Everyone assumes that the banks are “motivated” to sell these properties and reduce their toxic inventory. Truth is that many of the banks are not overly motivated to sell these properties. The big banks like One West and Bank of America that received funds from the Government during the bailout have a Shared Loss Agreement In place with the Government ( read about it here) Basically this agreement says that “IF” the banks foreclose on a property the Government will repay the banks 80% of their loss and cover any foreclosure expenses. Since the banks only paid 70% of loan value for these properties they are automatically making 10% profit if they foreclose and the Government covered all of the foreclosure expenses. This said the banks have already received their investment for the property plus 10% profit. Now these banks can re-sell the property and make a double profit. This means that though the big banks will take a lower negotiated price for the property they have actually already made their money back and are not overly motivated to accept a low ball offer. Don’t get me wrong they would like to sell these properties since every day they hold them it eats into their bailout profit but don’t expect a killer deal with the big banks.

This is why it is more profitable to negotiate REO properties with local banks who have not received the Shared Loss Agreement Insurance. These banks have real “Toxic Assets” on their books that they need to liquidate. Therefore the local banks are more flexible and easier to negotiate the price of a property. I have gotten some killer deals with the smaller community banks.

How To Negotiate an REO Property with a local bank

When you find an REO property for sale go and do a complete inspection of the property. Write down all of the things that need repair and come up with a repair estimate. Take pictures of any damage, mold, foundation issues or termite damage in the property. These two things are your negotiating tools so make it good. Come up with a repair estimate.

Research the ARV ( After Repair Value) on sites like Zillow or Total View Real Estate or have your Agent give you a market analysis of the property. Once you get the ARV of the property deduct some for a fast sale price. Ex. If the ARV is $100,000 then your quick sell price needs to be $90,000 to stay below the average selling price making your property more appealing to buyers. Your discounted ARV is the retail value of the property that you will use for negotiating with the bank.

Once you have all of your research in place it’s time to make an offer. Start with your quick sell ARV, subtract your rehab cost, holding cost and realtor commission (6%) if you are going to flip the property and then subtract your profit ( I use a 30% profit base). Ex.

$90,000 (quick sell ARV) minus $10,000 rehab minus holding cost and realtor commission $3,500.00 minus %30 $27,000 = $49,500 offer

When you call the bank try to build a realtionship before you place your offer. Tell the representative that you are a cash buyer and you are looking to buy several REO properties over the next 6 months. Explain to them that you can close quickly if the price is right. Get the name and extension of the person you are speaking to and ask them for their email address so you can send them a written offer on the property. I like to send written offers this way there is a record of all communications on a property. Placing offers over the phone leaves to much margin for error especially if the representative neglects to record your offer correctly it could hinder your chances of getting a great deal.

When submitting your offer put as much motivational wording as possible…

Dear ?

Below is my offer for ?

As I stated I am a cash buyer and can close quickly. My offer for the property is based on a  my inspection and market analysis of the property.

My offer $49,500, I can close in 30 days.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions at ###- ###- ####. Also please send me a list of REO properties that your bank has available in this market area as I am looking to purchase several properties over the next 6 months.

Sincerely,

Carol Stinson

I keep my offers simple and I don’t send my pictures until the bank counters my offer. If I am not happy with the counter I will send the pictures back to validate my low offer. Stick to your offer price as you know this is the price that you need to be at to make a profit. You have run your numbers and know where you need to be.  Make sure all of your communication is documented in an email. This way if the bank is not willing to negotiate at your price you can go back to the email in a few weeks and send an email seeing if the property is still available and if the bank is ready to accept your offer. Many times you can get the bank to accept your offer on a follow up email after they have had the property in their inventory a little longer. This property costs them money on maintenance every day that they still have it. So stay committed to follow up. If the property is no longer available when you send your follow up email ask what they do have available in your market. Then start your offer process all over again on new properties. Sooner or later you will get a great deal from this bank!

I like to let banks know I am still buying by sending monthly emails to the representative asking if they have received any new properties. After a while the representative will start to automatically send you properties as they come available.

Good luck and keep pushing forward!

