Ask them, I guess that would be fine. You will surely get the HUD1 with the numbers, but not sure about the 3 inch stack of papers to read.

If you did, make sure the title is fully warrantied, or marketable. I don’t remember the exact lingo, but some closing companies are giving a type of title insurance that is worthless, hence the lower rate they can charge for it.

For closings, I want somebody that I hired to give the green light. Even if it costs $1,000 more.

Frank

Thank you for all the useful info you have provided!

Last year I bought a bank owned property that had been on the market 2 months and they had just dropped the price $25k. When I decided to make an offer, I ran a FranklyCRA and saw the listing agent only listed bank-owned properties, had close to 100 Active listings, and tended to get close to asking price. Upon calling to inquire on the status and any contract details, he said he already had 2 contracts in hand. I decided to offer higher than originally planned but put very stong terms (no contingencies, $10k escrow, 20% down)….but still put an offer for less in for $15k less. A 4th offer came in at the same price or slightly higher, but the Bank accepted my contract. The listing agent was hard to track down, but did say he was suprised they didn’t counter.

I’m working on another bank-owned now scheduled to settle next week, pending the 5 outstanding liens/judgements/unreleased trusts. Fortunately my Buyers chose a fabulous title company, Monarch Title – Old Town, who are working diligently to make sure my client has a clean title to transfer. They did turn the water and electricity on for my clients to have a home inspection and agreed to $2000 towards home inspection items, after negotiating a great price.

Moral of the story is that you can get a good deal on a bank-owned property, IF you are willing to deal with the annoyances and hassle factor that goes along with it.

I’m working an REO now for a buyer and we had to modify our strategy. On the first property of interest we offered and were immediately told to provide our best and final offer by the listing agent. My client didn’t believe it, so I recommended that we not change the price at all to call the bluff. If we had raised and the client won there would always have been some doubt long after the transaction was closed. I like the client (I like ALL my clients) and I don’t want bad feelings after settlement. Raising the offer just couldn’t be an option, and I told my client that. The client lost that one to a higher bid. Instant believer.

We found while picking through REOs that houses with high numbers of day on market had more than minor problems, things which would have cost a few thousand to maybe even $20K to bring the house to acceptable standards. Then, EUREKA! As I called listing agents to verify (yes, I was able to get through) whether there were any other offers on their properties so we weren’t wasting our time with a multiple offer situation, I found that the multiple offers were most frequently on NEW REO listings. So, off we went to see a new one with zero days on market. The house was move in ready and was listed over a weekend beyond the window of opportunity for internet bargain hunters. We looked at it, got our offer in FAST and I pushed (nicely, of course) to get that offer delivered to the bank. The counter came, we countered back and won!

Go after brand new REOs. Get in there before the masses find them, get the offer in, and PUSH.

After the win on a new REO be prepared to PUSH your settlement company to get the title work done NOW. We did, and found the foreclosure deed hadn’t been recorded (a common occurence, a settlement company attorney told me today) so we round-robined (buyer, title company, and me) the seller’s title company to cure the defect because WE WANT TO CLOSE ON TIME! The strategy is working.

It takes extreme flexibility between agent and client to get in the car and go immediately to a new listing, and then an all stops push the rest of the way. I think listing agents are happy to see the long slog on most foreclosures cut short. It makes them easier to talk to and they don’t mind the PUSH. Every listing agent wants to see their property sold in a day, and they push right along with you!

Just my opinion!

I just had a short sale listing fall apart, two offers, waited 3 months, First Horizen said no, because the sellers had PMI they were going to get their money, so sorry.

I took it off the market today, can’t sell. Buyers waited and waited.

In my experience both working with REO and with teaching on it for awhile, I’ve heard countless stories. REO agents are amazing and some of the best and the brightest or they are just horrible! The later is the majority. However, the Lenders have taken a huge hit just in the cost of taking possion of the house and then re-listing it. So, they are typically eager to sell them, but also limit their lost. I know that you know all of this, and hearing that this is the “norm” doesn’t make it better, but all of these people are just overwhelmed, the slacker agent hasn’t (IMHO) fulfilled their fudiciary duties to your client (their customer) or their client.

Honestly almost everything that you’ve put in your post is what the CSP program and I teach agents to do and not do, respectivly. It’s a LONG wait…

There are lots of caveats to all of this, the reality is that to abide by the “rules” just isn’t humaly possible right now. The system wasn’t designed for such an incredible volume of distressed inventory. I am not a fan of the govenrment telling people how to conduct business, but in this instance until the governement mandates reponse times for lenders, they’ll continue to get around to it when they get around to it….