Hungry Hungry Repos: Banks Take Preemptive Possession

One of the things I do as a Realtor is help folks sell their homes on short sale.  To find these clients, I use one of the oldest prospecting methods in the book...the door knock.  Usually, I show up and let the owner know their home is headed for foreclosure and then discuss some options with them.  As you can guess, it's a sensitive conversation.  However, it has been a source of business for years. 

While I was scouting homes today I noticed a curious thing.  Of the homes on my list, 60% of them had keyboxes on the front door with notices from bank-contracted asset management companies saying that the home was vacant.  This is very interesting because the banks do not own the homes.  Yet, somehow the property has been deemed vacant by the lender and the property has been rekeyed...all before the property is even returned to the bank via trustee sale.

How would you feel if I rekeyed your home on a whim while you are on vacation?

I wonder if these folks participated in a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure with their lenders.  Either way, to find 60% of my prospective short sale list "pre-possessed" by banks is a pretty alarming development.

I inquired with Bill at CalculatedRisk to see if he had any insight.  From his response, it appears that most trust deeds allow a bank to protect the collateral on their loan in the event that a home is in danger of being damaged.  Winter weather can pose a real threat via plumbing which might explain the preponderance of pre-possessed homes.

Let's see what happens when I contact the owners and let them know their homes have been re-keyed.