Are there any workarounds for REO "no-assign" purchase offers?

[Chris Newman]

My main REI niche is newly-undervalued raw rural acreage in Snohomish county, WA, near Seattle. My general investing strategy is to "clip off" the land's surplus transferable development rights for later sale to urban mixed-use mid-rise developers who need them and then flip the residual land, also at a tidy profit, on seller note terms. This new REI niche only works in Snohomish county, but I have no competition.

My biggest challenge right now is that it's going to be another six months to a year before the market demand for these high value TDR credits launches. It's a matter of one final passing of a piece of legislation for county growth management, for an area-wide multi-family rezone that has been in the works for years. 

The final vote is currently scheduled for two weeks from now, but it's still going to take some time for the local mixed-use developers to see the many new opportunities. 

Anyway, in the meantime, my family still has to eat. So, as I cruise the MLS for new arbitrage land acquisition deals to line up, I stay tuned for other opportunities to make a quick happy bridge-funding buck.

One of these side niches is spotting SFR wholesale opportunities with plenty of profit margin to pass along to the buyer, in exchange for a modest finder's fee. I actually see these fairly regularly, but not usually with the double-your-money-fast upside of this new one.

I just learned of a good house (bank REO) that just came back on the market, after being "Pending" for four months. It originally went Pending in 11 days, which is very fast in this market. No idea why that deal went south, but someone sure snapped it up in a hurry at this price.

The exact details aren't pertinent to the main topic of getting past no-assign purchase contract restrictions but, if only for the entertainment of the deal gurus, I'll throw in the basics anyway. Someone might have better ideas on my deal strategy than mine, too. 

I know this small nice quiet rural neighborhood very well, which is how I spotted the high value. This property is a 3/1 of about 1,000k' on a very-usable and private jumbo lot surrounded by trees. Stick-built, not a mfg. home or mobile. About 40 years old, with decent kitchen and bathroom. With a garden cleanup, it will show well from the curb.

Perfect for either a rental with excellent cashflow, owner-occupied or, with summer lake recreation and winter snow skiing nearby, even AirBnB. Full in-town services are less than 10 minutes away.

The asking price is in the very low $100's, which is about as low as any house around here ever gets, no matter what's wrong with it - that's the minimum land value of a ready-to-build lot. 

To be rentable, it needs a garden cleanup and used kitchen stove. For fix-and-flip, I'd replace the ugly and dated, if serviceable, floor coverings. But, pending my own inspection, that's really about all it needs to hit market value.

There is a near-direct comp across the street: 

A 2/1.75 with just a few more square feet size, on a comparable lot. Earlier this year, someone did a moderate-quality remodel on this one and quickly resold it for $235k. It went Pending in 9 days, at $7k over the listing price. 

Most local sales take months of showing and usually close for under the asking price, so this kind of bidding war is very rare. All this tells me that the comp was priced too cheaply. It closed a month later.

So, I'm really motivated to find a way to put this new deal together for a quick wholesale flip. 

I've got a couple of challenges, however:

1. I don't have the cash to just buy this property. My current holdings have me all-in. But, if I did, I would. 

Then, I'd do a quick cleanup and flip it for top dollar on longer term interest-only seller financing terms. Then sell a chunk of the new note's cashflow for fast cash in order to recoup the original capital plus a modest profit now, with a much bigger locked-in profit not far down the road. Lather, rinse, repeat. 

Borrowing the money is not an option. And, I don't have any potential JV partners in my network who can pony up even a low six figures in fast cash.

2. This is an active MLS-listed property and I don't expect it to last long. But, I don't presently know of any wholesale buyers in the Seattle area who would pay me a bird dog fee just to tell them where to look on the MLS. I know that having a wholesale property under contract before shopping it is key to keeping buyers honest.

(There probably are Seattle area wholesale buyers who operate on a "hand shake honor" basis, but I haven't met them, yet. If you are, please PM me.)

3. This is a bank-owned property and, according to my agent, they absolutely insist on "no-assign" purchase offers, where I cannot resell the accepted contract to someone else. This is where I'm stuck. 

I've run into this no-assign restriction on court-supervised bankruptcy liquidations, too. So, this is not an uncommon barrier to us fast-turn REI folks.

I thought that I came up with a new workaround that I've never heard of, that I call a "Double Offer:" 

The way that this would work to end-run a no-assign is that I'd submit to the bank an accepted offer, then the new buyer would submit a (Pending inspection) backup offer that also gets accepted. 

At that point, they do their inspections and, if they want the property, they pay me an agreed amount to rescind my offer, which puts them straight into escrow. Everyone gets what they want without undue delays. Win/win/win.

However, my agent tells me that this large national bank, in addition to a mandated no-assign, also doesn't accept backup offers, either. So, that pops that bubble.

Does anyone in BP Land know of a strategy around these no-assign purchase offer restrictions? Or, have any better ideas than mine on anything?

Thanks!