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Like others, I cannot understand why banks aren't able to move faster on foreclosed properties and short sales. This is nationwide, not just in TV. Why does it take them months and months to act? Aren't they losing money in the meantime? Don't they care about recouping any of their losses?
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First of all, not all of these homes are owned by banks. Many times the owners will pass away and the heirs want nothing to do with the homes. In some cases there is no will and it has to go to probate and who knows how long that will take. Sometimes probate will determine that the heirs own the home and the heirs don't want it and go to court to be relieved of it. This process can take a very long time.
If it is a reverse mortgage situation, from what I've been able to gather, the heirs have one year to decide what they want to do with the home. I would think that at that point the banks would have to go to court and start proceedings.
We have a home on our street that was simply abandoned. Now, if the people had a mortgage on it, the bank can start foreclosure proceedings after they have not made their payments for so many months. If there is not mortgage then the house can just simply sit there until I don't know when.
If I'm not mistaken the houses that have the white paper in the windows have been put into foreclosure by the courts. The owners have not made payments for a long time so the bank applies to the court to take ownership. Banks look at this as a last step. Banks don't want to own houses. They would rather work with owners to allow them to keep their homes and make payments to the bank.
So the house has sat there for many months until the bank is allowed to foreclosed. Then they can apply to the courts for foreclosure proceedings. Then the courts have to look into the situation. They try to find the owners or the heirs and find out if something can be worked out. This takes months and possibly years.
Once the court is satisfied, the bank takes ownership of the property and usually hires a real estate agent to try to sell it. There is one for sale on Schwartz ( I forget if it's East or West) that has a "For Sale - Foreclosure" sign on it. I would think that the banks are in more of a hurry to get to this stage than anyone.