However just because banks are forbidden to list these properties for sale does not mean they are not for sale. The bank is even more motivated to sell these properties since they are not listed thus not getting any exposure to potential buyers. Lets face it the banks are in the business of lending money not holding properties. The more properties that sit toxic in their inventory the less money they can lend. So their motivation level to sell these properties is high. A motivated seller equals a great deal every time!

What does this mean to a wholesaler? It means a harvest of great Deals!

Drive your neighborhood and search for properties that are vacant. Keep an eye out for the ones that have no real estate sign in the yard but do have stickers or papers in the window. This is the bank’s paperwork that states the property has been winterized etc… and gives you the name of the bank. Find the number to that bank and call them. Explain that you are a cash buyer and you purchase distressed properties in that area. Tell them you may be interested in making them an offer on that property if you can get in to inspect it and see what it needs. Ask the bank for the lock box code. Take your potential buyer with you to look at the property and let him make you an offer to give to the bank. Call the bank back and make them an offer after you have deducted your fee. For example if the buyer made an offer of $50,000 subtract $10,000 for yourself and offer the bank $40,000 for the property.

Trust me the bank is going to be excited that you called and will be willing to work with you to get the property off of their hands. Once you and the bank agree on a price ask them to email you a purchase contract in the name of your buyer. Have your buyer sign it and you send it back to the bank. You will need to have another agreement in place with your buyer to receive your fee since the bank will not allow an assignment or double close on the property. Banks do not like it when wholesalers make more money than they do on a property and will not entertain any contracts pertaining to your fee.

I challenge you to see for yourself how plentiful this inventory is. Drive your neighborhood today and take an inventory of all of the vacant properties that are bank owned and not on the market. This is shadow inventory my friend and it could put thousands in your pocket if you learn to leverage it.

You could sort through your emails every time you have property leads in a particular state and see what buyers you have in that state but this is very time consuming. Maybe you do not have a National list but have a local list of buyers that you work with. Each time you get a property lead you send them an email with the information right? Maybe you attach some pictures and put a small amount of information on the property lead in the body of the email, click bcc and add your buyer’s email addresses and click send. What are the chances that your email gets opened? If it does get opened does it speak to your buyer in a way that will make him call you immediately regarding your property lead? (continued below)

I decided that I wanted to be more effective with my email marketing. I wanted to present property leads that were set apart from the many property leads that my buyers received every day. I wanted to organize my buyers and be much more effective when it came to property lead presentation. I wanted to sell deals and in order to do that I had to have my email shout BUY ME to my buyers! That is when I found constant contact

Constant Contact is a low cost effective way to send my property lead information to all of my buyers at one time. Once I have a property under contract I use Constant Contact to get the word out to my buyers. I create a detailed description of my property with pictures in Constant Contact and it is blasted out to all of my buyers at one time. I can even schedule follow up details reminding my buyers of my great property deal to be delivered a few days after my initial email blast. I create and send my property information and then schedule a follow up all at the same time. Then I step back and allow Constant Contact to do all the marketing work.

Constant Contact has been a great asset to my wholesaling success and I wanted to share it with you. You can sign up for a 60 DAY FREE TRIAL of Constant Contact below to see how well it works for you. I guarantee you are going to love it!!

These methods are effective but I wanted a way that I could drive buyers to my website and allow them to opt into my email buyers list at the same time. I wanted to put my buyers list building on autopilot while I was advertising my properties for sale. A way to get buyers to look at my properties for sale and join my buyers list at the same time. That is when I found Awebber. This amazing program not only provides customized website sign up forms that I can put on my website (like the one I have to the right of this page) it enables me to collect and manage subscribers, send email news letters and schedule an auto responder that will lead a buyer to my properties for sale once they sign up. (continued below)

Awebber has enabled me to build my buyers list to over 7,000 buyers nation wide. Through the customized sign up forms that I create in Awebber I have been effectively adding buyers to my list every day without much effort on my part. I create the sign up form once, place it on my website and focus on driving traffic to me website. It’s that simple.

Try the Awebber Test Drive FREE below and see for yourself how effective Awebber can be in putting your buyers list building on autopilot. It worked for me and I know it is going to work for you!

This article was published about me on the front page of my local paper Courierpost.com. I wanted to share it with all of you. Hope it inspires you!! If I can do this so can you!

