Blog

MARKET REPORT

This fall promises to be very good for me in real estate. The media may indicate that things look bad, but since August, some of my oldest prospects (3 yrs+/-) have decided to get serious about purchasing their first home. Pricing in the Southern California area continues to struggle to climb and does so ever gradually. The bulk of my deals are related to short sales in some form and banks apparently still take an inordinate time to approve things. I can tell you that GMAC is fairly quick since I have a listing with them as the sr lien holder, but for my buyer interested in a US Bank...the listing agent told me it would be several months for an answer. Bank of America and Chase seem to promise more speed, about a month of wait time each or so I am told. We will see if I close a couple this month.

Adding to the fuel here is the continued bidding war that easily discourages my buyers. I really think we need more inventory on the market as there are several buyers that are presently renters that would love a chance to own.

Reopro's Direction

My Realtor association currently has a program funded by realtors for first buyers that will GRANT up to $7000 for a home provided that they a) can qualify for a loan and b) buy in the association service area, subject to available funds. Last year they paid $225,000 in assistance. There are other requirements as well but I think we could promote ourselves by giving back to the community. Make this plan universal. Secondly since REOpro is given a referral when we obtain business here, a great member benefit would be free Realty Pilot since it is required to receive work. I had to drop Realty Pilot due to no work but would bring it back if I received work from it. I have to sell this to the CFO in my family...my wife and she is very keen on money leaks. She hit the roof when I recently told her how much I spend on lead generation. I have also considered too making a future donation as I close deals this fall.

Code of ethics

And now for the cutting stuff!

I still notice that the REO agents in my area, particularly the market dominator or two still insist that they run the show but sometimes they falter. So here it goes

• Be accurate with your listings: if there is a potential FHA issue, please tell me in the listing remarks. Don't tell me that my offer was rejected due to type of financing if it has foundation or other problems. You just wasted my and my clients time.
• Please put your OWN phone number if you use a combo box to get the combo. Or use the Supra box which is better. Don't just put the office number because they go home at 5 and I show property at 6 pm.You might actually get an offer.
• Stop asking for cross approvals! My loan officer says that everytime we do that it injures my buyer's score, because they pull credit again. If what Jesse says is right about our size, the banks will know that we are a force and they will not be able to dictate terms. Side item: This invites corruption as somehow the deals that are financed by the REO lender are the ones that get accepted.
• Have you noticed your property has code violations? Saw a REO that had a city notice posted a few weeks earlier...was now fading on the front door. Cities want all of your REO's registered at city hall. They have to keep the neighborhood to standard. I know I would be personally inspecting my inventory at least once a week.
• Please give me a number that I can contact YOU....not some vague email that answers all questions supposedly. Yes I do want to know how many offers you have as my client wants to have a chance at buying it. I may have to also advise you of wasp nests or bee hives that need rapid attention. Maybe I need to know a little about the house you are selling.
• By the way I really do want to thank you for a pleasurable transaction when all is said and done. Actually had a listing agent/investor tell me that he could not wait to get into escrow withme again because I was easy to get in touch with....does anyone want to move to Pomona or Chino? I can make it happen for your client! Imagine what would happen to our profession if listing agents hugged buyer's agents? Ok , I will settle for Starbuck's!

Anyway good night everyone...hope to hear from you soon.

John Accornero in the Whittier/La Mirada area

I always wonder how I became lucky enough to get that first REO property over 10 years ago. Definitely a different market than what we have right now.

Now I watch agents send out stacks of resumes, do BPOs for less than $45 and they are getting the business. Sometimes I question whether or not the banks, asset managers and investors realize exactly what they've gotten?

I tend to think not, particularly when I have a new REO agent in my office stated the following: "I don't spend a lot of time on those BPOs, I just pull up comps in the neighborhood and use the 3 lowest recent sales -- I don't want to do the banks any favors." All I could do was look the agent in the face and say "Wow." All the while reminding myself about the code of ethics and how I would want to be treated if I were that agents client. Although our clients are large financial institutions that may not have a face, they deserve fair treatment, and not the "just give 'em the three lowest comps -- don't wanna do 'em any favors" treatment. I thought to myself, I've been in some of those lowest comps in the neighborhood you used for that last BPO, no wonder the last REO listing you had in my neighborhood was listed so low and an offer came in within hours of placing it in the MLS and guess who sold it too.

This upsets me not only as an agent, but as a customer of these financial institutions and a tax payer that has contributed, and will continue to contribute to the bailouts.

I just received an email from a company that contacted me to complete a BPO on a property. Located on the river, in a rural area. Since it is rural, there are not a lot of comparables. I was worried it would be returned to me since there is a large variance in prices.

After closely reviewing what I thought was a BPO that I prepared, I noticed that "Quality Control" has made $75,000 adjustments on the form as well as a few others.

I was shocked. What is the point of me doing a BPO if their so-called Quality Control department is going to make adjustments? Obviously they know the market much better than I do.

This infuriates me -- I just wish I knew who the client is, because this is just wrong and they need to be made aware of what is going on. It helps give more power to those that think we as agents should not be doing BPOs in the first place. Maybe there should be more concern over what the BPO companies are doing to the reports once they receive them.

I don't know if anyone else has ever experienced this or not, and maybe I am overreacting....it just seems wrong to me though.