You may not be aware that buying an REO, a bank owned property, is quite a different process then buying a property the old fashioned way, and it is extremely important that your Realtor understands the difference. Let me tell you why if your Realtor doesn\’t know the vast difference between the two, how it can cost you a lot of money, and possibly cause you to all together lose your property.
Banks hold all the cards in a bank owned transaction. They don\’t have disclosure requirements and set all the rules. They usually make the buyer sign an addendum that basically takes away most of the buyers protections and puts the ball squarely in the banks court.
The bank will set a timeline that they demand you stay on top of, or they will enforce consequences on you. The odd thing is that they can take all the time they need before they deliver any type of response to you. Almost a month ago, I was approved and have been holding money in escrow for a bank owned property. It took the bank three weeks into the thirty-day period before they even opened my escrow.
We didn\’t even receive a copy of the contract or addendum until we were already three weeks in. It just so happens that the addendum we had signed way back at the beginning of the process had a clause that we pay $100 per day per diem for every day that went past the first thirty days.
Then they did nothing on time to make it possible for us to make the deadline. As many of you know, the majority of short sales do not close successfully. This is usually due to the listing agent not knowing how to do them, but taking the listing anyways. If the listing agent doesn\’t put in all the work ahead of time, a short sale is a nightmare. REO\’s can be the same. In this case, the listing agent assured me that he had done all the footwork and the bank was ready to move.
Article submitter Allen Fulton has much experience shopping Big Bear, CA foreclosures and Big Bear, CA houses in general. Check out his other articles on the internet.
Tags: bank owned property, big bear, home buying, home for sale, house for sale, luxury homes, new homes, property, property listings, real estate, reo, resort homes, single family homes, travel, vacation homes
