The eviction moratorium has expired. What can we expect? So now that the moratorium expired on July 31st, the question is, are we going to have a rapid rise in evictions and what does this mean for landlords? The first is there will likely be an increase in evictions filed for sure. That being said, there is likely no shortage of people that have had the ability to pay but simply chose not to because they were protected. I suspect that in many cases, a lot of things will be simply resolved, or payment plans arranged or other solutions to keep an eviction from happening. The reality is, for some landlords, if they can get some payment today that may be all they need to keep things moving without fear of their property being trashed or extensive renovations being needed, deferred maintenance etc. So, I would imagine some of the people eligible for eviction, as a result, will stay in their properties. By the same token, there will be some that will get evicted most likely and need to be evicted as they were simply taking advantage of a system beyond the timeline necessary. While we have no idea what percentage of people this would be, chances are, I would imagine, that we would see some landlords, if they’re not already in a for barrens agreement with their banks that they would enter into one. And in doing so, the bank would simply allow the for barrens to continue or begin without issue as long as landlord would show that there is a new lease with new tenant in place and deposits made. This is not too different from when some investors go to get loans on rental properties where the banks want to see a lease in place before a loan of that nature closes. I would imagine we’ll see some of this, and again these landlords would not lose their properties, they would get new tenants and carry on.
Now there will be some landlords for certain that do need to get out of their properties. They’ve simply been without income from these properties for far too long and do not have the cushion or means to hang on. And these cases, I still do not expect a fire sale because, with the market being as strong as it is, many of these landlords will have sufficient equity to cover any sales, and by selling will have access to recoup some of those costs in the form of equity received at the sale. In some cases, it may be a break even. Now that being said, there are some properties that will likely foreclose but I do not expect to see a tidal wave of foreclosures as being predicted. But I do imagine we’ll see a little bit of an uptick. The government already has begun to try to find a way to extend this, so this is very much a dynamic environment. I do expect there will be opportunities in the housing market for investors to come in, but by the same token I do think a lot of landlords will be able to get through this process and simply improve their situation whether it be through getting a new tenant, the sale of their property or simply just having the banks help them out. As flush as the banks are with cash, they’re still not interested ultimately in being real estate landlords. And now with all the tools available to them to assist homeowners it’s just simply unlikely that we’re going to see a rash of foreclosures. Time will ultimately tell. In the meantime, keep marketing because the opportunities are there every day no matter what happens.