This goes out to those of you who make a lot of offers on RE using a realtor. In addition, I have had some realtor’s tell me my offers are to low and not practical. One realtor said that she didn’t like getting laughed at by my offers.
I am looking at trying to find a realtor that will write my offers. My concern is that I will be offering 65-70% of market value for these properties. I realize that I will be making a lot of offers and don’t want to waist the time of the realtor.
I am trying to get an idea of how many offers some of you make in a week or a month. I would also like to know what your working relationship is with your realtor is?
One idea is to get the listing agent to make the offer. Go to Realtor.com and find the deals and contact the listing agent and send them the offer directly. Get the forms and fill them out yourself. You can make as many as your hand can fill out in a day that way. With numbers like that you will hook a good deal every now and then.
I got lucky with my realtor. He helped me sell a house last year that wasn’t moving, and from there we built a relationship. We look at 3-5 REO’s a week and I make about 1 offer per week. REO’s usually sell for around 70% of the listing price, so there are deals to be done this way. I just picked one up for 24, 11 in repairs, sell for 65. I pre signed 10 or so offer sheets so when we look at a house, I do the numbers and then tell him what to offer and he just fills in a pre signed sheet. Good luck!
If you’re trying to invest in the DC area, you are probably going to get laughed at a lot. House are seling over list price and in days. The market there is too hot for decent investing (in my opinion). That’s part of the reason that I left the area.
There are some inner city properties that you could maybe get decent prices on and then rehab.
Most list with Realtors. Some companies track REO like Foreclosure.com and Realtytrac and Buybankhomes.com as well. Some are sold at auctions and some banks sell themselves on their websites. A lot also go to HUD directly if they insured the loans.
MdEProp,
I’m in Maryland and a newbie like you - email me if you have questions. I’d be happy to help any way I can. It IS frustrating when you are in a market like this so I can sympathize. All the posts on here are great - and everyone is very helpful. They keep me going when I get down. I want to be able to consider BUYING AN ISLAND, as one specific poster here is now considering, one of these days!
Immy
We did a lot of calling around till we found a broker that would write offers for us. Everyone said “it can’t be done”. Well, we did it and the broker we worked with said she learned a thing or two from us.
We got an REO and short sale through this broker. You could read my blog below for further details. Good luck on your search.
Immy, I am so glad that somebody here can sympathize how I feel in this hot MD market. I was down a couple of days ago, and this forum helped me keep moving forward. I will email you with questinos, and I hope to see on this forum often.
Diane, I will be reading your blog right after I post this. Thank you for sharing!
I have not been told that they get laughed at by passing on my low offers, but I did have one tell me that an offer I was making was going to insult the seller. I told her basically that there are no tears in real estate, I told her that this was business, and my offer was not frivilous or emotional, it was based on the fix up cost and holding costs and the price I would eventually be able to sell it for. I told her this was not a retail offer. If the seller wants to move the house in 2 weeks this is their price, if they want to hold on with a holding cost of $1000 per month then they can hope for better. They turned down my offer 4 months ago and the house is still on the market.
