1. Should you buy a Bank Owned or Short Sale Home? Bank Owned!

Most Buyers in today's market prefer to purchase Bank Owned Properties vs  Short Sales. The reason for this is that a Bank Owned property has already been taken back by a lien holder and all liens on the property have been satisfied or paid off. Short Sales on the other hand often have an asking price far below what the lien holder will accept.  This is one of the main reasons that it couple take up to six months to receive a final response from the lien holder, usually with a "no" unless your using an experienced short sales agent. Other issues will a short sales are that they typically are upside down with second loans, tax and other liens that must be satisfied before the sale can go through. Often these liens are not considered in the asking price and despite many short sales having several offers at or over asking price, most short sales will go back to the lien holder and eventually become a foreclosure because of these factors.
 

2.Why you should go shopping for a Home on a Weekday?

One top factor in getting the best pricing on a home is getting in early. Since most buyer's go shopping for a home on the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) offers are usually submitted on Mondays and Tuesdays. By going shopping for a home after work, you get a 2 to 5 day head start in the event that you would like to submit an offer. This head start will prevent a "bidding war" causing the home to go over asking price. By the time other Buyers see the property you will have already had a response from the Seller or Bank. If you are still not convinced, this one small tip used in conjunction with our property alert can save you money totaling 6 months of your yearly salary.
To assist you in getting in early ForeclosureBlvd.com offers free property alerts and a direct write offer feature. With our alerts, you will be notified of properties matching your criteria that just hit the market or a price reduction before most Agents and Buyer's wake up.  Our write offer feature allows you to submit an offer directly to the listing agent or seller of a property immediately.  Click here to subscribe!

3. When do you go with the office listing a property?

In a 2003-2005 real estate market where the sellers were private persons, it was a good idea to contact the listing office to view a property and submit offers on a property. However, practicing this theory in today's market could cost you.

We have found that although a listing agent may list a bank owned property, they may not be familiar with or understand the processes of the banks receive and processing offers, which could cost you in the end. I know this may be hard to believe but many buyers fall into this trap without being aware. The truth is, that a bank selling a property has "Asset Managers". The Asset Managers are usually out of state and one manager manages thousand of properties. The manger does have the ability to approve a sale in some cases. However, in most cases their computer will tell them when to accept offers, when to lower pricing and other activities related to a property. Unless an Agent/Office is familiar with how the Asset Manager's computer thinks, it will not benefit the buyer. We have found that the larger offices with 50 or more bank owned listing usually are experienced with the workings of banks but like any industry, it all depends on the experience level of the person who answers the phone since most larger offices typically have 20-50 buying agents with various levels of experience.

4. When should you get pre-approved for a loan?

We recommend that you contact a lender to get pre-approved for a loan immediately after have decided that you are ready to purchase a home. This should be the first step before you start your home search.  This will help assist you in determining your price range, affordability and purchasing power. 100%  of the time a pre-approval letter is also required when submitting an offer on an Bank Owned property unless you are paying all cash.

5. Why use an In-State "Direct Lender" for your loan!

We recommend that you always use an in-state Direct Lender for your loan. Due to physical accessibility issues and time zone delays, we have seen that these issues cause a 30 escrow period to go over by 7-14 days, resulting in $100-150 penalty fees per day or even a cancellation of escrow and loss of a deposit. Choosing the right lender is a matter of life and death and we rarely endorse using a family member or friend in for a loan in today's market. Since a loan is one of the major reasons that 50% of bank owned properties fall out of escrow.

6. Be cautious of Agents who overly quote their "years of experience"!

In today Bank Owned Market, technology is paramount and changing daily. Whether you’re communicating with your agent or your agent communicating with the listing office of a property, technology is the key getting a house at the best price possible. We have found that agents who overly quote their years of experience such as "I have 30 years of experience" in just about every case will be behind in the use of technology and are they are not familiar with the workings of the Banks computer systems as described in question 2 above.
 

7. Why you Should use a ForeclosureBlvd.com Approved Agent?    

We have found that Buying Agents that quotes their purchasing strategies vs. years in the industry experience will provide a much better service to buyers. One thing to look for in evaluating whether a Buying Agents is technologically up-to-date is to check to see if the agent has a portable laptop or printer on them or in their vehicle. All Agents that list properties on our website are ForeclosureBlvd.com Approved Agent with advanced knowledge of today's foreclosure market and buying strategies.  

