Linda Cullen

Our bank foreclosure specialists had to attend a day-long meeting here in Palm Beach County, Florida yesterday. They have said that, due to moratoriums on foreclosures the past month or two, they've been a little shower than they were. They were told yesterday that the wave of foreclosures heading their way any minute now is unbelievably large. Get out your real estate life rafts!

I run some statistics each Monday. One of them is the inventory of housing units (all types - but they are mostly single family) in the Intracoastal section of West Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach County, south of Okeechobee Blvd. down to the town of Lake Worth and east of I-95.

This morning's total came at 435. I flipped back through my chart to this time last year and the number was ..... 538. That's a 19+% drop. "They" said we had a 5 year supply of inventory - and this would reduce it to four years - but there is always a supply of inventory; never ZERO. So, Hey, we are headed in the right direction!

South Florida, West Palm Beach .....most of 2007 I played with my cooking recipes .... most of 2008 I lived off rentals and withdrew from savings, withdrew, withdrew.... There were NO files in the "pending" section of my file drawer. Any agent who said (s)he was doing well was lying.

Suddenly I have two of my listings under contract, two buyer sales awaiting closing, another good offer coming in on another listing, and a rental listing almost rented. How wonderful!

I've mentioned before that when any house under $100,000 comes up in my immediate area, I immediately go and see it - that way I can find the diamonds in the mess of the foreclosures and short sales to recommend quickly to buyers.

I've been doing this for one month - and taking stock today, I learn that HALF of what's out there has already gone under contract. The greatest percentage of those under contract are at the lower end of that group, but boy do they disappear quickly. You need a score card these days to keep tabs!

I have a listing. Selling agent has an FHA buyer. Contract signed. All okay. Loan in process. I get an e-mail.......

....from the loan processor to the selling agent who forwarded to ME ---- they want a copy of MY driver's license so that they can ascertain that I AM NOT ON THE FHA WATCH LIST!

The WHAT? 17 years in the business. Hadn't done FHA deals in years. Remember that I thought it unusual (but not much brain thought beyond that) that agents had to sign the FHA addendum to the contract......

WELL! Yes, I had to produce my driver's license to National City (the lender) here in South Florida, Palm Beach County, West Palm Beach ...... so that they could ascertain whether I have been involved in any previous fraudulent deals!

While it's momentarily off-putting --- it's ABOUT TIME SOMEONE STARTED CHECKING!!!!!!