My list does come from the title company, which is about two weeks behind actual recordings of the notices.
How can you benefit?
1. You can contact the owners to see if you can buy direct, but it is very time-consuming. My guess is that 99 out of 100 are over-encumbered.
If the sellers were cooperative, you’d still have to pull off a short sale, which is certainly possible. But you’d be surprised how much the sellers are enjoying their free rent – and want it to continue!
2. If you’re a cash buyer, you can purchase at the trustee sale, but you don’t get title insurance or a chance to inspect the property. If occupied, you have to evict as well.
3. Knowing these properties are likely to be REOs some day can both help you prepare for them. You may end up being a bidder once they hit the open market, or at least know these are coming when you see a new listing down the street. If you’ve determined that the future REO is worth X, and the new listing is X + 10% or more, then you’ll know that the new listing may be optimistic. Other buyers might jump in early and regret it a few months later when the REO lists for less.
4. Most REO listing agents are plastering their name all over their assigned properties before they hit the open market. If you wanted to go direct to the LA, know that you won’t be getting much, if any, price break on the house, but you might get priority over other bidders in a bidding war.
No matter how you go about it, finding – and closing – a great deal is difficult and time-consuming. Getting good help makes it easier, but you’ll need some luck too!
