REO properties that are "LISTED" but "COMING SOON"

[Sam Leon]

What does this mean?

For example, on Zillow, it shows this property was listed by bank on 12/21/2012 - but there is no price.

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/723-W-Las-Olas-Blvd-Fort-Lauderdale-FL-33312/43203838_zpid/

However, if you press the "View Complete Details" button, it takes you to Wells Fargo where it listed an agent, but the status is "Coming Soon" and price TBD.

http://reo.wellsfargo.com/WBREODetails.aspx?INTCID=REO394324&page=Home&showreohome=true&dm=DMIZIREOL1

So, is this property for sale, or not?

If you go to http://reo.wellsfargo.com and do a search for properties in this city, this item won't come up.

[Joel Owens]

Hi Sam,

In the business we call these in "pre-list" stage as a broker/agent.

Banks will either list REO directly with listing brokers or have asset management companies they contract out with that the bank gives their assets to for disposing and selling in the marketplace.

They give the asset company full reign usually going by what is in the banks servicing agreement as part of the contract to handle the disposition of the assets.

Pre-list is where a property has been foreclosed on but is not yet listed. The owners might still be living in the property as holdover tenants, the property might be vacant but have valuable property the owners are using for storage and eviction has to happen, or the house is totally vacant and needs to be trashed out and cleaned and winterized depending on time of the year and climate.

During this time the bank or asset company is having the broker that is to be assigned the listing complete a free BPO and then they also order 1 to 2 other bpo's that pay other brokers directly to do for an objective third party evaluation. For example the listing broker might do a low BPO value before listing to sell it fast whereas the broker getting paid 50 to 100 bucks to do a report can be objective about the value of the property because they are not make a commission off of the sale like the listing broker will be. The bank or asset company looks at all the reports and then instructs the listing broker to go off of that price to list the property for sale.

During pre-list the bank or asset company will not talk to you and you have to wait for the property to be listed unless this is a small local or regional bank where their process and procedures are more flexible.

Wells Fargo is a massive bank so you will have to wait for it to be listed. Listing brokers are given advance notice of the listing to be assigned so market to their buyers ahead of time to try and close a deal. Sometimes the asset manager will just do a deal right away or will demand the listing broker expose the property to market for a few weeks at least before accepting something. It really varies.