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Southern California REO's are moving fast

By
Real Estate Agent with Blue Tide Realty

I recently secured another REO for an investment client.  Not as easy as you might think. You would imagine that a cash buyer with realistic expectations of competition and a sincere desire to purchase property at a discount could easily find a good bank owned property to buy for investment.  His intention is to put renters in his purchase and ride out the downturn.

A couple of things to consider when looking for REO property for your investor clients:

1.  Primary residence buyers have much more to gain by running up the price.  They are not looking at cash on cash, and like a bad poker player, they often act without knowledge.  Your investor will do better looking at properties the homeowners are not interested in buying.  Duplexes, Four-plex's, major fixers, and negotiating great deals on long listed properties.

2.  A residential primary residence buyer will jump through hoops to get it done.  Your average investor is reachable in their office during normal business hours.

3.  I believe that asset managers have a heart.  They tend to favor the home buyer over the investor.  That and the home owner is more likely to offer high prices.

4.  Most importantly, the investor is harder to get to the property to make an informed decision.  I am not saying that the emotional decisions made by the average buyer are any better, but at least they know the roof is falling prior to the contingency removal date.

This week I submitted 4 offers for Bank or Lender owned property, and ran into a wall of offers.  I was the second person in the house, and I type offers pretty fast.  By the time I faxed over the offer and made the confirmation call at 9am, they had 14 offers.  There is a massive amount of money that has been waiting for this market.

Act Fast....Your still sitting here....Act Faster....The time is now to be the next real estate mogul.

Comments(6)

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Lori Mode
The Mode Real Estate Group - Elk Grove, CA
Real Estate Made Simple

Our market is moving fast also.  Within a couple of hours of putting 3 new REO listings on the market on Friday, we started receiving phone calls from agents and quickly after that, we were receiving offers.  The properties will all 3 be in escrow by tomorrow morning.

Jul 28, 2008 05:36 PM
Mark Organek
And the United States of America - Mesa, AZ
It's not a game, it's your life.

Sean, great points and well put commentary.  This is something that will help all who read it.

Jul 28, 2008 05:40 PM
Mary Warren
Las Vegas, NV

Las Vegas REO"s are selling overnight with multiple offers....it's amazing.

Jul 28, 2008 05:59 PM
Greg J. Gardner
Writer and Author - Black Friday - Banner Elk, NC
Writer and Author, RE Investor

Although our office is in SC, we buy all over the US, including CA.  It's been a great market to buy in - over the past 12 months.  We purchased a 4500 SF house in Northern, CA (with an ocean view) for $2.5M and actually found a buyer in less than 3 months. 

We expected to hold for a year. 

It was a nice surprise.

Greg

Jul 28, 2008 06:04 PM
Cameron Novak
The Homefinding Center - 1000 Palms, CA
Real Estate Broker since 2008

I am continually beating buyers over the head about this.  There are too many of them that think the prices will continue to drop over the next year.  They are going to get burned if they don't straighten up quickly.

We're seeing much activity on the buyers end since May!


Cameron Novak, Broker
The Homefinding CenterTM
Corona, California

Corona Real Estate Agents

Jul 28, 2008 06:20 PM
Jim Quinn
Century 21 - Anaheim, CA
North Orange County Real Estate

Sean, I feel your pain. I called on a listing today to find out that it already had 12 offers. One other one had 5 offers, another with 3 offers. The buyers are fighting to win the bids on all these listings. The market is really picking up and I am in the process of trying to land an accepted offer for my buyer.

Jul 28, 2008 06:23 PM