Not dead yet!
DebInVenice on May 30th, 2008
Another great line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail!
Some folks over on prospers.org noted that they had daggers on some 4+ month late loans, well so do I!
Do I expect to see any money from this effort? NO. But at least Prosper is giving it a shot. Why not do a pull every once in a while to see if we can catch them napping. And of course if there is a miracle and it goes through it will probably be reversed later :(
I'm thinking that the economic slowdown and hangover from the housing / credit binge is really getting going now.
Some folks over on prospers.org noted that they had daggers on some 4+ month late loans, well so do I!
Do I expect to see any money from this effort? NO. But at least Prosper is giving it a shot. Why not do a pull every once in a while to see if we can catch them napping. And of course if there is a miracle and it goes through it will probably be reversed later :(
I'm thinking that the economic slowdown and hangover from the housing / credit binge is really getting going now.
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Late loans keep on rolling in
DebInVenice on May 29th, 2008
Not looking too good for this month, two just flipped from late to 1 month late. Here is a screen shot, not a pretty picture.
One of the two is an E link so it isn't too much of a surprise, has made 15 payments and has gone late before but not all the way to 1 month late. Maybe it will come back but I really think that all of my E grade loans are headed for default eventually.
Now the other one is an A link so I'm a bit surprised. Nine payments made on time. The only thing that looks like a danger sign is the $25,000 loan amount.
Trouble with this picture is that I am getting just a bit over $50 in cash interest per month now
, a single new late just about wipes out any profit for the month and two in a month put me in negative territory. Some of this is just paying for lending sins of the past but having a second A go bad (link to the first) in a couple of months has me wondering what is going on. Interest rates for "good" listings seem to be at all time lows, even the increase in listings due to the WebBank relationship doesn't seem to have helped.
But I'm still lending for now but not putting in much new money.
One of the two is an E link so it isn't too much of a surprise, has made 15 payments and has gone late before but not all the way to 1 month late. Maybe it will come back but I really think that all of my E grade loans are headed for default eventually.
Now the other one is an A link so I'm a bit surprised. Nine payments made on time. The only thing that looks like a danger sign is the $25,000 loan amount.
Trouble with this picture is that I am getting just a bit over $50 in cash interest per month now
, a single new late just about wipes out any profit for the month and two in a month put me in negative territory. Some of this is just paying for lending sins of the past but having a second A go bad (link to the first) in a couple of months has me wondering what is going on. Interest rates for "good" listings seem to be at all time lows, even the increase in listings due to the WebBank relationship doesn't seem to have helped.
But I'm still lending for now but not putting in much new money.
Bad Debt Sale update
DebInVenice on May 4th, 2008
There was an update on the official Prosper blog by Doug Fuller today on the most recent bad debt sale attempt.
My C & D loans have a combined principle balance of $86.64, neither is a homeowner. I'll take 5 cents on the dollar and throw in the 4 E's for a penny on the dollar. So for a total of $6.08 you can have a "portfolio" of loans that Prosper currently values at nearly $300.00
"In round numbers, the bids that we received were approximately 1/3 the prices bid in December. The price difference between the August and December represented about a 20% reduction."I'm not sure how to interpret this additional information looking at the previous debt sale page we don't know the loan mix between credit grades / homeowners. It may be that most of the bad loans are junk ( E, NC, HR ) and are now worthless. In my case I have a total of 6 loans that are eligible: 4 E, 1 D and 1 C. Would not surprise me one bit to find out that the E's are worth nothing.
My C & D loans have a combined principle balance of $86.64, neither is a homeowner. I'll take 5 cents on the dollar and throw in the 4 E's for a penny on the dollar. So for a total of $6.08 you can have a "portfolio" of loans that Prosper currently values at nearly $300.00
Bad Debt Sale Hiccup
DebInVenice on May 3rd, 2008
Well it appears there has been a hiccup in the bad debt sale. This post by Doug Fuller over on the official Prosper blog lays it out, but the simple explanation is that no one wants to pay very much. Take a look at the results from previous bad debt sales:
there seem to be a couple of trends:
As long as these loans (I've got 6 now that are 4+ late) are sold before the end of the year I'll be able to write off the remaining principle. I find it annoying to have to go look at each of these loans whenever I want to calculate my ROI to subtract the loan value from Prospers figures. Why can't the lending overview screen show us the loan value and principle for each category of late loans? (yes it would look bad)
There is a bigger issue though that has folks over at prospers.org worked up. By delaying the bad debt sale the performance numbers on Prosper look better than they actually would be if the bad loans were sold off. One might argue that we don't know what they are worth until actually sold but Prosper has 8 separate opinions at this point (the bids from the bad debt buyers) and apparently the recent bids make the previous debt sales look generous. Time for Prosper to "mark to market" the bad loans and come clean about what returns actual lenders are able to achieve.
4+ month late loan count today (5/3) according to LS: 1,177
there seem to be a couple of trends:
- number of bad loans being sold each time is increasing
- Rates are decreasing
As long as these loans (I've got 6 now that are 4+ late) are sold before the end of the year I'll be able to write off the remaining principle. I find it annoying to have to go look at each of these loans whenever I want to calculate my ROI to subtract the loan value from Prospers figures. Why can't the lending overview screen show us the loan value and principle for each category of late loans? (yes it would look bad)
There is a bigger issue though that has folks over at prospers.org worked up. By delaying the bad debt sale the performance numbers on Prosper look better than they actually would be if the bad loans were sold off. One might argue that we don't know what they are worth until actually sold but Prosper has 8 separate opinions at this point (the bids from the bad debt buyers) and apparently the recent bids make the previous debt sales look generous. Time for Prosper to "mark to market" the bad loans and come clean about what returns actual lenders are able to achieve.
4+ month late loan count today (5/3) according to LS: 1,177