Billy Burke, CAI - AARE

I am a full time real estate auctioneer and one of less than 350 people in the USA who is certified as an Accredited Auctioneer of Real Estate by the National Auctioneers Association and would like to comment on the foreclosure crisis.

5,300 American families are losing their home to foreclosure each and every day; it's a fact not fiction.

Every property that is foreclosed must be offered at a mandatory foreclosure auction. That's right 100% of the properties going through foreclosure must be offered at public auction, yet the foreclosure process is broken at the auction and can be easily fixed.

I would like to make the public and government aware of the fact that the foreclosure process is broken at the initial mandatory public auction, because professional certified real estate auctioneers are "locked out" of the foreclosure auction process due to contract bundling and depression era regulations.

That's right the mandatory foreclosure "auctions" of which 100% of the 5,300 homes being lost by American families each and every day are not conducted or produced by professional auctioneers.

The foreclosure auctioneer service is "bundled" into legal or loan servicer contracts and these "auctions" are conducted by people who are not trained and have zero motivation to actually sell these homes to new owners.

During the past two years just about every property we have "sold" at auction has been turned down by the banks & lenders because the sales price is less than what is owed on the property and the people delivering $75 BPO's backed them up with 6-month to 1-year old "comps".

Every property that we have auctioned that has been turned down has ended up selling for much less, usually $100,000 or more less than we delivered at auction, with most still on the market 1 to 2 years later.

Did you know that if the efficiency or sell through rate of the mandatory public auction required to foreclose on a property increased just 1% it would mean a savings of $15 to $20 Billion dollars a year to the American taxpayers?

I am a small business owner and properly registered & certified as a federal real estate auctioneer contractor. I personally have been trying to get the attention of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD, Treasury, OMB and the SBA to "unbundle" auctioneering services from the contracts associated with federally insured loans for the past 8-years.

My pleas and petitions for change have fallen on deaf ears because no one person wants to "rock the boat" changing the way things have been done since the great depression.

Every day we hear on the news and from the government about the national "foreclosure crisis" yet nobody is aware that the regulations governing the foreclosure of real estate have not been updated since the "New Deal" legislation of the FDR Administration.

There is no conspiracy or group trying to maintain the status quo; it is more of an awareness issue that nobody is really aware that professional real estate auctioneers are locked out of producing foreclosure auctions. The professional real estate auctioneers are 'inclusive' of realtors offering buyers agency commissions as an incentive to actually sell the property instead of sitting on it churning fees for property maintenance and management companies.

If there is one single line item I could ask the government or bank regulators to change, it would be to update the regulations about how foreclosure auctions are performed from 1930's standards to 21'st century standards.

I have been researching this subject for almost 10-years and can quote or show chapter and verse where this is happening each and every day of the week.

2-million American families are facing the loss of their home through foreclosure in the upcoming year and allowing professionals, who are trained in the process, will save the taxpayers billions of dollars and allow the families who are losing their home to move with dignity.

Note to whomever reviews this: Please pass this to everyone you know and your Congressman or Senator, I can pretty much guarantee that if you ask anyone about who produces foreclosure auctions (not the REO auctions of property that has already been foreclosed and is now bank or government owned) they will tell you they did not know that professional auctioneers do not conduct these auctions.

100% of property being foreclosed must be offered at public auction, allowing professionals to conduct the 5,300 auctions a day will deliver better results.

By spreading this message we can instill change right away and this is a change for the better that will save the taxpayers billions, eliminate blight in communities and restore human dignity to families losing their home to foreclosure.

Remember the Golden Rule of Loss Mitigation: The first loss is your best and least expensive loss!

In the fourth quarter of 2007, Prince George’s County reported 2,732 foreclosures, the highest in Maryland. However, during the 4th quarter in Prince George’s County only 1279 sold according to the MRIS.

Basically, the number of foreclosures was double the number of houses that sold.

You don't hear the National Association of Realtors talking about figures that while they run ads on TV saying real estate ALWAYS goes up in value.

The housing bust in the Washington, DC area is far from over.

This year a rising inventory of foreclosures will put significant downward pressure on prices.

People here on the Eastern Shore think that they are ’special’ and while property values are dropping everywhere else things are still going up here. The reality of the situation is the bubble on the shore peaked November 2005 and property values have dropped 40% to 60% across the board.

C’mon who is going to pay $80,000.00 for a Pocomoke City lot in White Oaks next to a stinky clam processor and the train tracks? $485,000.00 for a rancher outside Salisbury or Berlin in what was a soybean field two years ago?

People who are selling homes just need to get real and stop sucking on the crack pipe of phantom equity. Two foreclosures for every one ‘regular sale’ is a sad statistic and could very easily take root right here on the Eastern Shore if people don’t get a grip on reality with prices or simply sell for auction e.g cash values.

The list, price, hold & defend that price method is broken, it can't be fixed and will soon be dead and gone the way of the Dodo bird.

The public wants open transparent real estate transactions, just like they want open government.

There are alternatives to foreclosure and Maryland is leading the nation with legislation to require lenders to report on their loss mitigation programs, but for many homeowners its simply too little, too late.

If you are one of the many who cannot make their payments you do have options, call your lender or visit the Maryland HOPE website