Some of the links don’t work as good as they did back then. Riverside county no longer gives out as much personal info and foreclosure sites give out less free info than they did. I’m sure there are ways now, I just don’t care as much, as a last resort, these public records are available in person at the county recorders office wherever the property is located.
As to BG’s comment about listing agents not caring about you because they represent the owner. That is true, that is important in every transaction except the “dump them in a day reo’s” where a buyers agent can slow you down and trip you up. Now that I saw the part about your realtor asking for a 45 day escrow, that is probably the reason you lost and the fact that she was slow/late is another reason, two strikes right there. Get a new realtor.
When my deal went down, I contacted both SDR and sdr and was going to have them do my deal but the distance was an issue as they do not work up here much and I needed them to be here in 5 minutes so I went straight for the listing agent and since that particular agent couldn’t technically represent me, I used the partner/friend of the actual listing agent at a pre negotiated 1% comission. Normally buyers don’t haggle with their agent, but in the case of these “best net offer” scenarios, your agent’s comission is coming out of your net offer so you are actually paying it. I think 1% is fair if I found it, I did all the work, all they have to do is write the contract and I tell them exactly what to write. It literally took 20 minutes. Did they kick some money back to the listing agent, are they related or friends with them, did the listng agent owe them a favor because the reverse happened the week before. I don’t know and I don’t care, but I had gotten the short end of the stick, like you and it happened a half dozen times because I was going only for distressed homes.
If I was in SD, I would use sd or SD, because it was a little nerve wracking with nobody actually on my side. But I’ve met both of them in person, drank with them and trust them, they think like me. If you look at what SDR wrote, most realtors don’t understand what he explained, that the more they try to protect your interests, the more they screw you out of the house. If they try and protect you, they are dooming you, in this type of scenario only, any sign of resistance or reservation, no soup for you.
I will say that both SD and sd were silent advisors to me through the process, I got advice from both on the many properties i failed to get, so I owe them their props. But I was bargain hunting, I was looking for a lucky break and had I used them with all the previous failures, they would have put in hundreds of hours of work before ever getting paid, so it’s probably better they are far away. I would have drove them nuts. Back then, in 2008, short sales were a mess, banks almost never went through with them, repos were unorginized and very few realtors could wrap their heads aroung this new paradigm. It’s a bit of a different ball game today so only some of what I wrote two years ago is applicable, good luck.
