Foreclosure Bonanza

Posted in Foreclosure Property, June 10th, 2007 |

It seemed as if a big party on. Cars rolled in on a foggy Sunday April morning in downtown Riverside. Men in tuxedos guided the traffic. Now that was unusual! People shopping for real estate bargains tumbled out in dockers, sandals and shorts. Don’t let the casual dress code divert your attention. These were all serious shoppers with pockets bursting with cash and checks – perhaps to the tune of millions of dollars.

Who were they? There were investors from San Diego on the look out for an inexpensive property to rent out. Some were novices from Fontana hoping to save a whopping $200,000 on a family unit. Many others came in droves for auction sales of foreclosed houses. California has not seen the likes of this type in decades. On this particular day, two lenders had put 100 properties on the dock. 93 had been sold off before the end of the day. Most of the properties were in fast growing ex-urban and desert areas on Riverside and San Bernardino Counties lying to the east of Los Angeles.

Till the other day the company holding the auction had been a nonentity in the field. Bu during the last few months when mortgages fell and foreclosures rose many lenders brought them back to business from hibernation. It was well worth it. They sold 265 properties in San Diego, Los Angeles and Riverside during only two May weekends. Upbeat, they are planning a repeat performance in Sacramento, Modesto, Atlanta and the Bay region, this summer. The spokesperson of this company described this as ‘counter-cyclical business’ but he refused to disclose the names of the banks involved. He admitted that in some cases the properties were sold for less than what were due in terms of loan. It was a gathering of rain and shine for what was one man’s meat was poison for another. The losers were none to happy but they would rather face losses quickly than linger on it with no hope in sight.

The tuxedo boys were not only outside conducting traffic but also inside the convention answering and guiding people around. In the opposite hall there were 41 loan and 25 escrow officers. Speakers were loud on the soundtrack. Extra chairs were wheeled in. From the bonhomie at the party it did not seem that the process of auctioning foreclosures in California is usually painstaking and time consuming.

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