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Already a few days I am questioning myself if I should post these lines… Then I remember my fiduciary duty owed to the principal to protect that person’s interest above my own…! This was enough to make the decision and I am confident that I don’t go over the scope of my agent duty.

Bank owned SFR recently sold at 10% above OLP, 6 DOM and defined as best FHA file by lender. Obviously, borrowers were well qualified. Subject property was far away in pristine condition with some deferred maintenance and as any other neglected REO. Everyone was anxious regarding home inspection and pest report. Buyers were aware of the condition. Report came back highlighting the condition but not raising any red flag as the way it was written. The property was originally cleaned up to an acceptable level by the preservation company. Acceptable may be to their minimum but certainly not to my minimum for best marketing therefore the principal’s best interest. Therefore a few touch-up were made prior to be on the market at “no cost/no question asked” to have the property more inviting, more appealing and inspection easier therefore better report. The scope of my last minute attention was actually what we should do on our weekly and monthly maintenance with attention and detail. That’s all! Small details with big results are either for any potential buyer or inspector to conduct their report and due diligence with better desire than filth or borderline acceptable presentation.

I can share my first job when I was 15 in France as I was passionate to work on vintage airplane. I was working part time for an old timer repair shop. Airplanes were subject to inspection from the authority as FAA in US. We were arriving one hour earlier in the morning of inspection to sweep the floor of the workshop and sprayed water before just to be fresh and smell good. That was clean and made the inspector in good mood. A detail may be, but it made the difference!

A great flyer with filth in each room does not do any good. My opinion remains to sell the bank owned property as a property and not just as another REO. Presentation is a “Must”. It should actually be better than a normal listing since the seller is not onsite. Results can be unbelievable with small details. Our duty of as agent is narrowing our activities but still remains a diligent exercise of reasonable skill and “CARE”. In other words it is obvious that owner and AM in the REO case is expecting more than to be consulted with estimate in case of immediate repair. REO instruction for listing is more obvious with some details as “Electric is to be turned on and inform AM ASAP if unsafe”. Who is deciding it is safe or not ? Does agent has to get the opinion from and electrical contractor which means fees to be paid, therefore delay with estimate to be submitted! I believe here is a perfect example as nothing will move forward with this option. One case I had was a property with displaced heater casing, a few gas gaskets on the garage floor was enough to take the decision to turn on electrical service only and not gas which was reported later to AM. The decision was made on site. Owner as bank and AM are in an office hundreds of miles away and often in a different time zone. They rely on agent’s initiative to take care of the property. Too late is not acceptable in many cases. This might be an opinion and it is coming from some previous experience with property management where I have to deal with owner sometimes on the other side of the planet and not necessary available to discuss about the leaking water pipe. This owner relied on my due diligence and did not worry since I was onsite. He knew and trusted me.