Hey Ingrid
I should ask you first, are you in NJ (per your profile) or St. Cloud FL?
Also, are you using an agent locally in FL?
We just use our agent here in Orlando to make our purchases. We could indeed go straight to the listing agent thus allowing that person to get both sides of the commission but I sometimes find a property say late on a Thursday night and I know I can ask our agent to put an offer in that night and it will get done. I’m not sure the listing agent would act so fast so we stick with our own guy.
If you get an offer turned down, do you just get told it was a no and that’s it?
If that happens to us (very rare), I ask to see the “no†from the bank. I don’t want a selling agent saying no just because he couldn’t be bothered to put the offer in because it was very low, I want to see it in writing. That right there ensures the offer at least gets presented.
Each offer is always submitted as “All Cash†(even if it isn’t really) and we tell the bank we can close within 10 days.
As for the offer, I really don’t care what the bank wants. I won’t offer more than half of what the true value is and if the bank is already close to that number, I’ll still take 20% off their lowest listing price.
Yes, perhaps obviously, the longer a property has been listed the more chance you have at getting it at a great price. I track a ton of properties and watch the drops to see the pattern etc. before making a move. If someone else buys it, oh well, I didn’t really want it anyway but I will at the right price.
We ALWAYS have multiple offers out there. The worst a bank can say is no so who cares?
AND, we have had cases where a bank has said no and then came back to us three or four months later and said OK, we’ll take your offer (to which our reply is “well that was then and this is now, our offer is now 20% less than it was back thenâ€, take it or leave it)
If you are using an agent or even if you are using the MLS yourself, you should be set up to get daily email alerts of price drops, new listing etc. It save a lot of time searching when you can set this all up one time and have it come to your in box daily with any changes.
Having said all of that, I really don’t see much in St. Cloud at all as far as REO’s are concerned which is why I am wondering why you want that area. The rest of the county doesn’t interest you?
What about Orange County?
If you can fill in some of the blanks about if you are using as an agent, if you are getting copies of rejections, why that area, what you want to do with the properties etc. I can probably help you a little further.
Have a good one.
Mark
