The REO listings seems to have slowed WAY up and/or almost stopped. I'm guessing the banks are trying to work out loan modifications and/or short sales more and more.

I keep hearing there are a large amount of foreclosed homes waiting to come into the market, in the area where our office is located. At first I heard it would be the first part of May, then it was the middle of May. Then it was June 1st. Still nothing. I received a couple of homes but both are still occupied and it will take 60 to 90 days before they become listings.

My best guess is that we still have 2 to 3 years of selling foreclosed homes and doing short sales. But....since interest rates are so low, a lot of first time buyers are looking again. This is great news. For people that have been renting, now is a GREAT time to buy a house....if you have decent credit and a steady job. It's a huge sale going on right now.

Buy a house, don't buy a car!

If I could have one wish......just one wish, it would be that someone from Washington Mutual, now Chase would call my office from their REO division. Someone that I could tell the following completely 100% true story to. Someone that could make a difference. A senior manager.

I will make this as short and too the point as possible.

In December 2008, about 6 months ago, I got a listing from an asset management company. A nice home, a higher end home, move-in condition. This house was listed at $1,500,000 just a couple years ago. When I got it, it was to be listed at $675,000. After two weeks we found a buyer, an offer was made. Everything went well EXCEPT making contact with the Asset Manager. She would not return phone calls. She would not return emails. After a week I contacted her supervisor. I hate having to call anyones supervisor for anything. She was MEAN. I don't know what else to say. She was as bad or worse than the Asset Manager. Finally after 3 (THREE WEEKS), we had escrow opened for $650,000. The buyer was well qualified. Put $20,000 down. Everything went well. A week before escrow was to close, the buyer and lender told us they needed an additional 2 weeks to get a few things done. Should have been no big deal. It happens all the time. The asset manager said NO. Not unless the buyer waived there right to have their $20,000 ernest money refunded if it did not close. They said no way. They walked away.

The same house JUST closed escrow 4 months later, with another broker (they took it away from me when it expired) for $454,000. ***** Washington Mutual/Chase lost $196,000 ***** Because the asset manager did not like me, because I called her supervisor, because she would not extend the escrow 2 weeks. Because she would not answer her email or call me back. I wonder how often this happens?

I have never received another listing from that company since then. Even though I sold a dozen of their properties for them. That Asset Manager probably placed me on a BAD list. The asset manager knows there is no way I could ever report her or talk with the rep from Chase bank.

One wish......for a CHASE bank person to call me. Sure. LOL.

I'm curious as to what others think about people that use YAHOO, HOTMAIL, GMAIL, or other on-line free email accounts for their business.

Personally, I really think it is UN-PROFESSIONAL to use a YAHOO, GMAIL, HOTMAIL or another of these free accounts as your business email.

I have my email set up to automatically direct any email I receive from one of these accounts into my junk file. I do look at it once in a while but for the most part, they get deleted everyday. 99% of the junk I get (SPAM) comes from these type of accounts. I get about 200 to 400 junk emails everyday.

I realize I might be losing some real emails from some real clients but for the most part, I have only seen this a time or two in the past two years. I use the following footnote when sending an email to anyone using a free email account:

"Please note that because of excessive SPAM and confidential information while working with REO sellers (banks), all emails received from Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail and other freely distributed email accounts are delivered to our junk email files and deleted daily.

When sending any email of importance from one of these type of accounts, PLEASE CALL the person to confirm it was received. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."

If anyone wants to use it, please feel free too.

 

Our office has not had a new REO listing in about 2 months. A headline I just read states "FORECLOSURE NOTICES SOAR, FORECLOSURE SALES DROP". Interesting.

I have noticed that many REO listings in our area (OAKHURST, COARSEGOLD, MARIPOSA, BASS LAKE, AHWAHNEE, RAYMOND, etc.) are now being assigned to agents from out of the area. This is very common with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac properties. The agents typically come from Fresno, Madera, or Merced, some 40 to 80 miles away. Some things that are common with the agents that receive assignments for our local area:

1) Many of these agents DO NOT place the homes in our local MLS. This does the bank/seller a huge injustice. The agents are only placing the property in the MLS where their office is located and the bank/seller gets a copy of the MLS printout and has no idea the property is being marketed POORLY. My office belongs and pays the fees to belong to the FRESNO MLS, the MARIPOSA MLS, the YOSEMITE (YGAOR) MLS, and the MAMMOTH LAKE MLS. *** BANKS & ASSET MANAGERS *** Make certain your asset is being marketed properly.

