We offer a great tool to help you in competitive REO listings. www.foreclosurefeedback.com . The Asset manager's can login and see all of the feedback on their REO properties, see what you are doing to market them and print reports to document the need for price reductions. Call in to sign up instead of online and tell them Rick said to give you the first 90 days for free to try it out. If your competition doesn't offer this, you will definitely have a leg up on them. Good Selling!

Please help! Need a Saxon Mortgage asset manager for a foreclosed property in Fresno Ca. Foreclosed owner contacted me and does not want to be evicted. She has a well qualified neighbor-buyer for the property, who will buy it with her remaining in it, so she can continue her day care business. Eviction/moving would destroy her day care income.

I'm sure this would be a great benefit to Saxon, who now owns it, but have no clue how to get thru to them. They did not respond to my phone message. A specific person's phone or e-mail, rather than a general number would be ideal.

Thanks for your help. -  Vic pasnick vicpasnick@hotmail.com or 559-312-4422

Hi Cat! I have had myself listed on REOTrans for months and got 1 BPO and haven't even been paid for it. I have all the extra bells and whistles on my listing and still I see lenders are looking, but no one else is has even called. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanx!
 

Before you get into foreclosure listings ask yourself this.

If you went on a listing appointment and the seller said to you I want you to list my property but you will have to do the following for me...

1.  Give me a drive-by BPO so I have a rough idea what it's worth.

2.  Get the current tenants out in less than 30 days.  If they won't go voluntarily, work with my attorney to get them evicted.

3.  Arrange for someone to remove trash, clean property, do lawn work and rekey the locks.  Oh and you pay for that and send me an invoice and I'll reimburse you ---- in 30 - 60 days or so.

4.  Give me a detailed BPO once the tenants have moved out or evicted. 

5.  Give me a detailed description of any repairs that need to be done.  Get me estimates for these repairs.

6.  If I decide to make any repairs, you will pay for them and I will reimburse you after you send me an invoice.  Oh and make sure you get that invoice to me within 2 weeks of the work being completed or I won't reimburse you.

7.  I want you to put all the utilities in your name, pay for everything and I will, of course, reimburse you.

8.  I want you to do weekly property checks to make sure everything is ok.

9.  I want monthly updated BPOs so I know if anything changes with the market.

10.  And of course I want you to advertise this in all ways possible.

11.  BTW, I will only pay you $ for commission and you will have to give % of that back to us as a referral fee.

Would you still take that listing?   

REO listings is what you would call a niche. Yes, a lot of the REO management companies will ask you to jump through hoops of fire, but not all of them. There are several out there that I have worked with that put the others to shame.

First of all - NEVER do a BPO for free - unless it is for your non-REO company client (buyer or seller). All of the REO companies expect to pay from $75 to $150 or more for a BPO. Providing your knowledge and skills as a Realtor for free is like "casting your pearls before swine."  (I'm not saying they "are" swine - it's just a good analogy for the bottom-feeder companies that would take advantage of a new to REO agent.)

Go visit REONetwork.com - you can get your name out in front of the REO managers for free, or you can pay REONetwork a fee for added services.

How are your BPO's? Have you created a system for handling them: initial request, scheduling your time, go out and get the photo's, have a spreadsheet to import data from your MLS, log in to the REO site, and enter/upload your info.

Doing BPO's for several companies will eventually lead to listings from many of those companies (at least the one's that do BPO and Property Mgmt).

REO Listings is not for the faint of heart. There are a lot of requirements, especially getting a property trashed out and ready for market. When you've accomplished a few sales this way, though - you'll have gained some necessary experience in working with the REO companies (and banks). This will help you on future listings, when you can negotiate a bit more with the REO companies.

Hope this helps!

David

I have been reading through the many replies and I found them all to be very helpful!  Thank you all for sharing!  I have a question that I would like to throw out there to all of you -  What do you make of these many companies that are emerging in seminar fashion that state 'come to my seminar and I will teach all the secrets to REO's and how to make the 7 figure incomes'.  Do you believe they are sincere and worth the time or another source looking to take our money?  Has anyone been to one?  I keep getting bombarded with invitations for these things.  Looking forward to hearing what all of you have to say!

I have worked with REOTrans.com and REOSource.com, both have been decent to work for.  I've also worked with BrokerPriceOpinion.com, although they usually don't send you listings.

One reponse above mentioned that you usually have to pay for all the services, utilities and repairs on REO properties.  This is correct.  To combat the long wait periods for reimbursement, I opened a business credit line, which we use to cover our ongoing cost while waiting for reimbursement.  I find that if you submit a Request for Payment (Reimbursement) older then 30-days, sometimes the REO company will not reimburse you for the expense.  This is where most agents get in trouble as it takes cash to keep up with lawncare, electric bills, minor repairs, cleaning properties etc.  Some agents will wait until they have a sale to pay for the bills, then submit many bills for payment reimbursement.  This sometimes means you are turning your request in much later then the 30-days the REO companies like to see.

By creating a small interest only credit line for your business, you will have access to a revolving credit line to make timely payments from.  This solves the number one complaint about not getting reimbursed from the REO company.  The credit line doesn't have to be large...usually $2500 to $5000 is fine as you will only be paying smaller bills monthly.

I don't know about where you are guys are located but I find that  REO agents and brokers are general frustrating to deal with.  They don't return fellow agents phone calls, only buyers. The selling agent don't know the true status of the listing in fact you don't even know for sure if the offer was even submitted to the bank. Wby are they operating this way? They don't want to co-broke, they want to keep the commission to themselves.   I'm wondering if the banks know what's going on; this unethical behavior is not really in their  interest.  I'm writing this because anyone new getting into selling REOs please don't this it will back fire when the market changes; no one wants to do business with you.

AnitaCrum wrote...

Before you get into foreclosure listings ask yourself this.

 

If you went on a listing appointment and the seller said to you I want you to list my property but you will have to do the following for me...

 

1.  Give me a drive-by BPO so I have a rough idea what it's worth.

2.  Get the current tenants out in less than 30 days.  If they won't go voluntarily, work with my attorney to get them evicted.

3.  Arrange for someone to remove trash, clean property, do lawn work and rekey the locks.  Oh and you pay for that and send me an invoice and I'll reimburse you ---- in 30 - 60 days or so.

4.  Give me a detailed BPO once the tenants have moved out or evicted. 

5.  Give me a detailed description of any repairs that need to be done.  Get me estimates for these repairs.

6.  If I decide to make any repairs, you will pay for them and I will reimburse you after you send me an invoice.  Oh and make sure you get that invoice to me within 2 weeks of the work being completed or I won't reimburse you.

7.  I want you to put all the utilities in your name, pay for everything and I will, of course, reimburse you.

8.  I want you to do weekly property checks to make sure everything is ok.

9.  I want monthly updated BPOs so I know if anything changes with the market.

10.  And of course I want you to advertise this in all ways possible.

11.  BTW, I will only pay you $ for commission and you will have to give % of that back to us as a referral fee.

 

Would you still take that listing?   

You really drove the point home ! Simply Brilliant ! Excellent information for any one
 

even thinking about getting into the REO business.

Thank you Lee.

I usually get asked at least once a week from some agent how they too can list REO properties.  Most of them have no idea what is involved and so many of them think it's got to be pretty easy work, but trust me it's not.  It can be very profitable, but like anything else, you've got to be willing to put in the hours and the effort.

Anyway, thanks for the kind words. :)