In today's market, the most advanced agents can be 5 minutes too late in submitting an offer or 5 minutes too late in getting the best pricing. Generally, from the time that a buyer decides to put in an offer on a house to the offer is written up and submitted to the seller of a property take approximately 1-1.5 days after the property is viewed. By typing up and printing out an offer at the property, the buying agent can submit the offer to the selling agency within 15-45 minutes after viewing the property instead of having to go back to the office to type and email mailing the offer to you. Then once you receive it, unless you have a home fax you will have to stop by a local Kinko's and pay 20 cents per page to fax your signed offer back to your agent. Most likely several hours have passed and by the time your agents submits your offer it will fall within the typical 1-1.5 day period. So, all of the hours, days and sometimes months that you've spent finding that perfect bank owned property maybe fruitless because another agent who viewed the property with his/her clients an hour after you was able to get their offer in within 15 minutes after seeing the property. This is another reason why you should always have a pre-approval letter before you start shopping as it could take up to 48 hours for a lender to issue a complete pre-approval letter.  

8. Ask an Agent to reveal their purchasing strategies.

We have found that most Agents have one buying strategy. Which is get buyer, find a house, submit an offer, and see what happens. This is a defensive out of date approach approach will cost the buyer in the end. The truth is that in today's market, top Buying Agents should have at least 2-5 purchasing strategies that would benefit their buyers. A few examples of buying strategies include shopping for a home on a weekday, getting and offer in within 45 minutes (including driving time) after a client has seen a property.

9. Why you should never drive around looking for a Home, use free ForeclosureBlvd.com alerts instead!

Many buyer's are under the impression based on what the news reports that the real market is doing bad. This is only half of the truth however. The whole truth is, that home sales listed by owner's selling their homes are down, which does not apply to bank owned properties.

Bank owned properties on the other hand in most states are up some by 70%.  In some states there are not enough hot bank owned properties to satisfy buying needs. Top bank owed offices with typically receive 500-1,000 calls a day and 50-100 offers a day on their properties with their fax machines having a 30-60 minute wait time. We have heard of some hot bank owned properties having up to 30 offers on the first day that a property has hit the market. If you are driving around looking for a home, it's equivalent to showing up to an after Thanksgiving Sale three hours late when others have been camping out overnight. Not only will the advertised special be sold, but you will have to pay full price and over for the left over’s.

A truly good buying agent will have a good ideal of the property you are looking for in your first conversation. They will use the first property that you call on to gauge your style, look, price range, area that you are looking in. With their experience, they will make recommendations of additional areas and search criteria for you to get you in position when your dream home or perfect investment property becomes available.

10. How to get repairs covered without asking?

Bank owned properties are close to 99% percent of home purchases in today's market. Many buyers walk through a house thinking that will have to pay for repairs out of their pocket. However, if a buyer is using FHA "Government Financing" in your purchase contract is a check box which indicates FHA financing. This means that if the Seller accepts your offer, they are required to bring the property up to FHA standards or providing a buyer with a cash credit for repairs.

11. How the Green Zone can save you 10-20% off of the original asking price?

There is are two specific times in a listing period that are used to get the best pricing on a property both periods. The first is within the first 24 hours of a listing and second is after a property has fallen out of escrow.
All buying tips and strategies are listed above "Top Secret strategies" are used daily

by our ForeclosureBlvd.com agents. In addition to the use of our strategies agents must ask themselves two questions before endorsing a property: 1) "Would I Buy This Property for Myself or a Close Family Member"  2) "Would I Pay this Price for this Home for Myself or my Close Family Member. Only after answering these two questioned as a "Yes" are they required to endorse a property purchase.
 
An example of a purchase that did not pass the "Yes" test, was a 2002 3,000 square feet home with an unusually deep pool (12 feet in all areas). Since the buyer had 5 children under the age of 13, our Buying Agent advised the Buyer not to submit an offer and to keep looking. Although most other agents would not pass up the opportunity for a sale, our Buyer Agents have ethic guideline that they must adhere to remain approved.

On average working with our Approved Agents can save our Buyers between 5-20% off of a purchase then working with any other Agent or Agency. This has been especially tested and proven over again and especially applies to internal properties and outside offices. If you would like the opportunity to work with an Approved Buying Agent in your area please click on the following link click here or call at 866-603-1112 for a consultation.

Recent Approved ForeclosureBlvd.com Agent Purchases:

$ 415,000 Four Plex - $2,000 a Month Positive Cash Flow
$ 255,000 2002 Single Family Home - $150,000 Below Foreclosure Market Value/$500 a Month Positive Cash Flow
$ 430,000 2007 Single Family Home - $25,000 Credit Back From the Seller