Crazy coincidence, right?

Question

We foreclosed on a SFR last week in Memphis, Tennessee. My partner runs an asset management company that handles our REOs as well as those for two other funds across the country. One of the first steps is to find a local real estate agent to be our boots on the ground who will contact the occupants and offer cash for keys.

When asked how familiar she was with the neighborhood that the house is located in a Memphis realtor replied that she was very familiar with it. In fact, she was extremely familiar with that exact house because she represented our former borrower when he bought it! How random is that? Memphis is a big city (1 Million +) with a ton of agents.

We're hoping that she'll have a rapport with the occupants that will make CFK easier and help in the transition.

Anyone have a similar story of a crazy coincidence?

Chris Seveney · Answer

@Andy Mirza I was on the phone an hour ago transferring utilities on a CFK deal that was finalized.

The utility company calls me as they needed more information, the gave says "email me the documents", so I ask for his email. His last name (which is very unique) is the same as the borrower (who left this place in shambles - case study to follow - but i digress).

I said do you happen to be related to XYZ samelastname. He was like why? I said that is who lived there. He laughed and said yes that is my loser sister and we had no clue where she was living. She had the utilities in her boyfriends name as she knew her brother worked for the town...

Andy Mirza · Answer

@Chris Seveney That made me actually laugh out loud, haha...

Chris Seveney · Answer

@Andy Mirza

Didn’t have to reject her as she was able to get free state housing at the penitentiary for dealing meth.

Karl B. · Answer

There are always fun stories in real estate. I grew up in a town of around 100K and so I'm always learning my tenants know someone I know.

One tenant (a guy around my age) is actually best friends with one of my favorite fraternity brothers. When I learned that (after a few years of renting to him) we told stories for an hour and laughed a lot.

In my Missouri market I had a realtor tell me she sold a house in the past that we went to look at though I didn't buy that house or buy through that realtor.

Heck, when it comes to inanimate objects weird coincidences can happen. I evicted a tenant and he didn't take move his stuff (long story) and so I legally became owner of him and his cousins things.

In all the stuff was an old tarnished silver spoon from Sweden. My mom's from Sweden and so I showed it to her and she brings out a set of Swedish silver spoons from the same maker in Sweden.

The spoons were identical save for a small stamping on the spoon, from what I recollect. The spoons are from the 1950s or earlier so it's weird an evicted tenant had a random silver Swedish spoon in their possessions.

Andy Mirza · Answer

@Chris Seveney In the second case, did the landlord reject the application? I suppose it depends on how the borrower acted in the foreclosure.

I'm so used to borrowers doing everything they can to avoid foreclosure that I get jaded sometimes. I wrote a blog post about a borrower who did everything to stall a foreclosure including multiple BK filings by different people and a civil lawsuit with an ex parte hearing before the trustee sale.

Four months after we sold the property at trustee sale, I got a phone call out of the blue. A landlord had already given the ok for a new tenant (our former borrower) to move in to one of his rentals. Something didn't seem quite right so he did a little bit of digging and found us because we were the foreclosing lender on the borrower's last residence.

When I explained how the borrower behaved, the landlord saw that the likely outcome of renting to this individual would result in one or two months of payments followed by a lengthy eviction process. The landlord, was able to back out and spared himself a whole lot of grief.

Chris Seveney · Answer

@Andy Mirza - Two more for you:

Bought a loan two weeks ago. The borrower calls me with wants to do deed in lieu. They are over leveraged and need to get out of some properties. I said fine as long as I get an inspection on the property first - here is my agent. He says great, my last two investment properties I bought she was the agent on. Small world

Second one is I owner financed a property to an investor in NC. Former borrowers lost property due to forfeiture. They go to move 15 minutes away and look to rent a place from guess who, the person who now bought their old house and listed it as the address on the application. This investor has around 8-10 homes so its not like they own 1000 properties.

Andy Mirza · Answer

@Chris Seveney That's a good one. And crazy that your coincidence happened at almost the same time as mine, haha!

Crazy coincidence, right?

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