I was begining to think that the local BANK OWNED market was dying down. Silently thinking to myself a
market without REOs would be GREAT!!! Looking in my local market area I began to notice Downey: 32
Bellflower :21 Cerritos: 36 etc etc etc. The numbers of REOs were dropping by the minute. UNTIL I spoke
to a southern california asset manager who said, "We've got another wave coming! I am receiving an
account with 248 REO's in the following weeks! Just when I thought we were out of the water again were
going for another dive! What this means for my local market is LOWER PRICES!! We went from $575,000
for a 3 Bedroom 2 Bath to a whopping $328 for the same home within a year and a half. INCREDIBLE is
what I think, when will it end??? I wish I knew...... If I can predict I am going to say that the end of 2009
sounds like a evening out in the market. Many recent clients are speculating that the time is now. Sales in
my local area went up last month as prices dropped! We expect the same for the months to come as we
cruise in to the end of the year. As with all investments, you will never know where the bottom is. As a
buyer you may want to know the amount of homes listed on the market in the past 2 months prior to
purchasing and the amount of those homes sold and then how those homes stack up to the home your
thinking of purchasing. Also if you are thinking of buying a Forclosure=REO=BankOwned=Repo you may
want to submit your offers stating they will close before the end of the month. Your offer may be accepted
easier if you can close before the end of the month, banks are more inclined towards offers that can
close before the end of the month. For sellers the most important factor will be pricing! There are still a lot
of Buyers looking for turn key homes, homes that been foreclosed are beat up and need lots of repairs.
Even when the cost of repairs is $5000 I have had clients speculate the cost is more. Sellers also need to
consider offering incentives as it continues to be a buyers market, such as down payment assistance,
closing costs, home warranty and termite inspection.