The Blog House

1) Know Your Seller
Banks
tend to become habitual in the way they sell homes. With a savvy agent
you can research the seller and see some trends. Does this seller
always do 30 day price reductions? If the answer is yes, then maybe
you want to wait a few more days until the next price reduction before
you put in an offer.

2) Sell Your Home
Banks
are not going to want to wait around while you sell your home. They
are losing money every day they have the home on their books because of
costs associated with “carrying” the home or carry costs. These costs
can be quite high and they include things like maintaining the
property, paying attorneys, and paying interest on money owed. The
main reason they will let the property go at a discount is so they can
avoid these fees. This purpose is defeated if they have to wait around
for you to sell your home.

3) Get To Know a Contractor
It
is highly likely that your home is going to need some work. The bank
likely did some minimal repairs to put the home on the market but it
may take more to make it livable. Remember that this home was
foreclosed on and the last people to live there were probably not too
happy on their way out. Anticipate doing at least some minor repairs
like new carpet and paint

3) Don’t Forget to Negotiate
Just
because they are a bank owned home does not mean that the banks will
not negotiate. They are a seller just like any other. And sometimes
they are more motivated than most sellers. In fact, many markets in
the U.S. are currently “REO Driven” where REOS are the ones selling and
are the price setters. So don’t hesitate to throw in a low ball
offer. Just don’t make it so low that you end up wasting everyone’s
time.

4) Make it a Clean Offer
The
cleaner the offer the better. You can still do an inspection and have
the property contingent on financing, but be careful to add too many
contingencies. Also, offer at least 1% of the purchase price for
earnest money and be flexible on settlement dates.