You and I own a lot of real estate that we need to sell. The US government is making it very difficult.

When a government insured mortgage is foreclosed on, HUD (Housing and Urban Development), rides in on a white horse and pays off the lender. These VA and FHA homes now belong to you and me and are managed by a huge government agency that evaluates the properties without appraisals. They list the properties with agents that have never set foot on the property and who make it cumbersome at best for local Realtors to show the property or get paid a commission if they bring a buyer.

These HUD owned properties are winterized, have the power shut off, are locked with a coded lock accessible only to HUD Realtors, (one broker for the entire state of Virginia) and are inspected by employees that sign in once a month to say all’s well. The only way to submit an offer is on-line, through a satellite HUD office often hours away from the subject property, with no opportunity to discuss the offer with a human being. Commissions are only paid to HUD registered Realtors and the most a buyer’s agent can hope for is a referral fee.

It sounds like a government program doesn’t it? It sounds like a plan drawn up by a desk jockey who had no previous experience with real estate. It sounds like a way to make the simple process, (simple to Realtors who understand the business) complicated, impenetrable and entirely inefficient. Real estate is local. It’s different from state to state, county to county and even neighborhood to neighborhood. Experienced Realtors know their market, know values within their areas of expertise and know how to bring buyers and sellers together. These local, experienced Realtors are not having anything to do with these HUD homes that you and I own and cannot even gain access to the properties if they did want to show them.

It’s time for HUD to wise up, time to take this huge inventory of undervalued properties and use them to invigorate the market by encouraging first time home buyers, investors and Realtors with a business model crafted to the working mechanics of a well oiled machine. Local Realtors listing local homes will move these properties quickly and efficiently. They know how to price them to sell and their expertise is well worth the commission they earn, especially compared to the inevitable deterioration of vacant homes managed by a distant corporate office.

We believe at Home Buying Revolution that it is a total disgrace what is happening around us.  To further the above complication is the very fact that every time a bank owned property is sold the entire neighborhoods comparables just got whacked again. 

Gerald Ford said,

“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."