The Dialogue: What Readers Thought About a Sketchy Legal Practice Increasingly Used By Portland Real Estate Investors

“Portland: the paradise of progressives, hardcore racism, and dishonest housing practices.”

Potential bidders at a March 13 Multnomah County sheriff’s foreclosure auction. (Sara Danya is seated to the far right.) The rules require successful bidders to pay on the spot with a cashier’s check. (Sam Gehrke)
By WW Staff

Last week, WW wrote about a sketchy but legal practice that allows investors to control Portland's supply of foreclosed homes by buying up "redemption rights." ("Flipping Out," WW, March 28, 2018). These rights—often purchased for a couple hundred dollars—are meant to allow foreclosed Portlanders to buy back their homes within a 180-day period. Instead, real estate companies often use the legal loophole to force outside buyers of foreclosed homes to pay thousands to avoid losing the property. Here's what our readers had to say about the practice.

Dave Caputo, via Twitter: "Portland: the paradise of progressives, hardcore racism, and dishonest housing practices."

GerMart, via wweek.com: "I wouldn't be so quick to legislate away the right to sell redemption rights, despite these stories. It seems to me it gives someone who is losing their home a tool to exercise control over the sale of the home and at least get some financial remuneration."

Brett, via wweek.com: "The owner should be able to sell redemption rights, but a common-sense solution would be to only allow them to be sold to the auction winner. Not anyone. These rights were originally to allow a homeowner to get their home back, not get them a couple hundred dollars as they are losing their home."

Kit Houghton, via Facebook: "Sick!"

Econoline, via wweek.com: "Vantage [Homes] bought the house next door to me out of foreclosure. I had hoped that when the property went through foreclosure that it would be fixed up and things would improve. Instead, it just seems like we are trapped in a holding pattern. I guess now I am seeing why."

NeoRobbia, via Twitter: "This needs to stop."

Anonymous, via wweek.com: "I hate to say it, but there just needs to be regulation: right to counsel if your home is being foreclosed, mandatory reporting if the redemption rights are sold prior to auction, etc. On the surface, there's nothing inherently wrong with the practice, but unregulated business practices have allowed the wealthy and informed to prey on the poor and ignorant. This cannot be tolerated."

Portland Sara, via Facebook: "Wow, just wow. I work with investors and developers, I have for 15 years. And although there is an element of greed in the pursuit of capital, this is just too much. This is a con."

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