Diaster in Waiting

Garage door man came over to fix my door and hung around and we talked awhile about his other job. He manages about 1200 homes for HUD that has been foreclosed on and is empty. He is required to see each home and take pictures to send to a bureaucrat somewhere in the east twice a month. If he is paid $50 per home per month go figure. Each home is required to be stripped of the toilet paper dispenser (so he just kicks it off the wall and is paid $15 each by you and me) and all the homes are to have no light bulbs. He asked why for those two things and they said it was a safety issue just do it.

He said a situation similar to his is being played out all over the country with who knows how many more HUD managers. I asked why they don

Mike,

A number of us at the Rolla, MO MOM meeting learned from a reliable source that the gov’t is paying Wells Fargo to keep $500 mil worth of foreclosures off the market.

Steve

A couple of weeks ago a rep from Greentree servicing stopped by the park to deal with a repo here. This was the first GT repo for several years, and since I not been buying from them since 2006 as their portfolio has shrunk to very small quantities in this area. I asked what he had been doing to stay busy? He replied that was no problem as GT services for Bank of America and they had 1000’s of REO houses in IL and MO.

He made mention of the poor (or basically non-existant) servicing at BA. Apparently US Mail type contact was as far as BA would go, and many homes that he is now assigned are delinquent over 800 days.

Ah, the details in those securitization agreements mattered a great deal more than we realized: Politicians demand bank “increase homeownership” - bank says "i will if Fannie and Freddie will buy this paper with no strings attached to me, politician then contacts Franklin Raines and asks for his help with these pesky requirements, Raines agrees thereby greatly increases his performance bonus.