These Listings are in the Bank

Metro Detroit holds the dubious distinction of being a leader in the number of foreclosed upon homes. Dmitry, my husband, tracks foreclosures very closely for his investor clients and for our own real estate investments. He's managed to find some great deals through his research.

We are primarily listing agents. We love buyers, but seem to end up with more sellers, and we always have. We've got a very good reputation for getting homes sold for our clients, so that has perpetuated itself into more listings.

Dmitry saw an opportunity for us to use our listing skills in conjunction with his knowledge of foreclosures. This week he managed to get an appointment with the Vice President at a local bank who is responsible for that bank's foreclosures. We wanted to learn more about how foreclosures are handled from within the bank. Because Dmitry tracks the foreclosure announcements as the news comes out of the courthouse, he actually knew of properties that this VP will be dealing with in the next few months, that the VP wasn't even aware of yet.

The VP told us that the bank has been working with one real estate broker for 20 years. We said that we would not want to interfere with a good relationship, but that if there was ever anything that the other broker could not handle, we would be delighted to.

He called us the next day to give us two listings.

I am proud of Dmitry for looking beyond our "usual sources" and opening up a new opportunity for us. Who knows what this might lead to.

(Our client is not Barclay's. I just liked the photo of the ATMs)