"Back on Market" Opportunities

[Scott Raley]

One overlooked way to find great potential opportunities is for your team realtor to seach daily for "back on market" better known as TFT transactions ( transactions fell through) This is where the transaction or sale of a home, for a multitude of reasons, falls out of contact and comes back on the open MLS market. If your dialed in with your financing or better yet ALL CASH, you have a great chance to step in and take control of the property. This take some leg work up front, meaning your agent needs to keep a steady watch of the properties on market/short sales and build relationships with the listing agents ideally before some of these deals fall apart. That means reading available inspection reports and requesting offer instructions, etc. The fewer contingencies you ask for in your offer the better. But, I highly suggest you leave yourself, at a minimum, a short property contingency to do your due diligence. This provides you with a "back door" to exit the deal if you find major issues or surprises.

One of the best oppotunities is when a transaction has TFT'd and needs an all cash buyer before the property is foreclosed on. These are often highly motivated sellers, especially if there is  equity in the property and  they need to get the bank to work with them to craft a solid deal. Often the bank will extend the  foreclosure sale date if  a solid offer with few contingencies is back on the table. If it's a short sale or foreclosure , you as the second or perhaps the third offer, have much better leverage to extract a better sale price. Ideally if no inspections have been done, you get your own inspections,once your in contract, and squeeze the bank on costs for  necessary repairs, especially section 1 work. This can turn a good deal into a potentially great deal. Remember, you  can make a good percentage of your profit on the buy side. If you pay retail....your not protected if the market should turn down and your not prepared to buy and hold.