Foreclosure, TEXAS style
I posted how Texas is tenant friendly. Not the case for homeowners. It actually takes longer normally to evict a tenant than to foreclose on someone!
The State of Texas requires every county to handle all the foreclosures in that county on the first tuesday of each month. Holidays don't get a waiver. I attended one one New Years Day a year or two back. It happens at 10am. ALL the trustees show up at the same time! you have to be completely prepared with extra people to hang out in front of the various trustees.
There is no order to how the properties come out of the trusteees folders. It is the closest thing to a 3 ring circus this side of Ringling Brothers! You have to be completely ready.
This short fuse does a couple things. It makes negotiating short sales nearly impossible. There just isn't enuff time to get the info, answers and make contact with the seller/lender. Really tough to do. It also makes it extremely difficult to do all your research on the properties you want.
In my previous Texas stomping grounds, it was 90% hispanic. Do you know how many Garcia, Hernandez, and Martinez families there are? If you have an owner Juan and Maria Garcia, you will NOT have enough time to even check all the possible liens against that name. The worst my researcher found was over 1000 entries against the same name. You needed to be able to match up SS#'s to be sure.
Texas is the death penalty state and is also that in foreclosures. Not an easy state to work on those.
Comments (7)
Rich is right about researching the common surnames. Whether it's bankruptcy, or just a lien search - the SSN is the single unique element, and it is tough to get that SSN. Even if the info is online, there is still a load of stuff to go through. And the fact that these folks have financial troubles means that there is even more likelihood of them having something that you will WANT to find out about.
Steve Babiak, almost 15 years ago
I heard a story today where this small bank had a foreclosure that they new was worth much more than their loan and did not want to lose it at the courthouse steps. The fella telling me this said he went to the courthouse just for this property. He stood there waiting for the trustee to start the bid but no one ever showed up. it was getting to the end of the day and he thought it must have been pulled from this month's foreclosure when I black Lincoln pulled up to the curb. I man in a suit stepped out and began reading something but everyone there was up on the steps and too far away to hear him. They were pretty sure that this was the trustee they were waiting for and began running to the curb. Before they could catch up to him he finished reading and jumped back in the car and sped away. The bank kept it and later, a private sale was arranged. There's more dignity at a cattle auction!
Tod R., about 15 years ago
I just figured out how to read the census chart. I'm sorry I said my old county , Hidalgo, TX had 90% Hispanic population. It was actually 89%, as per the census. Sorry for the EXAGGERATION, . Rich
Rich Weese, about 15 years ago
Thank you for the replies. Jose- I don't know how you put 2 + 2 together and got 5!! Where was I trying to get 5? I wasn't trying to make any group look bad. Sorry if you took it that way. The group that worked with me on foreclosures in Hidalgo County consisted of J. Sauceda, C. Sauceda, C. Hernandez, G. Garcia, and t. Trevino. There were approx 600 foreclosures each month. By far, the majority was Hispanic, and many names are the same. This made if very difficult to research entries against the same surname in such a short time. I'm unable to read the %'s listed in previous thread, but I'm sure Hidalgo was one of the highest. There were approx 7 bridges to Mexico in Hidalgo County, 1 in my city . Jose, please don't try to make this something it isn't. I'll say it again. If you were to try to do foreclosures in Hidalgo County, in the short 21 day window, you'll ABSOLUTELY not have time to research common names. In that county, the most common names are Hispanic. Check the top 10 surnames in the USA now and 3-4 of those are also Hispanic. Just like Smith, Jones etc . Again, I'm sorry you took it wrong, but I worked foreclosures in that county for over a year, and I know the facts. Rich in FL.
Rich Weese, about 15 years ago
I think Rich was simply trying to illustrate his particular pocket had a lot of folks with the same last name making research very difficult ....
Ted Harris, about 15 years ago
Jose- I don't think Rich was saying that Texas is 90% Hispanic. His blog has to do foreclosure auctions which is done by county. It is possible his old stomping ground is 90% Hispanic based on certain counties. There are 254 counties in Texas. Five counties have greater than 90% Hispanic and 13 counties have greater than 80%. A accurate look at the population by county is: http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=n&_lang=en&mt_name=DEC_2000_PL_U_GCTPL_ST2&format=ST-2&_box_head_nbr=GCT-PL&ds_name=DEC_2000_PL_U&geo_id=04000US48
Justin S., about 15 years ago
Here is an accurate look at the population of Texas - <a href="http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/tif/exhibit3.html">http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/tif/exhibit3.html</a> The state doesn't have close to 90% Hispanics. In 2006, Hispanics made up 36% of the Texas population. Exaggerating to make a community look bad isn't right.
Jose Gonzales, about 15 years ago