The question has been asked of me many times on what is the responsibilities of the REALTOR® when working with the banks and marketing their properties. The answer is that it depends. Each organization has its own criteria and rules that you must abide to if your going to market their homes. My response will be limited to Countrywide and information shared first hand by some other agents that work with Bank Owned Properties out of my office. This is a look at a very high level.
Once you have been selected and your Broker signs off on the Master Agreement between the seller and broker you will be assigned properties. When the assignment is sent to you there is a choice you can make, and that is accept or reject the assignment.
My counsel is look at the property first and get an idea of what your accepting. If the property is still occupied and it's in Arizona they will expect you to manage the eviction, perhaps offer them cash to leave the property. In Arizona we have experience violence during evictions. Once that's accomplished, if they have left furniture behind, you will be request to post a notice on the door and with the post office (Registered letter) advising the owner has 30 days to contact you, the agent, to remove that property. Oops!, now your name is part of a document associated with an eviction between the former resident and the bank. Does your Broker or you want to be associated with the possible risk of litigation. In addition, you'll be told to move any personal belonging to storage during that hold time. That means finding a mover, a storage place, and the expense and time of managing and coordinating those tasks. When your assigned a property you're expected to be the property runner and coordinator of tasks. Electric, Water, Gas, Sewer, etc. must all be turned on and the utilities placed in the agents name. The home may have been trashed so that will have to be hauled away, the house cleaned and maintained, i.e., yard service, pool service, maid service, until the home sells. All these expenses becomes yours.
Once expenses are paid you follow the procedures of getting reimbursed. For utilities you need the original bill, a copy of the check sent to the vendor, and their summary detailed cover form required by the bank and then send those docs an assigned location for payment. If you miss one detail they'll send it all back to you by way of US Mail showing rejected and the item missing. Even if not rejected you can wait months for your reimbursement. Even though you may be out thousands many of the asset manager don't care, they just advise get it done or we'll take the property away from you and give it to someone else. That means times spent is sunk costs and you'll still wait for reimbursements.
Repairs are done in a similar manner but with more detail, photos before and after, depending on amount, a lien waiver from the vendor is required before the bank will pay, plus more administrivia requrired by the bank.
Once many of the administrative tasks are complete and you have performed your BPO, research on HOA details, and getting their W-9 for bank payments, etc. you will get a listing letter advising that you have the listing and it is ready to market at the price they set. This is usually a price determine by the information you provided in your BPO and the appraisals that was ordered on the property.
It's now that you get to perform the work you know best and that is marketing the home for sale. Along the way you will get a barrage of tasks to perform from the bank. All of these tasks take time and many require trips to the property. There is much more to working with bank owned properties. It's not for the faint of heart or someone that does not have the monetary assets to support the out of pocket expenses. You will need to be comfortable with dealing with detail, detail, and more detail.
The bank people that we have worked with range from excellent to terrible with bad attitudes. It makes a big difference on how the project proceeds based on the skill level and attitude of the Asset Manager. Unfortunately those that work in the realm of excellence are the few so be prepared to work with some asset managers that are having a very bad day and in many cases do not care about what we as a team are charged to do for the bank. If you escalate problems you'll find that it's the same as you move up the management ladder. This is just a quick snapshot of working with the banks on bank owned properties.
You'll have to be the judge as to whether the reward is worth the pain.
Jeff Jeff Daley, MBA, e-PRO, CLHMS
Office: 480-595-6412
Email: Jeff@LuxuryValleyHomes.com
Web: http://www.realestateinscottsdaleaz.com/
Blog: Scottsdale AZ Real Estate Blog
Licensed REALTOR® State of Arizona
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