Saturday, May 7, 2011

Can You Get To The Bank Before The Repo Boat Outfits Do?

By Walter Strongton


If you have searched at any of the bigger boat classified sites it's not unheard of anymore to see a considerable amount of the listings posted are 'bank owned' or bank repo boats. This seems to be particularly more pronounced with performance type watercraft. The question that frequently gets thrown around in blogs and community forums is whether banks and credit unions are desperate enough to accept serious offers as little as 20 to 30% of their asking price. Anything less than that and you will be hard pressed to get a bank to justify a response.

The best way to approach a bank..any bank is with cash. Better yet submit your offer with proof of funds. Even if it's only 20% of their asking price they will see that you're not the average tire kicker. Using cash means less headache for the bank It's much more closer to getting an approval letter than if you just simply fill out and submit the bid form like everyone else.

Is it advisable to go directly to a local, regional, or national bank and ask them what boat repos they have for sale? You can if you're willing to wade through a lot of red tape, time, and no responsiveness. For the most part banks are busy lending and don't have time to service repo negotiations or sale transactions. A However, a company called Boat Auctions Direct has aggregated and listed many sources in North America that do list repossessed boats, RV's, ATV's, marine equipment and accessories, etc. I find it a much more efficient means to this end.

The hard truth of striking up a deal with a bank on one of their repos is that most banks will not deal directly with the public. They opt instead to go through experienced brokers and repo houses or liquidation companies for the sake of convenience and efficiency. It's just more systematic and more importantly they can concentrate with their primary services: making loans. Some lenders have so many repo boats to manage that they are secuing fleet insurance coverage.

It just make sense to go directly to the bank, however, repo auction houses will often have a standing contract established with the bank or credit union. Pre-defined terms are set as to how much liquidation companies profit from the sale. The benefit for the bank is that they are able to leverage a trusted name (a respected local marina or liquidator) in addition to their knowledge and expertise along with a storage lot to efficiently remarket the boat repos for banks. Essentially the bank will almost certainly try to recapture at least the loan amount in default once the hammer drops to end the boat auction.

An honest question is whether or not banks provide an opt-in list of bank repo boats going to auction? This may be true for smaller sized community banks or credit unions however , most often the bigger lending institutions are contracted with local or regional repo outfits or repo boat liquidation outfits to efficiently seize and remarket their collateral. In the latter case of smaller banks you can ask to speak to the bank officer who heads up the "special assets" department if they do not already have a dedicated web page for liquidating non-performing assets within their main website.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment