GreenPoint Mortgage Funding is the latest mortgage company to shut its doors this year. Credit card giant CapitalOne, headquartered in the shadow of Washington, D.C., announced the immediate shutdown of GreenPoint, its loan origination subsidiary. Talk about a good idea gone bad -- CapitalOne just bought the company December of last year.
I like the way the CapitalOne press guys write this one up -- that the current market creates "significant near-term profitability challenges." I guess that means, we ain't makin' no money right now.
Note to shareholders: Oops.
One of the latest twists in an already topsy-turvy real estate market for agents and buyers is this -- if a mortgage company owns a lot of property from foreclosures, then where or to whom does a buyer make an offer to purchase such property since the holder of the house no longer exists -- at least in a healthy state.
The short-sale market (better known as pre-foreclosure) is alive and well around the country. But now we have the next challenge on these properties -- buyers in the midst of a transaction with an entity whose status is questionable at best, and totally phased out at worst.
An attorney friend of mine says that anyone involved in such a case or anticipating such a deal should be ready to wait a while for word from the bankruptcy court or the receivers of such a lender to determine what will happen with the properties. If Mortgage Company A has filed bankruptcy, then its creditors will want to know how much cash or assets the company has to fulfill its debts. The houses may be considered such an asset and you may not be first in line to take over such a property if you're in a contract with them.
Fortunately, GreenPoint didn't file bankruptcy, it just got shut down by its owner. So its parent company will most likely liquidate the properties being held by GreenPoint as soon as possible. Other mortgage companies, like American Home Mortgage, on the other hand, may have a tougher time, now that the future of such companies must be determined by a bankruptcy judge.
Bloomberg News Service reports that nearly 100 mortgage companies have filed bankruptcy or sought buyers since the beginning of the year. Thus, this problem isn't going away. Since many of the mortgage companies were lending nationally, the shock waves will be felt the same way.
In just the Washington, D.C./Baltimore region, GreenPoint held 10 properties worth an assessed value of $3 million, according to tax data around the region. Other companies that most recently closed shop held even more -- American Home Funding had 39 properties with a book value of $12.5 million, NovaStar Mortgage had 36 worth $10.5 million.
Embattled mortgage behemoth Countrywide has 70 properties in its D.C.-area portfolio worth $25 million. Thus, as these lenders start to mop up the bad loans they made over the last few years, if they have to take the houses over, the question for buyers then, is, can you get to closing before the banks goes belly up?
If you're looking at buying a short-sale, be sure to research if the lender (seller) you're dealing with is financially stable.
