Last week
a bank owned property came up on the market for sale in Big Bear.The property was a perfect fit for one
of my clients, so I called them and recommended that they make an offer on the property.They listened
to me and we got our offer in before any other offers came in.Even though I knew that our offer was going
to be the first offer, I recommended to my clients that we write the offer based off of the fact that there will probably
be multiple offers.
Knowing that the bank
listed this big bear home on the low side, I expected to see multiple offers.Because of this, I recommended
that my clients make their offer at full price or even higher.But the price is not always the deciding
factor on what offer is accepted.The bank is always looking at the bottom line and the offer that nets
them the most money is normally the offer that they take.
If you find yourself in this situation where you are going to write an offer on a home and you expect multiple
offers then, talk to your agent about how you structure the offer.Things to consider besides the price
is how much of a good faith deposit are you putting up.Are you writing an offer and offering $1000, 00
in good faith?Or are you will to commit 3% in good faith.Are you paying cash or getting
a loan?Cash offers seem to be looked at before the offers with loans.Are you going
to be asking the bank to pay for the termite report?If it’s an older home that you plan to do some
remodel on, maybe the termite report isn’t that big of a deal.
There are a lot of things that you can change in the offer.Things
that will make your offer stand out as being the best deal for the bank.
For more information
on presenting an offer on a bank owned property, please contact me at tony@tonycard.com
Nine weeks ago I wrote
an offer for a client of mine on a property in Big Bear that was being listed as a Short Sale.At the time
that I wrote this offer, I stressed to them that they are going to need to be patient.Short Sales are
known for being very time consuming.I don’t think that agents stress that fact strongly enough because
I see a lot of offers made on Short Sales, but they are not completed because the buyer gets tired of waiting and backs out
of the deal.My clients have been very patient and have not complained to me about the time that the Short
Sale process is taking.But I know that it has been frustrating for them.Every Friday
I would check in with the listing agent for an update, I would get the same answer.That answer was that
they are working on it.When I submitted the offer for my clients, I made sure that there was a time frame
on how long the bank had to respond.I do this to make sure that my clients have an “out” if
another property comes on the market that they like.
That is exactly what happened to my clients.Two days ago another property
came on the market that caught my client’s attention. This property was in a much better location and it is bank owned
instead of a Short Sale.As the offer on the Short Sale has been taking so long and there is no end in
sight, my clients have asked me to make an offer on their behalf on the bank owned property.
We now have offers
out on the Short Sale and the bank owned property.We will wait and see who responds first, the short sale
or the bank owned.
I know that the loss mitigation dept. of the banks is very busy right now, but they need to do a better
job of processing the Short Sales. Buyers don’t mind waiting, but they don’t want to be left hanging for months.With the bank owned properties continuing to change, the buyer never knows when the perfect property
is going to become available.The last thing that the buyer is going to want is to be locked in to a never
ending contract on a Short Sale that isn’t going to go together.
I
meet with a lot of home owners in the Big Bear Valley who have been unsuccessful in selling their property. The number
one question asked of me is why didn't their home sell? The answer is really very simple. It's all in
the price! Price overcomes everything!
Here is a great example of what I'm talking about. Forty-five
days ago I listed a home in Sugarloaf that I believed was priced to sell. After thirty days of the property not getting
any showings, I have the price reduction conversation with the property owners.After hearing how they
paid more for the property than we are trying to sell it for, they reluctantly agreed to a $10,000.00 price reduction.You would think that reducing the price of the house by $10,000.00 would help but unfortunately it was too little too
late.Two weeks later, we made another price reduction, bringing the cabin down to $199,000.00 and that
was all she wrote.Once the cabin hit the $199,000.00 price tag, the market took over and the seller had
multiple offers to choose from within a four day time frame.
It doesn’t matter how
many internet sites you market the cabin, if it isn’t priced right, it won’t sell.It doesn’t
matter how nice the pictures are of the property, if it isn’t priced right, it is not going to sell.
No matter what the objection is on the property, if it is priced right, it will sell.
As a member of Chuck Hurd's Real Estate Group, my goal is to demonstrate that professionalism truly
exists in the real estate industry, and my commitment is to prove this with every time we speak. Please enjoy my site,
and please don't hesitate to contact me if I can assist you in any way.
