Orlando Real Estate

The title of this post sounds like banks are just heartless corporate giants. Oh yeah, they are. The point I am trying to make though is that they generally do not have a specific motivation to sell any one particular property. I have heard time and again from prospective buyers, their frustration with negotiating with the banks (including Freddie and Fannie). One REO agent I know says that she tells buyers and their agents that their offer is just a file on someone's desk. When you submit an offer on one of these bank owned properties the bank's agent will submit the terms of the offer or offers on some type of offer management system. The representative at the bank may be managing dozens or hundreds of properties, and they will receive a notice or task that there are offers to consider.

I just imagine this huge inbox that may have multiple offers on many properties. Ever wonder why banks don't negotiate? They just ask for highest and best, then they either accept an offer that meets their guidelines or they reject the offer. They just are not able to get into negotiations on each of the properties they are managing. If that representative gets slammed with offers on a lot of properties at once, you may have to wait. Last year, my customer and I waited six weeks for Fannie Mae to reject her offer. Six weeks is a pretty good indicator that you need to improve your system or hire more people to manage the process. We did not really wait of course, we looked for other homes. She actually ended up purchasing another Fannie Mae property and had an answer in a couple of days. I believe the buyers I have represented purchasing foreclosures the last few years have gotten some great deals, but many times we had to just wait for our file to rise to the top of the pile on the desk.

David Welch, Orlando Real Estate Blog