Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Yet Another Sign of the Times

In doing my usual weekly scan of NODs & foreclosures in EDH and Folsom, I was saddened to see that our old landlord is now on the list of NODs.

He was a really great landlord, and a funny guy, with a nice family. When we met him, his story seemed the epitome of the American dream. He and his wife came to this country, started a successful business (that was expanding when we met him), and had amassed a modest empire in local real estate.

Not sure if it was for our rental home, or the one two doors down from us that he owned as well. I know he had found tenants shortly after we left. In any case, I am really quite distressed at this news.....even though I figured the day may come.

Speaking of the foreclosure & NOD listings.... www.foreclosure.com, where I gather my data, has changed their free format. There seem to be many listings for land and commercial properties now. Not sure if I am only noticing because of the format change, or if their listings have expanded to include more listings.

6 comments:

husmanen said...

Sorry to hear about your old rental. My current rental is showing all the signs of a soon to be NOD, e.g. letter from lending agency identifying missed payments, missed taxes (Dec 2008 and Apr 2009), purchased in 2005 etc.

Our owner is very nice, also born outside the US but has made a good living here then made a mistake by buying in 2005 for retirement near family. Sadly, I don't think that will be happening.

I use Realtytrac's free service and check weekly if an NOD has been filed. Also, I check www.fidelityasap.com and www.priorityposting.com. There are a few NOD's on these sites that do not show up on Realtytrac for Folsom and EDH. At least one home that I have been tracking no longer shows up on Realtytrac but it can be found on the two sites mentioned above.

Deflationary Jane said...

BT,

Remember when I did the trustee search for you last April? I saved the file and compared it to Mondays search

For El Dorado County
date listings change
4/11/2008 173
6/8/2009 386 223%

I also have seen lots of commercial and lots listed lately too.

Paul said...

I am similarly dismayed, BT. The number of "good" landlords out there is small, and it seems the number is declining. My home is rapidly approaching my LL's purchase price, from 2000, but the rent covers LL's debt service, etc. (I believe) so I think this one is safe, but it is still sad to see the shrinkage of good LL's.

DJ: Your stats for EDC are consistent with my monitoring of Cameron Park. I have seen a "more than doubling" of NODs in the past 90 days, with little evidence of a decline. I have also seen an increase in vacant homes in CP, with no evidence of attempts to rent or sell, and NO NOD having been recorded (stealth inventory?).

Giacomo said...

My first (post-owning) LL ultimately lost the house I was living in, and it looks like my second LL is headed that way too: he leveraged to buy a bigger house, took a neg-am pick-a-payment loan, couldn't sell, now underwater, etc.

Yeah, he's a "nice guy" too, but let's not shed too many tears for people like this. They gambled and lost. If things had gone the way THEY planned, they'd be on Easy St., and the responsible savers of the world would be priced out forever (or settling for a S-box somewhere).

As husmanen and Paul suggest, the downside for those of us staying on the sidelines is trying to find a decent house to lease where the LL ISN'T in jeopardy, or even outright scamming. The wife and I thinking of downsizing and putting more of our stuff in storage for the next round, just to minimize risk and making moving simpler.

(That's right, I admitted it, renting can be a hassle in the transition periods ;) )

Buying Time said...

DJ -

My amateur stats are very similiar, but just for EDH.

4/11/08 161 NODs & 57 REOs
6/8/08 261 NODs & 85 REOs

Unknown said...

I had a strange experience myself. I sold one of my homes in Rocklin and a couple years later for some strange reason a piece of my mail went to that old home. So I went over there and spoke to the person living there and she was a renter. anywho, as out conversation progressed she ended up telling me that she had to move out in a couple weeks because the owner was foreclosing. I felt kinda bad since I was the previous owner, anyways just thought that was a weird..close to home experience. Sacramento Property management