Scott Forcier

Selling a home can be quite a task in todays real estate market. With short sale negotiations, picky buyers and seemingly endless competition from other homes, it's easy to lose steam in the sales process.

Please don't forget, as a sellers agent, you are on the offensive team! Now is the time to turn it on!

I only bring this up to share with you an approach you may not have thought of, and you might not think is appropriate at all.

When buyers agents show your home or listing, do you send them an offer in writing from the Seller?

In real estate transactions, "mutual consent" or "mutual acceptance" of a purchase and sale agreement is achieved through the process of offer and acceptance. Generally, the offer is made by the buyer to the seller. Also, it is common for a counter offer from the seller and maybe even a little more back and forth before an agreement is "mutually accepted" by both parties.

My question to you is, why is it not more common for the seller to be the first to put pen to paper and make an offer to the buyer? What's the worst that can happen? The buyer will flat out refuse the offer without making a counter? You chase the buyer away because they are so offended by your high offer? Your offer may be high, but doesn't the buyers agent have a legal obligation to present all written offers to the buyer? I don't know if that part is true or not, but isn't this all starting to sound familiar? It's starting to sound like selling real estate.

Really, if a qualified buyer comes through your listing, rather then waiting, hoping they will send you an offer, couldn't you use that time to write them an offer? Don't you owe that to your seller? At the end of the day, if you've given it a shot and didn't get a deal, what have you lost? Nothing!

Do you think this is a good approach, or a bad idea? Are you willing to test it on your most recent qualified showing?

Are your sellers even motivated enough to be this aggressive?
Better yet, are you?

During the month of December 2008, REO in King County sold for an average 86.95% of the banks foreclosure amount or previous loan amount.

Which banks closed with the biggest losses on individual properties?

Here's the top 5 "Biggest Losers" of the month.

#1. Jp Morgan Chase Bank Na (A WAMU asset) @ ..................................39.33%
#2. Saxon Mortgage Services Inc sold a home for ..................................56.31%
#3. Lasalle Bank National Association (A First Franklin asst) @ .................61.64%
#4. Citigroup Mtg Series 2006-Amc1 (An Argent Mortgage asset) @ .........66.01%
#5. First Franklin Mtg 2007-1 sold one of their homes for ........................66.83%

Who were the biggest sellers of the month?

#1. Countrywide with ...............8 units, ...................average sale price @ 84.42%
#2. Deutsche Bank with ...........7 units ................................................. 82.99%
#3. US Bank with.....................6 units ................................................. 93.28%
#4. WAMU (via Chase, etc) ......6 units ..................................................81.34%
#5. First Franklin with ..............5 units ..................................................84.25%

This information about Seattle area bank owned homes for sale was compiled by several sources, deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed by any stretch. Just my own personal research.

I hope it may help you a little when considering making an offer on a bank owned home. Be it help with fear of "coming in to low", sniffing out the banks bottom line or increasing your odds of getting the deal by beating their average. It's not much, but a little insight. Consider it a dart in your quiver of arrows.

Congratulations to those buyers/agents who secured those top 5 deals, trimming 20% more fat then the average bank owned property sale price. The one bank owned Property I closed in December was at 76.78% of the foreclosure amount. Not bad, but I still came in 19th place for the month. The house was in a premier Newcastle neighborhood though, so there's gotta be something to be said for that, right?

Welcome to 2009.