In a recent interview with DS News, Jesse Roth, Auction.com SVP of Strategic Partnerships & Business Development, discussed how Auction.com is helping the industry overcome industry challenges resulting from the recent COVID-19 crisis and moratoriums. Here are some of Roth’s quotes from the interview.
Online strategy
“This institution that we have of forcing everyone into an offline transaction is antiquated in its approach. Being able to make an offer on a property digitally is just the next evolution of how real estate is going to be bought and sold in this country.”
Moratorium impact
“What we’re seeing is the creation of a backlog. Putting a short-term moratorium in place while servicers and borrowers and governments all get their hands around what’s going on makes total sense. We just need to say, ‘Hey, we just need to take a pause here and let the dust settle and figure out what we’ve got going on.’ The problem is that, the way they went about this moratorium, you’ve got a backlog of properties that were severely delinquent. There could be instances in New York, for example, where it had been scheduled, has been going through foreclosure for the last three years. Now they were very close to coming out and having a foreclosure sale and resolving that neighborhood blight that happens from that kind of abandoned and dilapidated properties.”
Forbearance
“The most surprising thing is just the sheer volume of borrowers that have raised their hands to ask for a forbearance plan. Truly it’s unprecedented. Even through the Great Recession, we didn’t have this forbearance option, and normally these forbearance plans are used around a natural disaster. You go through for a short period of time and say, ‘Okay, we’re going to give you some payment relief while we figure out what’s going on.’”
Communication hub
“We work hard to stay in contact with the experts here. We’re talking to the foreclosure attorneys in each state, we’re talking to the servicers that are on the front lines, talking to borrowers. We’re talking to the GSEs, we’re talking to FHFA, we’re talking to HUD, just trying to understand what they are seeing. What are they hearing? What are they thinking? What are they trying to address? Then, we serve as this information conduit to where we can say, ‘Here’s what we’re hearing from everyone else.’”