Step #1:  DO NOT GO OUT AN BUY LISTS OF BPO VENDORS & REO CONTACTS!!! Or at least not quite yet!

Step #2:  Understand the Internet Consumers Needs and Wants. 

Making the consumer the Most Informed Consumer should be our (the REALTOR's) Mission!!!

With any conventional real estate transaction, buyers typically find a professional online who appears to be looking out for their best interests exclusively. This is especially true with REO properties and Short Sale Transactions.

However!! Buying an REO or Short Sale property is very different when compared to the conventional purchasing process.

To really understand the current real estate marketplace, we should classify the residential marketplace into 3 categories: RETAIL, SHORT SALE and REO's (Real Estate Owned).The media throughs all residential real estate into one mixed bag when commenting about market trends and consumers searching the internet with available resources are viewing the inventory from one mixed pool as well. They may all look similar on the internet, some also look the same inside, yet the price spectrum ranges as much as 70% for similar properties. Here is the reality regarding consumer internet focus.  They generally begin with price searches, causing their focus to be on Short Sale and/or REO's.  BUYERS say WOW!  Let's look into this further.  Unfortunately, the abundance of posted inventory for sale becomes very confusing and frustrating to the average consumer and to the un-trained agents.  Here is the saddest statistic for the real estate industry regarding marketing.  The other day I did a basic search on Realtor.com of single family homes for sale in Minneapolis priced between $200,000 and $400,000.  Realtor.comstatistics revealed there were 3,557 properties available for consumers to view online between that price point.  Here is the shocking statistic and stick in the eye for Real Estate Agents; only 931 of the 3,557 properties had multiple photos.  In other words, consumers cannot get a good look at approximately 75% of the available inventory online.  I tested this in Chicago, Miami, New York and Toronto.  Almost identical results.  The statistics gets much worse if we include all single family properties.  For example, in Minneapolis, there are 9,768 actual single family properties for sale and only 22% of the listings have multiple photos.  Imagine how low that percentage of virtual tours are across the nation.  Yet when consumers purchase most big ticket items such as cars, they can go online and pick the car, change the colors, see multiple pictures of the interior and even see the car in motion if they want. Let's get with the program REALTORS and let's serve the consumers with multiple photos, virtual tours etc.  Some sceptics might say that the above statistics are skewed with the number of foreclosed properties posted and most REO's brokers only post one or two pictures.  SAY WHAT????? I don't know about you, but if my client was Countrywide, Wells Fargo, EMC etc... who was providing me with a couple of hundred motivated sales per year, I would be providing them with the highest level of marketing their inventory.  Banks and Asset Management companies are at the mercy of their assignment broker.  The assigned broker could be re-building some of the communities at a faster rate if they simply did a better job at marketing them and bridging the gap for consumers.  Here is an example of an attempt to better serve the BUYER in todays marketplace (click here).

Here is an example of a brokerage attempting to better serve Banks and Asset Management Companies (click here)

Many posted properties are either un-realistic in price, terms and/or conditions partly because of the sellers equity position. Supply and Demand ratios, pending/sold, and listed versus sold price statistics are all skewed because of the mixed bag of posted inventory available.

THE SHORT SALE DILEMMA!!!  Should we be listing all of them?  About 50% of posted properties subject to third party approval are literrally unattainable.

From the categories outlined above, REALTORS ARE RESPONSIBLE TO MAKE BUYERS MORE AWARE!!! There are many properties posted for sale and literally un-attainable. Many listing agents post properties for sale with little knowledge or awareness of bank approvals for a short sale, which lending institutions are associated with the property, the length of time it may take for a response or call to action on a purchase agreement and of course the many other potential lien and/or default issues that may be behind the scenes. Savvy agents literally pre-screen showings these days by calling the lister with a few qualifying questions associated with lender approval, the number of lienholders, response time etc.  Pre-screening showings takes time up front, however may save you from your buyer becoming enamored with an un-attainable short sale property.

For the many agents who show everything, they're out and about looking at many properties that are literally un-attainable for purchase. Buyers get excited about the price on a short sale property, submit a purchase agreement and wait too often, only to hear a variety of reasons/excuses associated with a lack of knowledge, communication and/or experience in the area of REO's or Short Sales. Frustrations set in for the buyers who are not really in a position to be patient they continue to search without any guidance.

Step #3 - Take your current listing inventory, particularly the Short Sale and REO's and market them to the fullest.  Provide the maximum MLS pictures, a virtual tour or real estate show, a BILINGUAL script that allows consumers to understand the attainability of the property and begin generating more buy sides and double enders.  Consumers want to be able to see and hear everything about the property 24/7, online and/or on a recorded message. 

Here is the best part for EXiT Associates.  We now have one of the most unique marketing tools that provides agents with all of the forward thinking resources bundled into one inputing package:  Our e-Listings package includes unlimited and optimized virtual tours, online magazines, webcasts, bilingual scripts, unlimited 800 call captures, property specific web pages and the marketing options and optimization continues to grow.  All of the tools bundled together for $12.95/month????  Plus EXIT provides the 800 Sign riders for annual pre-paids!  There are other vendors trying to package their uniqueness for a small fortune per month.  However, there is no need to increase your work and your marketing budgets when you have it uniquelly and tightly bundled for you.

Hope this finds you well.  More to come!  Comments much appreciated!!!

 Frank D'Angelo - Broker (EXIT Realty Executives of Blaine, MN)

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