2) The properties are often valued wrong. The listing agent has little knowledge of the unique conditions that accompany a foothill or mountain property. Many have no idea what a water well is, or a septic tank, or a land survey. Things you do not come across in the city.

3) I have found many homes listed by a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac agent and the power, water, propane, etc., is not set up or turned on for inspections. How the agents are "GETTING AWAY" with this is beyond me. I was assigned a listing after the originally REO listing agent did not sell it, when I called the water company I found out the prior agent had never put the account into their name and the amounts were adding up monthly. My office sold the house within 45 days, once it was marketed properly.

 

 

 

Here is something new.

I have been selling REO's for quite a while now. And for many different companies. But one company recently gave me a task and I said "no more".

The asset management company assigned me a property. I sent my crew to do the trashout and paid them their $500 and submitted my invoice for reimbursement. Then we did the interior clean. I paid them and sought reimbursement. Same with the yard care. Etc., etc.

So then this asset management asks me to get "2 bids to remodel the kitchen, paint the interior, replace the flooring, etc., etc. and get the 2 bids from contractors within 5 days".

I tried. I really tried. I called several contractor I know and worked with before. They said no. They were done bidding and not getting the work. Then I started in the phone book. I got a bunch of no thanks. They said they were tired of bidding on REO's and not getting the work or the seller would use the bid amounts as credits in escrow for a buyer.

I finally got one bid just after the 6th day. (Please note I was in contact with the asset manager and told her 5 days was SHORT notice). I sent her the bid and the first word out of her mouth was "where is the other bid"? Not a thank you, when might you have the other bid. It was 'where is the other bid". I turned the question around and asked her if she expected me to pay the $15,000 to the contractor and seek reimbursement from the asset management company? She said yes, that is the way they do things. It took me one second to process that bit of information and tell her "NO". I don't want your listing. On this house I might have made $3,000 to $6,000 in commission, when and if it sold. And they wanted me to front over $15,000 for 30 to 60 days for them, a company I know very little about, a company who fights me over a $300 locksmith charge, a company that takes well over 60 days to reimburse me sometimes.

I was mad. I told myself I don't want this companies listings anymore. I sent them an email and said no more, thank you very much. I had sold two homes for them and received 2% of the selling price as the listing agent on two homes that were well under $200K.

I REALLY enjoy working with Countrywide and Wells Fargo. They do business smart, they treat their REO agents like humans, they listen, they reimburse in a reasonable time, etc.

This other company treated me like I was trash, expected unrealistic timeframes, reimbursed so slow I wondered if I was ever going to get my money back.  

The object of this story is to vent and tell all the other REO agents that might read this, don't let these small asset management companies treat you badly. It is not worth it. I work 7 days a week, often until well past 9pm in my office and always do the absolute best I can for every asset management company, lender, bank, etc., that I am working with. Most of the listings I have had in the past 12 months have been sold in 60 days or less if they are priced correctly.

OK. I'm done venting. Have a great year!

I would and could certainly appreciate some information, thoughts, recent experiences, etc., on Realty Trac and especially Res.net.

I have talked with Realty Trac on the phone. My thought is they have really nothing to offer me. All they seem to do is have a place to market your properties, maybe provide an occasional lead on a buyer. However the buyer has to pay a fee. and you as the agent have to pay a fee? And they "sell" zip code areas? Am I correct on my thoughts about Realty Trac? Just a place to list your listings and they want a fee from both sides to make anything happen?

I was contacted by an Asset Manager recently that wanted to discuss possibly marketing some of their listings but they said I would have to join Res.net, which certainly is not a problem. When I went to Res.net to do some research, all I found was a web page that wants $250 right away. I found a link that stated, information about the company but it simply took me back to the first page that said "log in" here and pay the $250. Well.....I'm not about to pay $250 to anyone until I can figure out what I will get for what I pay. Another thing that scared me was that Realty Trac had a big icon on Res.net's web page. Is Res.net just another place to market your existing listings? Or can they provide an avenue to get more listings?

