A New Niche in the Florida Mortgage Market

As record foreclosure filings and the Florida mortgage crunch have become a nightmare for homeowners and lenders, the higher numbers mean more business for at least one group of people.

According to the Miami Daily Business Review, these are real estate agents who list foreclosed properties for lenders and specialize in real estate owned by banks - “REOs” for short.

These agents have seen a dramatic increase in business from banks over the last few months in the turbulent South Florida mortgage market.

Paula Pompa, an agent with Prudential Florida WCI Realty in Plantation, used to get about five foreclosure listings a month from banks.

Now she gets five a week. Each month seems a little worse,” said Pompa, who began seeing a surge about six months ago.

EXIT Realty, the Global Group, in West Palm Beach, has about 100 foreclosed properties in its inventory, and expects that to double in 90 days.

One national lender was expecting to have 500 foreclosures this week alone, Pompa said, as the foreclosure count in South Florida keeps climbing.

As of Tuesday, 11,490 Broward County properties were either in default or pre-foreclosure, with 5,252 in Palm Beach and 3,188 in Miami-Dade.

If all fall into foreclosure, they will be listed for auction. Those that don’t sell are turned over to the Florida mortgage lender.

In terms of just foreclosure cases, there were 1,989 filings in Miami-Dade last month, 1,105 in Broward County and 1,062 in Palm Beach County.

As the majority of foreclosed properties do not sell at the auctions, the Florida home loan lenders turn to real estate agents to move their REOs.

Buying foreclosed property through an agent allows the buyer to inspect the property and get the proper Florida mortgage financing.

It usually takes 30-60 days for a property to show up on the real estate market after county auctions, experienced agents say.

With the influx of foreclosure listings, some real estate agents dealing with REOs are offered more work than they can handle.

“There are a lot available for agents who want to list them,” said June Heller of Campins in Miami Beach. “Before I would take any foreclosure listing, but now I am more selective.”

Continue reading this article by the Miami Daily Business Review about the rise of the niche market for local real estate agents…