Can you make an offer on a REO that is not listed for sale?
I am looking to buy an attached house in a specific neighborhood. One REO that I was about to make an offer on my agent found out was actually already under contract. There are no other houses for sale here except for new construction, and since I would like to live in the house for a year or 2 then make it a rental I don't want new construction. I've looked over all the houses in the area on zillow and there appear to be 4 REO houses that are not for sale currently (one is a HUD, I'm new to this and not sure how/if that is different). All the houses have been listed for sale and the listing was removed. I am thinking of contacting the previous listing company to see if they can tell me for sure if it is an REO, but if it is not listed as being for sale right now is it possible to make an offer? Any thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Heather HUD Homes are only listed within
a limited window of time on the
HUD Wesite www.hudhomestore.com
only properties currently listed can be bid on!
Bidding is done through an Agent registered with HUD.
Status changes are reflected daily! Best for success!
Thanks Robert! Any thoughts on the other properties that aren't mentioned as being HUDs? Is it possible to find a way to make an offer on those?
If they aren't on the market yet, you'd need to find out which bank owns the home first. Then, you should call and contact the asset manager in charge of handling that particular banks REO's. I have never actually tried this, but I'm sure someone on here can chime in if they were successful or not at it.
There is no law against making an unsolicited offer on an REO, but you would be wasting your time.
If it's been on the market before and then removed, it wouldn't hurt to call the previous listing agent. You never know till you go.
Or better yet, have your buyer's agent (who will be working for you for free) call the previous listing agents.
I think the best way is to get an REO realtor on your side. I used to know an REO realtor who had her list of cash buyers... she would give these buyers head's up when she got a new property before listing it and see if they were interested. If they offered her a price good enough, she would definitely have preference to sell to them.
If what you mean though is that you know a home foreclosed in your neighborhood and you know the foreclosing bank involved... well, unfortunately you can't offer anything on it. They will not even hear you. I tried contacting the bank on a property like this in my neighborhood and they told me I would have to wait. A year later, it was still foreclosed and the bank had not made any progress on it.
99.9% of bank owned properties (REOs) will in time be listed with a real estate agent. Banks no longer sell these properties directly. If a property is not listed, it could be that the bank is waiting for the right of redemption to be fulfilled. Until this time passes which allows the owner to redeem the property, the bank cannot take possession or resell the home.
If the property is in redemption, you can work with the original owner to redeem the property and then have the owner transfer the property to you.
I knew banks had approached investors to sell some of the larger properties they owned w/o listing. I don't see why investors cannot ask banks what they have for sale.
Xing,
Investors can ask the banks if they have anything for sale if they know who to talk to and the bank sell in volume.
Joe Gore
Joe,
If you are rich enough, you may even submit a Hostile Takeover Bid for the bank:)
Developers may offer to buy houses in a neighborhood without owners' intention of selling.
Large banks do sell bulk REO packages, but in their mind, it does not become a bulk deal until the package includes 50 - 200 properties that are bought sight unseen.
That being said, you could always try to make an offer on 4 or 5 homes at one time as a "bulk" deal. Ideally you would have greater success if all the properties were being handled by the same agent or at least by the same bank. I would suggest breaking down the allocated purchase price for each property in the offer. This will help their paperwork.
@Simon Campbell Hi! I am interested in finding out the status of an REO in my area. I can see from the county website that the bank is listed as the owner of the house. I've called the bank three times and left voicemail for their REO department. Customer service rep says, you can only leave voicemail since the REO department doesn't take calls. Before leaving a message, the recording says, "If you're interested in finding out more information on a property, visit (some third-party website). Thank you." The house was foreclosed and it is currently not on the bank's REO listing page.
Am I wasting my time? Do I just need to keep checking the bank's website for whenever it gets listed? Is there a better or faster way of finding out the status on this property? I was hoping I can jump on it before someone beats me to it. Any info is appreciated!
@Account Closed
It depends. If this is a large regional or national bank, you will most likely need to wait until they list it with a Realtor. On the other hand, if it's a small local bank, you may be able to actually talk with someone who can sell it to you now.
@Bryan L. Thanks Bryan! It's a large bank. I will have to wait until it's listed then.
Here's a tip for anyone who would like to monitor changes to websites...
You can use free sites like www.changedetection.com or www.followthatpage.com
You will be notified whenever your specified web page changes by email, some also have text available. There are many others.
(I don't work for these companies, nor am I affiliated in any way. I just have about 18 years of IT/Internet experience and would like to share what I use to monitor pages. Thanks!)
Do you know more or less how long it takes a bank to list a house? Weeks, months, a year? I hope it's not too long of a wait. In the meantime, I will continue to stash money away, so I'll be ready, lol.
Yes - weeks, months, years. I've seen all of that. I don't know why, but the time frame can vary greatly.
@Account Closed as is usually the case, you cannot deal directly with a bank to buy a REO. You have to go through their listing agent... if and when they get around to listing it.
Often there is a waiting period before the lender can relist the property. At times, this waiting period is due to a state mandated redemption period. This gives the original homeowners a final chance to redeem the house for the auction price. Most are unable to do that. But, a savy investor can contact that homeowner and pay them to redeem the house in exchange for title.
If the owner is a big bank, you are wasting your time. Many times they outsource the property to a 3rd party servicer and only they know who that is. Even if you find them they won't sell until they go through their process. I have sold over 300 REO's and that is how they work. A local or regional bank might talk to you but forget the big banks.
I found a great article recently,
insight no one (in the posts) has mentioned yet
#2 Foreclosures Contributor
- Paradise, CA
@ Stephanie - That article is three years old and was as wrong then as it is today.
You're wasting your time trying to get directly to the bank.
I am an REO listing agent and I get this question asked probably weekly from local agents that know someone who knows me. Long story short: you are wasting your time. They will not call you, or sell it to you without listing it with their agents first.