All Forum Posts by: Mark Ferguson

Welcome! I am in Greeley. 

 It all depends on where your at. Colorado has almost no foreclosures. California and most of the west side of the country is the same way. I think there is enough demand out there to handle just about all the reos. 

you can add me to your list. 

I'M not in one of those states, but I know a few people in Jersey and quite a bit about reo. The average days to foreclose is some thing crazy like 900 days in jersey. So the foreclosures from the housing crisis are just now getting g through the system because many banks didn't even want to start foreclosures there because of all the hassles. 

The laws Jersey put in place to try to protect homeowners in foreclosure really hurt their recovery. I have heard there are many, many foreclosures coning through now from investors and reo brokers.  

I'm a reo listing broker. The tricky part is every bank acts differently and some banks act differentry on different properties. There is no right answer on what percent to offer based on that the seller will do. You should consider what you need and what your current market is like first. 

In most cases the banks will not take low offers right off the bat. It can happen, but usually they will not go less than 10 or maybe 20 percent less than asking at a max. 

You also have to remember you are dealing with real people who are busy. If you do things that they think is a waste of time, it could hurt you. If you offer 40 percent of list right away or send in ten offers slowly increasing your offer it could bug the agent and asset manager. If you bug them it could make them less likely to negotiate.  

so what did the duplex comps sell for and what did they rent for?

 It sounds like you did your homework which is good. However, many homeowners dont or do the wrong honework. In my experience the sweet spot is three weeks for a house priced right. If I get offers right away it is usually priced a little low and more than a month too high. In a very hot market it could be quicker if inventory is very low. 

The appraisal really means nothing. The job of the appraiser is to verify value. 95 percent of appraisals will come in right at or maybe within 2 percent of the contract value. Appraisers don't want to come in high, because it might raise red flags. Many appraisers got in trouble with appraisals too high before the housing crisis. They changed the system so that appraisers are very careful about not coming high. Even on incredibly awesome deals that are clearly below market, I see appraisals come right in at contract price. 

If you had that much action, there is a good chance you under priced the home and left money on the table. I see this all the time with FSBO's where they think because they sold their house in one day they save all this money, but really an agent most likely could have gotten them much more money then the commission they saved. Really you saved maybe $4,000, but might have lost 10k if it was priced better.

 Thanks for responding! Why are you addressing me as "sir" in every paragraph when you have not done that with anyone else? Is that some sort of subtle antagonism? Doesn't really matter. 

What matters is you bash an entire industry of professionals with anecdotal stories and when asked for details you can't provide them. It looks very suspicious and brings up a question of why in the world would you post this thread if you are pending litigation in the matter? 

To answer your questions.

I have been a licensed realtor since 2001. I run a team of 9 and we have sold over 500 homes the last three years. I know most agents in my area and I can say that less than 5 percent that I work with are dishonest or unethical. The dishonest ones are usually the new agents trying to make a quick buck and they learn real fast it doesn't work in this business. The people who end up working with the dishonest agents are usually trying to save money by cutting corners and finding agents who will give them a kickback, or offer very cheap services etc. You usually get what you pay for. I didn't want to toot my own horn and talk about how awesome most agents are since I am one an biased. 

It took me a second to see that you had not responded to anyone's questions about the deal and about another second to see when you were online last. I didn't want to ask you again if you had not been on the site and had a chance to respond. It was common courtesy to check your profile first.  

Listen to Greg. He knows a lot about HUD. I'm a HUD listing broker and you cannot submit a bid without an agent.