What can REO holders do better or offer buyers?

[Ryan Kurth]

Sounds like a simple enough question, but with many complications. I'd like to hear your ideas on what banks, the GSEs and FHA could be doing better in order to unload their REO inventories (faster and while taking reasonable losses [i.e. selling them all for $0.99 does not count]) and get the for sale market back to working order again (or somewhere close to it)

Could they have better marketing strategies? Offer owner-occupants or investors better incentives? Be clearer on terms/procedures?

Just curious to hear what everyone thinks, especially since so many of us here are the ones with acutal feet on the ground, and not our heads in Washington, buried in a book of academia

[Karen Margrave]

If banks want to move their REO's they need to quit acting like government entities and more like private businesses, getting offers in and out within a few days, not weeks or months. As for the banks spending money to fix the homes, that's crazy, they would only spend more than is necessary, drive the prices up to where they're not affordable, and muck up the market. Move the properties to private ownership asap, let new owners hire contractors to do the work, and let the housing market recover.