David Mortaz

Our recent REO listing in San Jose generated more than 27 offers and we had to stop accepting offers in 3 days when the Asset Manager wanted to focus on top 4 offers. That was when one agent called and insisted that he will be making a strong offer. I informed him that there are 27 offers with ALL of their pricing above the asking. What he told me next is the inspiration for this blog.

He asked me: "will you sign and Non-Disclosure Agreement that you will not share my offer with anyone else"!? At first, I wasn't sure what he was asking, so he repeated that he will require an NDA before he sends me an offer! I replied that I have 27 offers and I don't think I will have time to publish his offer to anyone! He then said, "I will take you word on it and won't send you an NDA"! The next day his office called and wanted to see if they can deliver the offer manually since their fax and scanners were NOT working!! A day after we had stopped taking offers they emailed us a document which was a scanned copy of an MS Word document which was NOT readable!!

Granted some of this content belongs in my blog on "How to write the Highest Offer on an REO and still lose", but I needed to ask the question posed in the title. Have you have ever been involved in a transaction where you had to sign an NDA before seeing an offer from the buyer's agent!? What's the big deal with his CAR forms!? Is it the buyer who wants to remain anonymous!? With 27 offers who need the headache. Even if I had one offer, I would not sign the NDA.

Would you!? I welcome your comments!!

According to a Discovery Bay data mining company, the number of California foreclosures surpassed number of sold properties in January 2008! This is NOT a very good development for anyone who owns residential real estate in California. Contributing to the slow down in sales, is the lack of good loan programs for buyers who are out there; but can't find a loan to purchase these properties. What's sad and amusing is that same lenders who were offering 100% purchase loans to anyone with a pulse; now have gone the other extreme and are only underwriting FULL Doc loans. This for sure will problong the current crisis.

I am reminded of the time when my 5 year had her 1st ear infection and Blue Shield of California refused to insure her claiming that she has had TOO many ear infections! After all, insurance companies are in the same business as banks - underwriting risk! I understand insurance companies desire to only insure the healthy kids; but let's not get ridiculous. Banks simply can not insist on safe loans where there is no risk of default! Blue Shield folks retracted their steps after I filled a complaints with California Insurance Commission. I wish there was similar agency where I could report the lenders as well.

Bottom line is that lenders are not visionaries who will introduce new products to help the real estate market out of it's misery. But I am at a loss where the leadership will come from to rescue this economy and get us going again.

Did someone say Wall Street!? What do you think!?

Despite what you might be hearing from the mainstream media, the Real Estate market is not all doom and gloom in Silicon Valley! This past weekend was an eye opener for our team when we hosted an Open House for our Bank-Owned (REO) foreclosed Condo in the Cahill Park development of San Jose! This development offers a unique opportunity for owners to commute to work using LightRail and CalTrans. In fact, most employers in Silicon Valley such as Cisco, eBay, PayPal...etc have employees living in this development since they offer FREE shuttles from Train Station to their campuses.

We were pleasantly surprised to identify 5 buyers seriously interested in the property that attended the Open House. This unique opportunity has come about because of close team work between us our Asset Managers at REOTrans.com who listened to our price recommendations and agreed to a strategic listing price! One of them called on Monday and offered to purchase the condo for a cash offer!

Bottom line is that if the REO asset is priced strategically, there are interested buyers out here for these properties. Only if our lending friends would start introducing the "right" programs for these buyers which is a topic of another blog I need to write on our lender friends.

Finally, my call to arms is that since the media will continue to report on horror stories of the Real Estate market, it's up to ALL of US in the REO trenches to report the good news. Drop me a note if you are having success in selling REOs. I would love to hear how you are handling objections and fears of "additional" price drops. I have come up with some creative way to help buyers deal with these anxieties and I will be happy to share them with you.