Gearing up for the weekend!

It's Thursday, and this week I'm planning on doing Open Houses on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The buyers are out and are looking for the good deals. I love to put together packages for those buyers. I'm sure plenty of Realtors will disagree, but I'm the kind of Realtor that likes to be LESS intrusive.

I think if people are driving around looking at homes, they aren't necessarily driving around looking for a Realtor. They could just be out with family and wanting to see what's out there. They could already be working with another Realtor. Or they might just want to look without being 'harassed' and followed around the property. Either way, I like to be available, and ready with information, if that's what they need. I like to have everything out in the open so that people can come in, browse some information on a table, and ask questions.

I guess I just don't think I'm the kind of person that tries to get information from people before they're ready to offer it. I want people to feel comfortable around me, and confident with my knowledge. If they have a chance to look at the free information that I have available, they can see that I'm knowledgable about the area and the 'product'.

So, needless to say, I'm really looking forward to the Open Houses. I love meeting new people. I think everyone you come across has the potential to be a 'life changing' moment.

Okay, not that I think that horoscopes are much more than 'entertainment', but mine pops up on my Yahoo page each day. After I posted this, I was browsing through the news online. This is what my 'horoscope' says for tomorrow, the day I'll be doing the Open House:

There is going to be a deep, true value in every exchange you have today, whether it's a brief conversation with someone at the checkout line or a long meeting with the influential people at work. Something that's said will change your life. You'll get even more value out of these talks if you expose your real self right away. There is no need to hide what you really think or wait for someone else to introduce a topic so that you will have permission to do so.

It's getting interesting...

Every week I write a half dozen or so offers on property, mostly 'Bank Owned'. My buyers are getting 'wise' to the fact that if a bank owned property is listed very low on the market, then it's going to have multiple offers on it within the first few days. So, they are offering $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 and more ABOVE the original Listing price (which is usually in the low $200,000's!) and guess what? We are being out bid, or so they say.

It seems like every Listing agent who accepts an offer that is not ours, is stating, 'I'm sorry but we accepted a MUCH BETTER OFFER THAT JUST HAPPENED TO BE ALL CASH'. My first thought, there must be a lot of CASH buyers in this market. Okay, I can deal with that. But now that 3, 4 and 5 weeks have gone by, these properties are closing escrow, and the Listing agents have to disclose the 'sold' price in the MLS along with the terms. And guess what, they are NOT 'MUCH BETTER OFFERS'. Some are cash, some aren't. But they are all lower than what we offered. And I hear this same scenario play out with most of my fellow Realtors as well. They are up against the same problem.

Now it makes me wonder if the Listing agent is playing 'favorites' with their listings. I've heard about agents who are throwing away any offers that aren't at LEAST full price, without even presenting the offers to the bank. I've heard of other agents who have said, "I'll let you know when I get another one, before I put it on the MLS". What? What happen to ETHICS? The other thing that is frustrating is that most of these listing agents who are selling 'bank owned' properties are suddenly so 'busy' that they can't get to their phones, let alone return calls. They are now leaving messages that state, "If the MLS says ACTIVE, it's AVAILABLE". But the minute you put in an offer, guess what? We're sorry, the bank JUST accepted another MUCH BETTER OFFER, ALL CASH.

Stop me if I'm way off, but it seems to be that it was these same LENDERS who are Listing the 'Bank Owned' properties for sale are doing so because they loaned money to 'ill qualified' buyers in the first place. It was their Bank that loaned money to these people who defaulted. Now these same LENDERS seem to be discriminating against the buyers who are purchasing using ANY kind of a loan. All they want to do is get CASH for these properties. They don't seem to trust anyone who is coming in with a loan. What does that say about their ability to 'qualify' buyers? They don't seem to trust their own judgement and they don't seem to trust the 'system'. Interesting.

I'm sure we're going to see this real estate 'market' continue changing and evolving until we get through this.