It’s time for some real estate ramblings about buying, to go with those about selling. We have found a house we like in the DC area, have made an offer on it, and are cleared to borrow the necessary.
We were surprised to find that the seller and our likely lender are one and the same organization. In hindsight, we shouldn’t be, since the place is a foreclosure, which means that the organization that made the last loan on the place now owns it.
Does the fact that the lender and the seller are the same organization make things run particularly smoothly? I’ve heard the view that it should: after all, the lender is in the lending business, and doesn’t really want to be in the property-owning business. We’re giving it a chance to increase its lending activity and reduce its property-owning distraction.
That positive answer is consistent with the assumption that different parts of the same large organization work together well. There are many terms for that assumption: optimistic; heroic; not well supported by empirical evidence.
I think that this sale will go through, but it ain’t over until the large seller signs.