Given the current overstocked market conditions you would think that banks would be happy that we are bringing them any buyers at all. Their lack of flexibility and reluctance to deal in good faith has cost agents quite a few deals in the Douglasville real estate market recently. Their Standard Operating Procedure seems to be:
BANK SOP:
- List the home with an overbooked Douglasville real estate agent who doesn't care that much about it since the bank is co-opting so little
- Verify that no pictures are available anywhere and the agent is unreachable
- List the home at an attractive price to initially attract buyers
- Initiate a bogus bidding war
Once a buyer is interested and actually submits a reasonable offer, the banks then have their agent advise that they 'just received another offer' on the property, nevermind that it has been sitting on the market for 6 months with no activity at all. They then suggest that you 'submit your best offer' in an attempt to have you engage in a bidding war with nobody. I have encountered this very scenario several times recently, the latest fiasco involved us getting past this first 'bidding war' stage and actually reaching a tenative agreement only to have the bank 'just receive another offer' and attempt to have us 'submit our best offer' again after having just gone through this process. I am fairly certain that they wanted to try and squeeze a little more out of my clients while they hoped for another offer over the weekend. The bank is fairly optimistic on this home as they have only owned it and think that it has been on the market for only 16 days when in fact the builder was trying to sell this home for well over a year before it went back to the bank.
Everyone knows that banks are not in the business of losing money, but their zealousness to recover every possible nickel that they have squandered through poor lending decisions flies in the face of the current market conditions. They act as if agents don't have the resources to find out exactly what the bank owes on these properties. Typically in the past for the average Douglasville homes for sale you could take what the bank owes, add ~$20K and be in the ballpark for a win-win deal. This is no longer the case and banks themselves are at least partially to blame for the rising inventory. They need to accept their losses and move forward in good faith to repair the damage that has been done to the market, not damage it further with childish games designed to harrass consumers who are attempting to negotiate in good faith. If you need assistance navigating the current minefield of the Douglasville real estate market please contact me.
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