Hi, newbie here.
I have been looking at some REO properties in N. Calif. listed by realtors, and some appear to be quite good deals. Looking on Zillow, and comparing the prices with recent comparable sales, some of these properties appear to me to be at 60% of ARV minus repairs.
Are these at all candidates for bird-dogging/wholesaling, or am I probably mis-reading the market or mis-estimating the repairs? Or is this just a sign of the times, and the REAL deals are even deeper?
One thing that I have noticed is that ‘recent sales’ are many times the ‘sale price’ that the bank takes the property back for. If the bank is selling the property for a loss, then this isn’t a true comp. There is a site called Propertyshark.com that lets you look up real estate records I’m not sure if it’ll let you look up records/deeds for the county that you are looking in but I have used it to check records in L.A county.
You really have to get a sense of the local market and true comps before you can determine if these are good deals. Also repairs can vary widely from property to property. One might need $5k, and the other might need $50,000.
Redfin.com is also pretty good although I don’t know if it covers all of N Calif , i know SF/Bay Area for sure. You can see MLS listings for sale and also sales history of the properties as well and recent sales of comparable properties.
Good luck
Be careful of going of Zillow or other Internet sites that report estimated values. They work off a variety of variables, and are often well of the correct Fair Market Value of a place. This is especially true if it is reporting in an area with a number of relatively small neighborhoods within a single zip code that have highly variable prices from one street to another.
You really have to drive the areas and look at the houses to get a true idea of the values. It is a good starting place, though.
you can wholesale them using an option agreement. do your due dilligence first to ensure that the value is what you think it is, and don’t approach the realtor / seller without having a pre qualified buyer interested in the area and type of house first.
One last thing, for listed houses, all communications must go thru the realtor. If you try to go around her, you’ll be sorry.