foreclosing. Also, since inflation is currently zero, there is no incentive for the bank to go quickly.