On the other side of the country, Jeffrey Meisner, a real estate professional based in Woodbridge, New Jersey, is also seeing rampant foreclosure activity-with short sales outnumbering REOs in his market.
“Foreclosures are everywhere-in every segment of the market,” says Meisner, an investor who became a real estate broker because he “couldn’t find anyone who had knowledge about foreclosures.”
Meisner, a member of the RealtyTrac Agent Network since 2005, advises his buyer-clients to be patient with the market and take their time to look around for the right house before making an offer.
“If you understand how to buy foreclosures and have the liquidity to purchase them, you can do well,” Meisner says. “You have to be able to walk into a house, see it and make an instantaneous decision to go forward and present the strongest possible contract to the bank. Don’t give them a reason not to accept your offer.”
Meisner estimates that he receives up to 250 inquiries a month regarding foreclosed properties. When a buyer lead comes in through RealtyTrac or any other source, he insists that the client come into his office and sign a “Buyer Agency Agreement” first. Plus, he has new clients sit through a foreclosure seminar he offers once a week.
“I work only with those willing to commit to work with me. About 30% of the people who commit to me actually buy property,” says Meisner. “It locks me into them. If they want my help as a foreclosure expert, I give them a seminar and answer all the questions they want.”
Reaping an REO Harvest
Short sales and REOs are the only homes that are selling in Miami Beach, where Gene Garrote is the director of the REO division for Weichert Realtors Best Beach. His division was handling 120 short sale listings in February.
“There are tons of short sales, which will become REOs-most of them. Retail is finished,” says Garrote, a member of the RealtyTrac Agent Network since 2006.
“It’s very exciting. It’s very fast moving; a little bit difficult. I deal 100% with buyers and the bank. I get the buyers through RealtyTrac, and the banks give me the properties.”
Garrote advises real estate professionals wishing to work oceanfront communities to learn all the applicable rules and regulations in the area.
Like many REO listing agents, Garrote started by performing broker price opinions for the lenders, which he still does today. Once he lists REOs on the local multiple listing services (MLS), it doesn’t take long before he is contacted by interested buyers who want to see the properties. After a weekend opening, some properties attract as many as 10 presentations and five offers, which he presents to the bank.
With so many properties on the market, cash is king. “I’m seeing a lot of cash offers. A cash offer is just less paperwork,” he says.
Agents like Garrote, Meisner and Lobo have found fertile ground in the foreclosure market. Their hard work cultivating the soil and sowing seeds has yielded a cash crop of short sale and REO transactions. But although the harvest is plentiful, the workers are still few. Pick up your plows and sharpen your sickles. It’s time to farm foreclosures.
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