Recession can’t stop entrepreneurial spirit
12:39 AM, Apr. 3, 2011 |

In a home market buffeted by foreclosures, Carol Stinson has found a way to turn misery into money.

She is a wholesaler, an entrepreneur who finds distressed properties for investors at bargain prices.

“We are helping people who can’t bear the burden of trying to hang onto their homes any longer,” she says. “We deal with the banks and make the problem go away.”

In the past year, Stinson has begun buying houses herself, fixing up properties and selling them at below-market rates in order to generate a quick sale.

She was broke, raising seven children and in foreclosure herself in 2008 when she read “Be A Real Estate Millionaire,” a book about wholesaling, a system in which a third-party bird dogs real estate for buyers.

“I was inspired, excited, energized,” she says. “I found a way to make money and do something good for my family.”

Stinson deals in short sales, in which the bank agrees to accept less than the amount owed on the mortgage in order to get the property off the books. In the past two and a half years, the pert, 43-year-old redhead has wholesaled more than 50 bank-owned properties.

Stinson doesn’t expect the pipeline of homes to run dry any time soon. New Jersey has the nation’s largest shadow inventory, meaning the supply of foreclosed properties that banks release in strategic numbers to avoid flooding the market.

CoreLogic, which gathers property statistics, estimates that inventory will take 51 months to sell. The normal sell rate is five to six months, according to PNC economist Robert Dye.

“That is a tremendous inventory overhang,” Dye says. “And when those homes do sell, it will be at a discount of 30 to 35 percent, compared to homes that are not in foreclosure.”

Still, banks aren’t giving away houses, says Mike Eagan, who specializes in short sales at the RE/MAX office in Turnersville. In the past four years, he has handled more than 250 short sales, an average of one a week.

“My sellers are underwater and need someone to help them,” he explains. “My buyers will get a bargain but they won’t get a fire-sale price.”
The exception is homes that are damaged.

“Mold, kitchen stripped out, leaky roof,” Eagan says. “If it’s in horrible condition, the buyer can’t get a mortgage.”

Stinson’s stock in trade is seeing beyond the mess and identifying properties investors can buy for cash, rehab and flip. In the last year, she and a partner, real estate broker Lou Pinto of Collingswood, have purchased three properties of their own and are looking for more.

“We love termites and mold,” Stinson says.

“Cat pee, too,” Pinto adds. “They are the easiest fixes.”

There are only two renovation hurdles they won’t take a run at: unsound foundations and underground oil tanks.

Their most recent buy is a rancher built in the 1960s near Timber Lakes in Williamstown. The elderly owners had fallen deep into debt due to medical expenses.

“You have motivation to sell on everyone’s part,” Pinto says. “Motivation on the part of the bank and motivation on the part of the homeowner.”

The partners bought the house for $40,000. Stinson figures she can put on a roof, install a larger kitchen, replace the bathroom and turn a family room into a third bedroom for about $30,000.

She hopes to spark a quick sale by listing the property for $149,900, well below the anticipated appraisal price of $169,000.

“It’s about buying low and selling low,” she says. “Buyers want a cushion so they won’t go underwater if the market drops.”

The previous owners are now in a one-bedroom apartment in an assisted-living community. Stinson boxed up their family photos and the kids’ high school diplomas and delivered them to the couple’s new home.

“They are not well and packing was difficult for them,” she says. “I couldn’t bear to throw away these things that might have sentimental meaning to them.”

To renovate the house, she tapped into tradespeople who work with her husband, a contractor. She also sent her two oldest sons to school, one to train as an electrician, the other to learn HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning.)

“This is our new family business,” she says.

For more than 20 years, Stinson was a homemaker. Often, the family lived paycheck to paycheck.

Then the bottom fell out of the housing market. Stinson’s husband had little work. They soon fell behind on the payments on the house in Williamstown they share with seven children, who range in age from 24 to 4.

The five oldest are the Stinsons’ children; the two youngest are their grandchildren.

Stinson had no formal training in real estate. What she did have was time on her hands and the willingness to devote long hours to identifying properties for investors who were busy rehabbing houses or making money in small businesses to funnel into real estate.

She scoured Craig’s list looking for leads. She joined an investment club. She responded to “We Buy Homes” flyers posted on telephone poles.