Reo's are still around

I get a lot of traffice on my website http://www.reori.com/. This tells me that many people are still searching for REO's in Rhode Island.
I have a few REO listings right now, one is a HUD home...You can go straight to http://www.hudhomestore.com/ and search all the HUD homes across the country. You will need a HUD Broker to bid and you can search for one right on the site.
Bank of America has recently dropped their hold on Bank owned properties, so I know we will be seeing quite a few of those here in RI.
Short Sales have been the general push lately. For those who do not know what a Short Sale is, a quick explanation is that if you are "upside down" in your home, meaning you can no longer afford to pay your mortgage due to illness, loss of job, etc, and you are expecting to be foreclosed upon, you might want to put your home on the market at a Short Sale.  What this does is brings in a buyer and you can then ask the bank to accept a lower amount on what is owed. These can be great deals for buyers willing to wait and for Sellers, it gives an opportunity to avoid an actual foreclosure.
A good Realtor and a good Attorney will guide you through this very upsetting and difficult time.

So why aren't short sales considered REO's. REO is short for Real Estate Owned and is used mostly by banks that have foreclosed and now own a property due to unpaid mortgage.
A short sale is still legally owned by the Seller, you!  Yet, if you are behind in your payments and have no way of paying the full mortgage, then the Bank will have the final decision on what they will take for a price.

This may explain why you will see homes on the market for incredibly low prices!  Some Realtors will put the lisiting out there very low to attract buyers, however, the bank is still the deciding factor, and in most cases are not going to take an offer that is much below appraisal.  

Always remember, unless you are paying cash, your bank is going to want to appraise a home before they hand over the money, so the home you are interested in needs to be a fair market value.

Rhode Island's latest market in Real Estate

In the first quarter of 2011, the market has continued to waver. The bank owned homes that once flooded the market are now far less than the Short Sales. If you don't know what a short sale is, let me explain.

When someone is either already behind on their mortgage or about to get behind, due to personal problems, ie sickness, hospitalization, loss of employment, etc. then the bank that owns the mortgage is going to start looking to foreclose. The home owners credit is going to slide, hugely.

By selling his/her home at short sale, it means they are hoping that the bank will take a lesser amount than is owed on the mortgage.

This does not mean the homeowner will NOT still have bad credit, but it (in many cases) will be a shorter time to wait to be able to buy a home again.

There are loads of short sales on the market, and they tend to take a long time to close, sometimes with the banks foreclosing anyway, however, some of these short sales are excellent buys if you have the time.

It won't be this way forever. Summer of 2011 will probably bring a few more foreclosures, but the circle will continue and eventually, the price of homes are going to start creeping back up, along with the interest rate.

Bank owned homes, Short Sales, RI market update

It's been some time since I last posted on this blog. The reason is I have been very busy with REO properties! There has been a change, here in RI with these properties. One big change is how fast they are selling! We no longer have the opportunity to browse around and set appts for a week after these show up on the market. Now there are investors and with the new tax credit, numerous first time buyers, all out there looking for a deal.
And there are many deals to be had, if you or someone you know has a qualified contractor to update, many of these homes, need minimal updating. However, if you are a first time buyer and you are using an FHA loan, you definately need to look at homes that are less than what you originally wanted to borrow, because now, you will need an additional sum to get these homes up to par. Even short sales are showing evidence of deterioration. I have found that when people are losing their homes, the original pride of ownership no longer exists. These homes are then either vacated or just not kept up. A short sale also takes forever to get an answer (in my experience). In the time that you are waiting for your offer to be accepted, the price of the home has since gone down. So you need to be very astute when putting in your offer.
Hopefully REO's will not dominate the Rhode Island market for too much longer, but that also means that the lower pricing will also be gone.
As I state in the first paragraph, right now many of these homes are going into highest and best offers and many are sold before print! You definitely need to work with someone who will monitor the market for you. But, if you are patient and have the help and commitment of a good Realtor, you can prevail in these tough economic times! Good luck in your house hunting!

Bank Foreclosures in Rhode Island the real story

I am going to start this blog with the events that lead up to foreclosures. Let's start at the very beginning. You have found that great new home and have qualified for a mortgage. You cannot wait to get into the house and start figuring out how you can furnish it. You decided on an Arm mortgage or something similar because you wanted to free up your cash to do other things. You figured you would refinance later and get a fixed mortgage. Meanwhile, you happily went out and bought all those new things you needed for your new home. Maybe you became ill or lost your job or the price of gas went up so high you could barely afford your supposedly low payments. Fill in your reason. Whatever the situation, you have found that in order to eat, you could not afford to pay that mortgage. Meanwhile, you begin noticing that the homes around you are either not selling, or if they are, they are selling for so much less than you thought they would. You are getting a little scared. You are afraid to call your mortgage company because you have heard so many horror stories that you figure you will just stay under the radar and next month will be better. Well, next month arrives and now you owe two months and you still do not have a viable way of paying it. You keep putting off the inevitable until you eventually start getting notices and phone calls from the bank. Then you notice your great home is up for Auction in the newspaper! This is how homes are foreclosed. Of course, this is only one scenario, there are many different ways this can come about. After the auction, you don't know where to go, your credit is shot, you no longer own the home and you see that the Bank has bought your home. After a couple of months a Realtor will arrive and tell you he/she is representing the bank that bought your home and it's time for you to move. You may or may not be offered a months rent to get everything out and clean the home before you leave. Meanwhile, just in case you decide not to accept that offer, there is a lawyer starting eviction proceedings. Once these proceedings get going, there's simply nothing else you can do. If you do not move on, someone will arrive at your home, give you an hour or so to get everything out and change the locks. You are now out on the street! My next post will discuss "how did this happen to me?"

In the interest of REO properties in Rhode Island

It's a little late and I am just starting up this blog. Some of my thoughts are for posting REO listings, advertising companies who are involved with them. Discussing the Real Estate market in Rhode Island, etc. Tune in...