Locating the listing agent

My county's appraisal district has a website to view the tax rolls online. There are lots of properties that are owned by various banks that aren't listed on the MLS. I would like to know the easiest way to find out who the listing agent is. More so, I would like to know the right questions to ask and who to ask when I do get in contact with a bank.

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:02AM

Jon Holdman

Real Estate Investor · Wheat Ridge, Colorado

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Apr 23 '09, 11:19 PM

Unlikely you'll manage to get anyone at the bank to talk to you about it. If you're lucky, they will be able to refer you to the listing agent. Some banks have their REO listings on their web site. You can always drive by and see if there's a sign.

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:02AM

Jon Holdman, Flying Phoenix LLC

Cory L.

General Contractor · Lake Jackson, Texas

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Apr 23 '09, 11:48 PM

I have driven by some of them. All were vacant some some had signs other didn't. The ones that didn't, some of those even had a lock box on the door and some had no signs or lock boxes. Will I have to just wait until these properties list to make an offer?

Thanks for the quick reply

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:02AM

Jake Kucheck

Residential Real Estate Agent · Newport Beach, California

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Apr 24 '09, 12:34 AM

There's usually a decent amount of lag time between the bank taking back the asset, assigning an AM, then AM assigning a listing agent, the listing agent getting a BPO done, a value being determined, the property being "made ready to market", and then FINALLY being listed.

Could be a month, could be eight months.

Your best best is to find out who the power listing agents are for REO in your area, do what you can to become chummy with them (buying their listings helps), and you will likely start getting calls about properties that are in the "pre-marketing" stage (sounds like what you want).

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:02AM

Cory L.

General Contractor · Lake Jackson, Texas

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Apr 24 '09, 01:14 AM

Thanks Jake

I have to keep in mind that these things take alot of time.

Situation I am specifically asking about

Two house next door to each other are both REO. Different banks. The first one had a deed transfer 2/09 and has been listed for 35 days now, the second had a deed transfer 10/08 and still has no signs of life... grass 3 feet high, trash all around the house, ect...

Thanks again

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:02AM

Jake Kucheck

Residential Real Estate Agent · Newport Beach, California

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Apr 24 '09, 03:59 AM

Here's one more little trick:

If there is a "no tresspassing" sign or something similar, there is usually a number to call (in case neighbors see suspicious activity).

Call it. Follow the trail. A good way to get to the decision maker is by having an all cash offer ready at a price you think will be attractive to the lender.

If you are completely stonewalled by that, and don't know where else to turn, look up the REO listing agents and see what AM their listings are coming from. If you can figure out which AM has this property, you can make a pretty good guess which listing agent will get it.

Honestly though, thats a lot of work and I've only done that once for a $2.2 M REO a client was very interested in (it was Jose Canseco's) and we lost out to 4 bids that were FAR over market.

You might be better served putting your time and effort into finding a different deal instead of chasing this one. Or this could be the deal of a lifetime. Just leverage yourself a bit and have a buyers agent do a lot of this work for you.

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:02AM

Cory L.

General Contractor · Lake Jackson, Texas

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Apr 24 '09, 10:09 AM

No, I am not completely hell bent on this one property, I was just giving an example. There are dozens more that are just like this one in my area. I know the property is REO and its a good chance that it is going to get listed, I was seeing if there is a way to find a decision maker before it gets put on the market.

Jake
You gave the best advice by getting in with the prominent REO brokers. There are two, one that I have dealt with before but haven't been in contact in a while. I will be taking him to lunch on Monday to see what he can do for me.

HAHA! Just having Jose Conseco's name on that house must have added a few 100K's to the property. Thats pretty cool though

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:02AM

Paul Romero

Real Estate Investor · So Lake Tahoe , California

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Apr 29 '09, 02:03 AM

Jake, from what I've gathered from your post here the AM will contact and assign the listing agent a property. The agent must then perform certain tasks for the AM in order for the AM to prepare and return a listing agreement with the sale price and have the agent list on the MLS. Is this fairly accurate?

If so is there any ethical or legal regulations prohibiting the listing agent from making this properties upcoming availability knowledge to an outside source ie Cory?

If there isn't then becoming "Chummy", as you put it, could have a huge advantage, yes?

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:05AM

Steve Babiak

Real Estate Investor · Audubon, Pennsylvania

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Aug 27 '09, 04:58 AM

I recently came across a forclosed property that also had not yet been listed on the MLS. I was able to contact the lender on it by phone, and they passed me along to the asset management company. And they gave me a price (I don't want to pay that much).

So it can happen, it just isn't the normal way these things go down.

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 09:31AM