It's amazing to me that someone could write an article on a subject they seem to know so little about and have it published nationally. There was an article in last week's Mobile Press Register giving tips to consumers who were interested in buying foreclosures, also known as REO (real estate owned) properties. It was not written by our local editor, so the information in this article was probably published in many papers.
One of the tips was to contact the REO listing agent directly because there would be only one agent to pay, inferring that the buyer would save money because the commission would be lower. Now, we list REO properties, so we could greatly benefit from that advice, however, it is very misleading. We do have sellers from, time to time, that want us to cut the commission if we have both sides of the transaction, however, not on the REOs. The buyer cannot save money buying directly from me, the listing agent, on a foreclosure.
The buyer could actually miss out on a lot of good listings by calling the listing agent directly. I have had buyers on my automatic e-mail notification list before and discovered that is what they were doing because they thought it gave them an advantage. They were promptly removed from the list.
I would love it if all of the foreclosures we list were sold through us. And there is an advantage to working with a Realtor that is familiar with foreclosure process. But as much as I would like for it to be true, there is really no financial advantage to a buyer when they call the REO listing agent directly.
It is a good idea for buyers to ask the Realtor how much experience they have selling REO properties. It's also a good idea to see if the Realtor has any REO information sheets that explain the process.
The article named some national foreclosure websites for buyers to look for foreclosures on. Sometimes that is not a good idea. We get calls all the time from people that are on these websites and are calling about houses that sold 6 months ago. Some of these sites actually charge the buyers for registering and then give them bad information. Almost all foreclosures (including HUD, VA, banks, mortgage companies, etc) are now on the MLS. You can search for foreclosures from the websites of the local companies, and it is current information. A lot of them have separate searches for foreclosures. Most will let you register for automatic notification when new foreclosure properties are listed. All the local Realtors should have the capability of registering you for the automatic notifications. Consumers do not need to pay for information or free notification.
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This Blog by: Julie Martin, CRB, e-PRO, Broker/Realtor, Port City Realty
Mobile, AL; 877-880-8110 toll free; 251-665-4665 my cell; julie@portcityrealty.com.
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