Lenders are announcing a new foreclosure halt. So time to give up on real estate investing for the season or is it a unique opportunity to hone in on motivated sellers?
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and a several major mortgage lenders have announced that they are suspending foreclosure evictions for the holidays. This might have some real estate investing companies closing up shop for the year but the real innovators should recognize the unique chance to motivate sellers even further and lock in some sweet profits for the New Year.
Fannie and Freddie will be running their moratorium from December 19th through January 2nd. While banks like Chase and Well Fargo said they will host theirs between the 22nd of December and January 2nd. This may sound like a big reprieve for homeowners who were sweating being thrown out during the holidays however it is not out of kindness. It really comes down to logistics and avoiding any further bad publicity. However it is important to note that none of the above will be slowing down their actual foreclosure proceedings, just actually evictions during this period.
Also real estate investing companies should note that firms like Wells will only apply their moratorium to their own loans, not those they service for others. Additionally perhaps one of the biggest mortgage holders, Bank of America hasn’t committed to any type of moratorium at all.
So what does this really mean for real estate investing? Smart investors ought to be sounding the warning sirens for homeowners. With some of the big players halting evictions, other lender’s evictions will be getting pushed through faster increasing the chances they will be evicted before the end of the year. Plus you can bet even Chase and Wells will be back with a vengeance on the 3rd of Jan. once they have had extra time to get their paperwork together.
So raise the alarm, look out for lead lists which can be filtered by lenders and lock into some sweet flips as the New Year breaks. Don’t let it let it slow down your real estate investing business!
