kev, where are all these “vacant” REO’s that you or your “friends” are seeing today? I’m seeing the few REOs left get snapped up within hours of coming online in the MLS … even in the *newer* areas where they used to be released at a snails pace, due to too many of the same floorplan either being already foreclosed upon or being somewhere in the foreclosure process.
IF there is actually a true “lack of inventory” in some areas, it is due to “owners” who are now paying on a permanently modified mortgage and are not yet in a position to list and sell the property for enough to satisfy either all of the lender’s equity portion (for back interest owed but “forgiven”) or the lender’s portion of equity PLUS whatever amount of equity the “owner” believes they need to recover in order to exit the property. IOW, their “modification agreement” has strings attached and until the lender makes enough interest off them, they won’t be able to sell and thus exit it cleanly so these many thousands of owners are essentially “stuck,” either voluntarily or involuntarily.
Thus, the reduced numbers of inventory you see today, especially in the newer tract developments.
