I went driving for dollars this weekend and found about 30 vacant houses. I would like to contact the owners and see about wholesaling these houses. Most of them had notices on the doors though. Some notices were just telling that the house had been winterized, some said which utilities were turned of, some said that the house was going up for tax auction. I even found one that looked like a mail carrier left that said house is vacant do not deliver here. Several mentioned BAC services. My question is what do all these notices mean? With these notices in place can I still deal with the homeowner or are these REO’s?
The notices about winterization most likely means they are REOs. The banks take back the houses, change the locks, and winterize them to prevent further damage. Some houses get inspected every so often by an agent too. The note from the mail carrier could mean anything. Someone could have moved out, forwarded the mail, and the carrier put a not there that the property is vacant. I’ve had mail carriers put a little sticky note in the mailbox at our rental houses when they’re vacant.
My bird dogs are sending me a lot of vacant houses, many are foreclosures, but a goood chunk of them are FSBO’s and a few out of those are motivated sellers.
It’s interesting, some of these owners want full value or more for these boarded up junkers.
So would you guys recommend sending yellow letters to these owners? Seems to me it would be pointless if they are already bank owned.
Bank owned is bank owned. The individuals are no longer in the picture legally as the owners and would therefore be a waste of your time. You can talk to the banks. Some banks handle the REOs on their own. Others will list them with an agent on the MLS just like any other property on there. I seen some banks be really reasonable about selling the houses while other ones wanted full market price even though the house needed lots of work.
Justin,
So you think that a bank would do business with a wholesaler if he can show them ways that they can get off of these properties? Never really messed with bank owned homes, but maybe a little thinking out of the box can get some deals under contract. Especially if you sell a home or two fast for them. :cool
Man you would be surprised. Never throw away these leads, may of theses guys come down on there price when they see all they are doing is paying taxes on the home and letting it sit. Follow up with these guys every month.