Selling Poinciana One Property at a Time.: December 2010

Hi folks. Over the last couple of weeks I have sold 3 houses in Poinciana Florida to one of my investor buyers. A few days ago they called needing to get in one of the houses to do some measurements. They needed in ASAP. Now since they hadn't even closed on the house yet I asked them why there was a rush.

The answer was that they found a guy on Craigslist who was being foreclosed on and he was having a sale that day. He was selling everything. Doors, fixtures, switch covers, cabinet knobs, toilets, sinks, vanities, kitchen cabinets, counter tops, HVAC system, windows, carpet.....EVERYTHING!! If it could be removed it was for sale.

I wonder what his lien holders would think about this? 

I wonder if he'll knock holes in the walls on the way out?

And the funny thing is that if you ask him I'm sure he'll say he's a victim. When what he really is is a thief. What say you?

Are you facing foreclosure in Florida?

Well my answer is easy.....practical. And here's why based on a real life example from this week.

REOs (foreclosures) in my area of Poinciana Florida make up 25% of the inventory of homes for sale but 60% of the closed transactions (last 90 days)!! What that means is that REOs are by far the best deals and are flying off the shelves. They also sell for 100% of the asking price.

The foreclosure market in Poinciana Florida is very, very competitive. Most of these foreclosures are being bought by Investors looking for good rental properties. On average they are able to buy a 3 bedroom 2 bath home with 1800 sq ft of living space and less than 10 years old.

These houses rent for $800 to $900 per month. And can be bought for an average of $64,000. If you do the math you'll see these are excellent investments.

Because these Poinciana properties are such great investments they are very hard to get under contract. It's a feeding frenzy of cash buyers looking for a deal. Taking the time to look at every property and then submitting offers on one house at a time is basically just a recipe for failure.

So......we have our Investors make offers on multiple properties at the same time. Usually sight unseen. The risk is in the timing. You have to make sure your buyer doesn't end up with more properties under contract than they want to purchase. Of course if they do they can always use the inspection contingency to get out of the deal. The  real risk is that you as an agent can ruin your reputation amongst your peers. You don't want to get a reputation as the agent who cancels deals.

To avoid this you have to be able to really monitor the negotiations and time perfectly when the buyer is going to withdraw their offer(s). It can be tricky but once you get the hang of it it's just a system like anything else in our business. These REO properties normally have multiple offers anyway so the seller is not left high and dry. They just negotiate one of their other offers.

This past week I used this technique with one of my investors. We made offers on 17 properties. The Investor wanted to buy 2. My timing was slightly off and they ended up with 3 accepted offers. After discussing this with my Investor their solution was to just go ahead and purchase all 3 of them!! I forgot to mention that benefit. Sometimes you end up with more. I like that.

So what do you think? Risky? Practical?

If you liked this article then you'll want to read these:

Buyers Making Multiple Offers. What the........................?

My Buyer only wants one house. Why make 14 offers?

Are you facing foreclosure in Florida?

Trying to buy a cheap REO (foreclosure) in Poinciana FL is hard work!!

Hi Help Me Bi,

Still no fully accepted offers. Here's where your offers stand as of today

1018 Tower. You agreed to the counter offer of $57,900 to close by 12/17/10. I sent the agent the revised paper work on 11-24. Yesterday I sent her an email looking for an update. I have not heard back. We should just be waiting on bank addenda to sign and return.

1006 New Orleans. Your offer was increased to $53,000 and submitted on 11-30. No response back yet.

448 Club Ct. Your offer was increased to $61,000 on 11-30. Still waiting on a response.

774 Fox Squirrel. Offer was submitted on 11-27. They confirmed receipt on 11-29. Waiting on a response.

603 Tiger. Taken off the market

707 Bluebird. SOLD

106 Bahamas SOLD

825 Alibi. Day 14 on the market. They will now look at investor offers if you want to make one.

553 Hummer. Day 21 on the market. They will now look at investor offers.

Let's blast another batch of offers on Monday. Maybe we'll get lucky next week!!

Are you facing foreclosure in Florida?