Jack Lewitz

When I thought about writing an article that would try to describe how we got ourselves into this financial mess I thought about the analogy of going off to college with a clean load of laundry.

Imagine the real estate market 30 years ago.

Back then, if you wanted to buy a home you would go to the community bank or savings and loan and ask them to give you a loan. You would give them all of your personal financial information. They would qualify you for a loan based on the value of the home, the purchase price, how much you have in savings, how much you earn on your job.

Giving you a loan was pretty clean and neat. The bank would hold on the mortgage and receive monthly payments from you until the loan was paid off.

Our banks grow up and go off to college and look what happens. The once neat pile of laundry turns into room full of dirty laundry.

Banks started to realize that they could not do more loans if they did not hold onto your mortgage for the full 30 years. So based on your credit, the value of the asset, they bundled the loan with other loans like your to investors.

This is called repackaging cash flow producing financial assets into Securities.

The banks soon found out there were many people interested in buying mortgage backed securities than there were loans. So here is what they did. They started to mix the loans together AAA rated loans with Subprime loans. The pile of mortgages kind of looks like our dirty laundry pile above and here is the problem we have today.

We need to sort out all of the laundry. We need to put whites with whites, color with colors, those that need to be washed as seperates and so forth. The rest we take to the dry cleaner.

Since we are in full swing of the Spring Housing Market I thought I would write about the Health of the Market as it relates to one community where I work.

As of today’s date, there are 300 active single family homes for sale in the city of Evanston, IL. During the past month 64 homes went under contract.

If you divide the number of homes under contract by the number of active listings you will be calculating for what is normally called the absorption rate. The absorption rate tells you how many months it will take to sell a home in today’s market.

In this example, (64 homes under contract /divided by 300 active listings) you get an absorption rate of 4.69 months. As Realtors we look at the absorption rate to define the difference between a buyers market and sellers market.

If it takes 1-4 months (30-120 days) then this is considered a buyers market. If it takes 5-7 months (150-210 days) to sell a home this is considered a sellers market.

On the surface the real estate market in Evanston, IL appears to be a buyers market. Now here is the kicker… Out of the 64 homes under contract 17 of those are Short Sales or Bank Owned Foreclosures. This represents 27% of the total future sales in Evanston, IL.

And we know it takes a longer time to get a Short Sale accepted by the bank and closed than a normal real estate transaction.

In conclusion, I think we need to adjust our concept of a buyers market vs a sellers market when the number of pending sales are really foreclosures.

The Short Sale review process begins with ordering the Broker Price Opinion (BPO).

A BPO is nothing more than comparing “Apples to Apples” (Single Family to Single Family, Condo’s to Condo’s and Multi-family to Multi-family) and coming up with a “Current Market Value” for the Subject Property.

Three (3) Sales Comp’s are required in each BPO. The bank wants these sales to be within the past 6-months to 12-months. The Sales must be within a mile radius of the subject property and if there are any sales that are sold in “As-IS” condition like other Short Sales or Foreclosures then these should be used first as a Sales Comp. The Bank wants to also know the Last List Price , the Final Sales Price, the Number of Days on the Market, and Financing such as FHA, Conventional for the buyer.

Three (3) Active Listings are required in each BPO. The bank wants Active Listings of other Short Sales and Foreclosures being sold in “As-Is” Condition. These listing should be within a 1 mile radius of the subject property. The Original List Price, Current List Price, and number of days on the market is also included.

Market Conditions are included in a BPO. The average Days on Market (DOM.), description of area as rural, suburban, or urban. Is the market declining, stable, or increasing.

Subject Marketability is describing the negative and positive features of the subject property in relation to the current market conditions.

Estimated Value is based on “As-Is” Conditions and “Repaired Conditions. Market Values will include List price and estimated Sale prices for 60-90 days and another value

You have a complete Short Sale Package and now your ready to submit it to the Loss Mitigation Department of the Bank. While you may be happy to get this to the bank…

The Loss Mitigation Department may not be as happy as you.

Each file handler in a loss mitigation department handles about 300-500 Short Sale Files and may look like this..

Because of the number of files they receive they will do anything they can to reject a Short Sale file.

Be prepared it takes a long time to get your file reviewed.

How much is your home worth today?

Depending on which county you live in your home has lost between 22%-42% of its value since 2007.

(Information provided in the table below comes from the MLS)