We have a real strong marketing program in place already. Foreclosure listings that we receive from lenders are getting offers in as little as 2 to 5 days. Which is why I'm thinking Realty Trac may be a waste of time and money for us. But I can't find much of anything about Res.net.

Anyone have any thoughts or comments?

Thank you!

You know what most people first say to me when I tell them I sell forclosed homes? They ask, "don't you feel sorry for the people that lost their homes"? Of course I do. I would not wish that on anyone in this life. But.....let me say this. Almost every single home that I have been able to learn the history on the prior owner tells me two things. #1 is they had nothing (no money) into the home. They took out a 100% or more loan and simply walked away with nothing much to loose. A big "ding" on their credit score. A friend of mine recently said many of the people that lost their homes paid rent for a few years and moved on. #2 is they seem to have all owned expensive cars/boats/toys and refused to sell their stuff. I am not kidding. Please understand this: I am not trying to be harsh or mean or anything like that. I am just stating the truth as I have seen it so far.

http://www.sierrastar.com/features/story/14335440p-14851488c.html

 

It's been a while since I have had time to write much of anything. In the month of January I got married. I started my own real estate company, REO Properties in Oakhurst, CA. It snowed and our truck is stuck in the driveway right now! That's another story.

Anyways.....I decided to stop giving away a part of my commission to my business partner since I was doing 100% of the work and I was already a broker myself. The only reason I went to work with him in the first place was I thought I'd market one or two properties and he already had the signs, a business name, a business license, etc. Little did I know I would have 25 to 30 listings in 6 months. I was out there in the public eye building up his company, marketing his company and doing all the work. So I spent some money and started my own company. As each listing I had with him under his business name has been modified or extended, each bank has switched them over to my company, REO Properties. Thank you Wells Fargo and Countrywide and several others.

Locally, (Madera, Fresno, and Mariposa) the real estate market is still declining but in all honesty, the lower priced homes in the $190K to $300K range are still selling pretty well. The mid priced homes, say from $300K to $600K are sitting on the market for a while (120 to 270 days or more). Most of my listings are in the lower price range, from $200K to $300K. I have had a lot of success in marketing and selling higher priced homes too, in the $500K plus range. The lower priced homes are marketed different the the higher priced homes. Obviously your looking at a different target audience for buyers for the price point of each type of home.

I now have two agents working with me (actually I'm working for them) in our office. Normally, I don't work with buyers. If someone calls me regarding one of the properties we have listed, the first question I ask is if they are currently working with a real estate agent. If they say no, I ask them if one of the other agents in our office can help them. Here again, don't get me wrong, I enjoy working with buyers and if someone wants me to represent them, I will. No problem at all. The other agents simply have more time to spend with them showing properties, both our own listings and any listing with any other office. The best thing ANY agent can do for their client is find them the best house possible, whomever it's listed with. Our agents believe that just as much as I do. My time is best spent marketing the properties we have listed, working with banks, vendors, contractors, county offices, etc., getting the foreclosed property ready to be sold.  

Recently I have seen some real interesting properties. It's amazing what people leave behind when they loose their home.

I've seen more than one pool table. Several spa's. Homes full of furniture, pots, pans, dishes, etc. What I'm seeing is the lenders and banks are being extremely generous in giving people time to remove all their personal items. Some people take everything out quickly while others just walk away from everything.

Recently I was retained to market a very nice property. It was nearly a million dollar home a few years ago which for this area is on the high end of value. The lender had me contact the prior owners, which I did. I talked with them several times. In the first week after we spoke they removed all their expensive furniture. But....they left everything else, clothes, food, pots, pans, dishes, family photos, etc. I called and called, left notices on the door, etc. No contact what-so-ever from the prior owners. They just dissapeared. The lender gave them over 90 days and were patient beyond belief. So we were told to get a locksmith, do a lockout and evaluate what was left. What we found were several boxes of illegal drugs. When we found that we called the police at once. It turns out the owners were well known to the police and it was no surprise at all. The prior owners are no doubt.......long gone.

A good thing happened here though. Several of the Police Officers are interested in buying the home! It won't sell for a million at this time but if the lender will list it at a good price, maybe we can sell it quickly to someone that will be a good neighbor.