For the last few years, we real estate agents were being told by government and banking interests to expect a wave of foreclosures on the market. We know there have been a great many foreclosure and pre-foreclosure homes in any neighborhood around here. Yet, here in the Spring of 2012, we are suffering with some of the lowest level of housing inventory for sale we’ve seen in years. What happened to the so called shadow inventory?
A possible clue came in the form of a recent phone call I took.
“Mr. Murphy, we represent an investor group looking to buy a pool of 585 REO homes. 4 of them are in the Redding area. We’d like you to go out and look them over, and let us know what you think they are worth in today’s market. In return, if we decide to go ahead with the purchase, we will use your services if we decide to market the properties in your area.” The caller said they represented a group of investors with a Very Hedge Fund sounding name I’d never heard of.
So I do a free, drive by appraisal, on the flimsy chance that I may get some business out of it. As always, it’s relatively easy to get a real estate agent to work for nothing. It’s common. We are a hopeful bunch.
I never got any call about those properties after that. I’ve spoken with other agents who have experience with “pool” buyers, too. Were those homes bought and quietly rented out? I don’t know, and as I understand it, Hedge Funds are only minimally regulated. All I know for sure is that we have way fewer local homes for sale than we’ve had in years, and it’s a real problem for buyers in certain market segments. Notably at about $150K level. What happened to the shadow inventory wave? We’re still waiting…