{"id":8204,"date":"2009-05-02T20:53:22","date_gmt":"2009-05-03T03:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=8204"},"modified":"2009-05-02T20:52:59","modified_gmt":"2009-05-03T03:52:59","slug":"are-you-looking-for-a-flinty-eyed-steward-to-protect-the-value-of-real-estate-whatever-you-do-dont-turn-to-a-banker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8204\/are-you-looking-for-a-flinty-eyed-steward-to-protect-the-value-of-real-estate-whatever-you-do-dont-turn-to-a-banker\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you looking for a flinty-eyed steward to protect the value of real estate? Whatever you do, don’t turn to a banker!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This from my Arizona Republic<\/i> real estate column (permanent link<\/a>):<\/p>\n

If there’s one thing we can say we’ve learned from the housing bust, it’s this: The worst conceivable stewards of financial assets are bankers.<\/p>\n

At every step of the real estate market’s retrenchment, the bankers have been right there, on the spot, ready to make precisely the wrong decision — days, weeks or even months late.<\/p>\n

Can’t make your payments? Put the home up for sale. Will the bank honor an offer short of the amount owed? Maybe. Maybe in six weeks, maybe in six months. Will the buyer still be there when the bank finally responds? With prices declining by thousands of dollars a month?<\/p>\n

So the bank has to foreclose on the home — at an imputed value far lower than it could have had from the short sale. And then it must list that home for sale at a still lower price.<\/p>\n

But don’t waste your time looking for evidence of prudence or even simple greed in a lender-owned listing. The home will be filthy, with fixtures and smoke alarms missing. The kitchen range will have been stolen, thus to assure that the home is not accidentally sold to an FHA or VA buyer.<\/p>\n

If the bank inadvertently approves a purchase contract for the home, it will do everything it can to avoid recouping even a tiny fraction of its losses. First the bank will attempt to savage the deal by completely rewriting the contract. And everyone involved in the process will be insanely overworked, so that even the simplest question will occasion a two- to five-day delay.<\/p>\n

Absolutely nothing will be done to address even deal-killing defects. But because the decision chain is so convoluted, negotiations over problems will drag on for weeks or even months. That way, when the deal falls apart, as many do, the bank will be able to relist the house at an even lower price.<\/p>\n

I wish I were making this up. I want to deride bankers as being clowns, but that’s unfair to the clowns. They produce wealth, rather than destroying it — and they dress better for work, Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This from my Arizona Republic real estate column (permanent link): If there’s one thing we can say we’ve learned from the housing bust, it’s this: The worst conceivable stewards of financial assets are bankers. At every step of the real estate market’s retrenchment, the bankers have been right there, on the spot, ready to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,26,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-investment","7":"category-lending","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2485,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2485\/buying-countrywide-why-bank-of-america-is-the-wrong-buyer\/","url_meta":{"origin":8204,"position":0},"title":"Buying Countrywide: Why Bank of America is the WRONG Buyer","author":"Brian Brady","date":"January 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Countrywide (CFC) has been acquired by Bank of America. This should come as no surprise to Bloodhound readers; we discovered the weakness at CFC last Spring and speculated about the price last Summer. Robert Kerr, Matt Heaton, and Bob Wilson, all Bloodhound readers, tipped me off to conjecture, asked all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3317,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3317\/farewell-countrywide-how-the-bank-of-america-merger-will-keep-wells-fargo-as-the-mortgage-origination-leader\/","url_meta":{"origin":8204,"position":1},"title":"Farewell Countrywide: How The Bank of America Merger Will Keep Wells Fargo As The Mortgage Origination Leader","author":"Brian Brady","date":"July 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"WARNING!\u00a0 Long commentary about the Bank of America\/ Countrywide merger ahead: Bank of America Press Release from July 1, 2008 (italicized) with my commentary: CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 1 \/PRNewswire\/ -- Bank of America Corporation today completed its purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp. to create the nation's leading mortgage originator and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2355,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2355\/were-all-sub-prime-borrowers-who-consume-oil\/","url_meta":{"origin":8204,"position":2},"title":"We’re All Sub-Prime Borrowers (Who Consume Oil)","author":"Brian Brady","date":"December 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Residential lending is in a pretty tough spot. Mounting losses, from former white-picket fence owners, are putting a dent in the country club sets' wallets. The problem is not unlike the one we faced 20 years ago; bankers turned into riverboat gamblers. That's all changed. Today, sobriety is the buzzword\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investment"","block_context":{"text":"Investment","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/investment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1955,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1955\/fed-trades-a-sharp-pain-quick-recovery-for-extended-convalescence\/","url_meta":{"origin":8204,"position":3},"title":"Fed trades a sharp pain, quick recovery for extended convalescence","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link): \u00a0Fed trades a sharp pain, quick recovery for extended convalescence As I write this the Federal Reserve Bank just cut its federal funds rate and also its discount rate, both by half-a-percent. The Fed doesn't control mortgage interest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4559,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/4559\/this-endless-election-season-may-give-the-real-estate-market-time-to-self-correct-before-new-legislation-can-make-things-worse\/","url_meta":{"origin":8204,"position":4},"title":"This endless election season may give the real estate market time to self-correct before new legislation can make things worse","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link). \u00a0This endless election season may give the real estate market time to self-correct before new legislation can make things worse Looking for a silver lining amidst the black clouds of financial news? 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