Sarasota Realtor Mike Payne continues Ken Dolan’s tips for finding, confirming & buying foreclosure bargains without losing your “arse” in the process.
Longtime financial expert Ken Dolan shares valuable tips for buying foreclosed properties.
As I listened to Ken, I recalled my own experience with and knowledge of buying foreclosures without regret.
Without regret is the key here.
I’ve worked with many (bargain) house hunters and rookie investors who thought they knew what they were doing and rejected my advice.
That’s okay.
I know my place as the realtor, not the buyer.
However, I’ve been involved in distressed property sales and purchases before “short sale” and “foreclosure” were house-hold pejoratives.
Click Read More below now for a few suggestions about distressed property “acquisition” to keep you from regretting the day you signed on the dotted line.
BARGAINS GONE BAD
Mark should have known better.
He was not a rookie investor, fresh off some guru-of-the-week real estate riches investing program.
Mark should have
known better!
Mark has been around, building an impressive book of rental properties. But Mark was new to distressed property acquisition.
He wasn’t familiar with short sales, auctions & ‘reo’s’ (that is, real estate owned, which is bank or corporate owned property taken back in foreclosure).
He didn’t want auctions because he knew the “tricks” of auctions and didn’t like the terms. Neither do I.
He didn’t like short sales because he had heard horror stories about l-o-n-g waits and no guarantees.
Note: Mark had his mind made up about REO’s and that’s okay. However, two guys have cracked the code on successful short sale riches. I know Nathan (one of the two guys) and I’ve followed both of them, staying in touch with Nathan. As a realtor, I 100% support Nathan’s short sales program. Click the link to check out my unexpected experience with this powerful short sales riches and homeowner ASSISTING program ==>> Nathan Jurewicz short sales.
Okay, Mark took a fancy to REO’s. That is, he wanted to buy bank-owned properties.
I introduced Mark to a buddy of mine who is a conduit to banks’ asset managers. This guy has what I’d love to have: a steady flow of bank-owned properties to list and sell.
James (my buddy) doesn’t even have to market. It’s as close to the old boom days as a realtor can get. As soon as James gets a listing for a tear-down (as that is what it seems James gets all the time), he receives multiple offers.
Not cool, Mark!
Once I introduced Mark to James, Mark cut me out.
Mark decided to sweeten the deal and get “closer” to James by insisting James be his realtor as well, allowing James to get both sides of the transaction.
Tips for buying
safely into foreclosures
Actually, that is a clever strategy for getting “close” to an REO listing agent.
- Give the REO “rock star” listing agent your business.
- Tell the rock star you want to give him or her repeat business.
- Get your offers prioritized over other similar offers. Don’t worry, asset managers don’t question the perceived impropriety in this suggestion at all. How do I know? On one transaction, I represented the buyer of an REO. The bank Nationstar Mortgage was the same bank as on one of my recent sales. My buyer’s offer on an REO was getting “stoned”. I shot the asset manager a quick email, asking for her help. In response, she basically told me she didn’t care if my buyer’s offer was MORE than an offer she had in front of her (that is, she was the asset manager on this other property as well). I was to go through the listing agent, regardless of how many times she and I had worked or regardless of my buyer’s cash offer ABOVE market.
- Do your due diligence REGARDLESS of what the listing agent or asset manager will tell you.
- Buy aggressively! Regardless of whether you are an investor or home buyer, do NOT fall in love with a house. In Florida, the market STILL is soft and Mark’s in trouble for careless buying strategies.
Karma takes bite
out of Mark’s butt!
That’s right, Mark screwed up and karma caught up with him. 
Mark thought he could take my introduction and expertise and dump me. Though James should not have colluded (read: procuring cause), I let it go. Life’s too short to get p*ssed.
I’m old enough to know what goes around comes around. I just didn’t think Mark would “come around” so quickly. Mark expected James to care about him as a buyer…and counsel him on REO “do’s” and “don’ts”. James’ job was to move properties via a Transaction Broker agreement. In other words, Mark didn’t know what Mark didn’t know.
REO investing took Mark’s arse for a ride. The deals he thought he was getting turned into lemons–bitter lemons I might add. Oops, someone “forgot” to clear title on a couple and the title company’s liability limitations clearly absolved them of any liability.
Mark’s screwed up and experienced foreclosure from the other side of the fence.
KARMA?
Well, I don’t know about that. Kinda sounds like Mark got more (bad) than he deserved unless his business practices put the greed screws to others like me as well.
Got a comment, question and/or experience to share? Great, I want to hear what you have to say. Go below to the box & share your comments, questions & experiences. Write as much as your want. I WILL read and respond. Always know that I appreciate your comments. By all means, if you want to buy or sell in or around Sarasota, call me now. I want to be your Sarasota Realtor!
Sarasota Realtors working distressed property sales and acquisitions understand the differences between “normal” and distressed. You’d better work with an experienced “distressed” property Sarasota Realtor and not just a Realtor who grabbed her/her certificate and designation from a little course. Can’t substitute coursework for on-the-job experience. Know what I mean?
