Zombie  [zom – bee] noun

1.a. the body of a dead person given the semblance of life, but mute and will-less, by a supernatural force, usually for some evil purpose.

1.b. the supernatural force itself.

1.c. a home caught between the Owner and the Lienholder in a foreclosure action wherein the Owner has abandoned the property but they still retain legal title.

 

John Hielscher of the Sarasota Herald Tribune wrote a February 2015 article on the Sarasota area Zombie Phenomenon which I will summarize here for you. All figures and references will relate to that point in time!

  

Florida was the leader in nationwide in Zombie Foreclosures, literally defined as Home Owners who vacated or abandoned their properties prior to the completion of the foreclosure process creating a stall in the proceedings. The Sarasota-Manatee region was the 21^st highest in January with 1,196 actions on the books. That was 30% of the total homes in process. Florida reported almost 36,000 Zombie Foreclosures in 2014. Nationally, the figure was 142,462. RealtyTrac reports that while the number is down compared to previous years, it still comprises a larger percentage of the overall total of foreclosures because they are harder to resolve due to their very nature: absent, disappearing owners.

In areas where the Foreclosure activity has increased, the states tend to have a longer more difficult foreclosure process which makes the property an easy mark for squatters, vandals, and other negative impacts affecting the neighborhood in whole driving the values down all around the subject property. The only method of mitigation is for the financial institutions to streamline and improve their processes as the courts do the same to handle the flow of residential foreclosures still bottle-necking the dockets. The ‘robo-signing’ crisis put a years-long hold on tens to hundreds of thousands of actions as the process was no longer secure or trustworthy and became morally and legally bankrupt.

In Sarasota and Manatee Counties, there are hundreds of property held by Government entities and Banks. Here are some of the numbers in a quick snapshot culled from the respective Property Appraiser sites May 4^th, 2015:

Freddie Mac:     S-50       M-38

Fannie Mae:      S-325     M-246

Banks:               S-522*    M-437*               

 

These figures are derived by simply searching on common names for financial institutions and not by the companies that maintain their real estate holdings which would produce significant higher numbers for the area. However, you can see that there are at least 1,047 homes sitting on hold within a government or bank portfolio! Lots of opportunities to make deals and find your next home!

 

*Banks in order of highest to lowest 2 county holdings: Wells Fargo, US Bank, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, New York Bank Mellon, JPMorgan Chase, Regions Bank  

 

To buy or sell a home in a great deal as an REO, give us a call today! We'll walk you through this complicated process and have you smiling with keys in hand in short time!

CHIP DEACON, Broker-Associate

Cell: 941-302-8717 Off: 941-357-4031

The Extreme Home Selling Team

Keller Williams On The Water Sarasota

22 Links Avenue; Sarasota, FL 34234

www.ExtremeHomeSellingTeam.com

 Chip@ExtremeHomeSellingTeam.com

 

Want to know more about the Sarasota Area? Check out these Resources: 

1.       Demographics                     http://www.sarasotaeconomy.com/ 

2.       VISIT Sarasota                    http://www.visitsarasota.org 

3.       Economic Development   http://www.edcsarasotacounty.com/ 

 

1.       ABC-7 WWSB                     http://www.mysuncoast.com/  

2.       SRQ Magazine                   http://srqmagazine.com/ 

3.       The Observer-Sarasota   http://www.yourobserver.com/

 

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