RealTown's RealTalk

Jim Clauser said: "Agents need to inform their buyers as to the value and not blame those of us who handle reo's and foreclosures for their lack of due diligence."

I have not had to write an offer on an REO. I AM getting ready (or hope I am) to list my first REO. It has been a learning experience for me. Frankly I regard it as a real pain so far, but educational.

I would hesitate to say that the agents are responsible for terms in an offer. I have had customers who insisted on writing in things that I have warned them won't fly.It is THEIR offer, after all. I have warned Friends, that unless they are willing to come up with $5,000 more, they will lose a property-only to have them insist on their offer and lose the property. Do they understand? No. It is always somehow my fault. And as for the listing broker-I am not in the business of badmouthing my customers-even when I think they are nuts.

After the 3rd time, I finally told those same friends that I would make a verbal offer to the listing REALTOR. These folks wanted to write an offer for $180,000 on a vacant property listed at $240,000. You know the logic behind that one. The listing broker told me that they had already turned down a much higher offer, she was expecting another one soon, and the owners did not have to sell. I had no reason to disbelieve her. I relayed the info to my "friends" and advised we wait a couple of days to see if it went under contract. It did-for just under the asking price.

The house was close to 50 miles away-not uncommon, but at this point unnecessary. I had made 2 offers and knew they would not fly, and these people, I decided, were just fishing for a taker. Our market was hot then and no need for sellers to negotiate. They lost 3 properties overall because they were not willing to pay the price. I told these "friends" the house went under contract and the price. I never heard from my "friends" again, and no-I do not care and do not miss them. Right now their ability to buy has been affected by the economic downturn. Please understand-these folks were pre-qualified for well over $200,000-they just would not go that high!

It is hard when its friends, but I have learned to walk away from the goofy ones, however, I will still not tell the listing broker that the buyers were idiots. I will write an offer at least once. If the buyer does not learn, I will not keep wasting my time. Not even in this down market. Life is too short to get brain damage trying to appease some people.

Juanita R Williams

Bray & Co Rifle

Hi Gloria, you are correct in what you are saying. There's also another problem that I have encountered, which is the fact the some of these REO properties and short sale are being fed to investors. They are doing the pickings and then the some of the agents are listings the other properties that the investors don't want. There have contracts that have been already submitted to the banks for there approvals, but the listings remain ACTIVE on the MLS.

I 've started calling the Agents to find out if the properties are in deed active and to get an Idea if offers have been submitted already.

Time will tell.

Ismael Jusino

Absolute Homes Realty, LLC

Ismael@AbsoluteHomesRealty.com

REO Offers...

HI,

I am an agent in California...my company has had 6 REO's that we have listed for the bank. I have been the listing agent on three of those. In our office we answer phone calls, return messages and emails. The problem is we get 25 or more contracts on each REO. We have to input each offer into the bank....we have no way of knowing which offer will be accepted and the bank takes time in making their decisions. It is time consuming and the bank makes you jump through more hoops than on a typical lisitng.

I too agree with you the banks should know what companies are truely doing a good job in representing them. In my area there are some agents that have a ton of REO listings many will only repsond via email to you...good luck getting any feedback if your offer was recieved, submitted, rejected etc.not the way I want to do business. Those particluar agents are getting bad reputations throughout our MLS. One rule our MLS made is that all listings must go on SUPRA lockboxes...not key boxes anymore. It has helped.

Just remember that there are some of us agents out there that are trying to do our best with our REO business. If you run into a problem try complaining to the BROKER of the company the agent works for if you are not getting calls returned or feedback when submitting a purchase contract.

Best of luck,

Lori Jakubowski

John Saar Properties

Carmel, Ca

I missed the start of this thread, so I apologize if I have this addressed
wrong. I have the first REO I have done. The asset management co. wanted my
sign on the property the instant it was vacated. AND I was to take a picture
of it with the sign in front, and send it to them. I was not sure if this
was a violation of our MLS or not. It wasn't, but I did not like it. I put
out a brochure box with info to call me though I did not have a price as
yet.

Then even as it went under contract, the co. wanted it to stay active in the
MLS and take backups. It was not my choice. All in all I found this asset
management co. difficult to work with. Another broker does listings for this
co. also. She does several other asset management companies and says this
one is the hardest one to work with.

It has been very stressful, the asset manager patronizing and the closing
agency an issue. It is out of Denver. The biggest thing is that they
obviously skim my emails instead of reading them. I did get an apology from
the closing agency about that, but not until I got a call from the asset
manager-who also skims emails. Crazy people. I know they have a lot of
volume, but these are legal and time issues and they must pay attention. Add
to the fact, the selling broker did that to me, also, I was ready to scream.
Ask 4 questions, get the answer to 2. Numbering them and Highligting the
numbers did not help!

Something I noticed of late is that most loans seem to be going FHA or FHA
guidelines. Since this house had the carpet removed and the floor sealed, it
needed flooring to qualify. The buyers purchased this home (due to close
soon) "as is". The flooring had to be in for it to fly so the buyers put in
the carpet with the stipulation that they could not come back for their
money if this deal falls through. (NOT my buyers!) Countertop tiles also had
to be fixed. The asset management co did remove paint chips and stain the
deck, but they whined about it??? She moaned about what if this deal falls
through. I told her she would be addressing the deck issue with the next
buyer too. AND worst case scenario, if the deal falls through, they had
$7500 worth of free carpeting!!!!!!!!! Good grief. AND the countertop tiles
repaired.

I will do more of these if the opportunity provides itself, but these deals
are no fun for the listing agents. I am getting too old for the idiocy. I
just wanta cruise through normal deals with normal issues. Yes! I want some
cheese with that whine! :-)

Sometimes we just need to vent.

Yours to Count On!

Juanita R. Williams REALTOR(r) e-PRO
970-618-4525 cell ph-the easiest way to reach me!
SoldByJW@rof.net
www.SoldByJW.com