Buying Bank Owned Repo Homes in Maryland

Enthusiastic home buyers in Maryland are finding to their dismay that banks do not have systems and staff in place to facilitate their purchase of bank owned repo homes. Many prospective buyers are adding thousands of dollars more to their home buying costs because expected closure dates are being postponed.

The case of Timothy and Michele Bowden illustrates the excruciating impact of slow action by banks on the lives of eager buyers. The Bowdens, family members and friends drove down with their furniture from Florida to finally occupy their new home in Burke. But to their consternation, the bank on closing day found out it does not have the required ownership documents to close the sale. The Bowdens, who brought some people to celebrate their purchase and to help them move, were forced to spend more than $7,000 in hotel and food costs for ten days while the bank sorted out its documents.

Because of thousands of bank owned repo homes and large numbers of prospective buyers looking for bargains, banks quickly accept offers of purchases for their repo homes but find out they do not have enough resources to complete the sale process quickly for buyers waiting for their keys to the repo homes.

Dennis King, an attorney who handles bank foreclosures, said banks in the boom times did not have to do so much to sell foreclosures because investors acquired them quickly. But now they are overwhelmed because they are dealing not with few investors but with thousands of repo homes and homebuyers.

In the Washington area, there were 217 foreclosure filings for every 10,000 housing units by the end of March, according to the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.

Soon-to-be-married Andrew Garcia and BethAnne Hoffmann hurried to complete the documents the bank required to close on their purchase of a repo home that the bank owned. Their apartment lease ends in two weeks so they did all their best to finish all what is needed to close the sale, but to their shock, the bank postponed the closing.

Worried, they researched court records and found out the former owner of the house they bought filed for bankruptcy days after the repossession of the house. The couple had to ask for help from their congressman, Representative John Sarbanes of Maryland, to solve their problem mainly caused by large numbers of repo homes.

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