well ... i recieved a rush bpo today ...and the special instructions were in bold letters
"DO NOT LET AGENT INFLUENCE YOUR PRICE!"

i think...hmm those are odd instructions but ok...so i call to set it up...and boy...i can already tell...she was kissing my butt ridiculously.never has any agent acted this way to me...and many have tried to persuade me...but she is over the line this time..she even went as far and said she was picking up lunch for her client and if i wanted any food it was on her because she knows how tough my job is....i politely said no thanks and that it might be innapropriate....i cant wait till 3 pm today...im thinking its gonna be a fun one : )

stay tuned...

Is this for an REO? If so, and they know their agent is trying to influence your opinion, why the heck don't they get another agent???
I get the agents who want to tell me where to bring it in when I do 2nd opinions on theirs, and who ask me where I want them to price it when they do 'em on mine. Uh, let's see... Where do the comps you've found indicate this one will sell? Oh, you haven't looked for comps because you were waiting for me to tell you which ones to use. Okay... How about whichever ones YOU think are most like the subject? Oh- you DON'T think? NOW I get it!!!
Yet these are the "preferred" agents in my area with many banks. I may get things wrong and not be 100% accurate with my values, but by God, they are MY values!
so, can anyone guess what kind of day I have had???

Oh yeah....

I've been doing a lot of short sales...when I say a lot I mean a lot, we have 40 active files. I got into BPO's because I saw agents surviving in this market doing BPO's, REO's and shorts. Well, the "guru" that I was using to teach me how to do this told us to not put them on the MLS, "influence" the BPO and get a number. It didn't take long for me and the banks to catch on. I got an instruction from asset val the other day that said exactly the same thing and even used words like if I suspected "flipping" to report it. Then QC sent me an e-mail and asked my opinion on why it was listed so low compared to the comps and my value. I told the truth, even had a withdrawn listing from a few days before and another agent that was $45K higher!!! Banks are taking it on the chin and they are not going to "leave" money on the table for the investors to scoop up.

Yeah, the short sale investor guru's are teaching this stuff out there so be on your toes. I am glad I took the course, it has made me very experienced on how to get a short sale done. But I'm doing it the right way, put it on the market and help the homeowner sell his house and the buyer get a fair deal.

I went to a short sale class given by an attorney for a national title insurance company who told the agents attending they ought to do anything they can to "influence" the agent doing the BPO. I told him in no uncertain terms that when agents tried that with me I always made a note of it on the BPO. You should have seen the crestfallen looks in that room!

You should have told her that your BPO company rep told you to watch out for girls like her.

actually i told her that my mom told me to watch out for girls like her....

wow that was fun guys...she proceeded to point out the smallest of damages and claim they were expensive to fix...here are some of my personal favorite quotes from the inspection...

as i got out of my car i walked straight up to her and was like hi im mike and ill be performing the bpo on the property...she replied with...wow how did you know it was me...you must be smart...have we met before...you look familiar...you complete alot of these in this area dont you,im not smart enough to be able to handle such a tough job of determining home prices when a lot of it depends on your knowledge of the market?

(in my head i thought...i walked up to you because you were the only one standing in front of the building and are holding a clipboard and look like a realtor...lol...wow that was just a glimpse of the buttkissing i endured)

another fun quote...
" this property is a short sale for 380...and..oh my look at this light switch casing....its cracked...maybe this property is worth even less then i thought"....ahhahah

she almost begged me to come in at 380...she was like this buyer was very hard to find and if he cant buy it, i wont be able to sell and i havent had a commission in 3 months and my family needs this sale...but i know thats not your concern and that you will see for yourself that this property isnt worth more then 380....


then at the end she was like....its only worth 380 right?

i had to do everythign i could to compose myself throughout this...

oh my....i havent pulled comps so not sure where this is gonna come in at...it had no really damage but it was really dirty...time will tell : )

later guys

money "my butt is tender from all the kissing" Mike

Omigod....what a cliffhanger Money Mike! Get off the forum, get that BPO done and log back on and let us know!

I'm logging back in at 10:30 EST and expect an end to this drama...is it $380,000 or not?

(Yikes, can you tell baseball season is over and there is nothing on the tube.)... LOL

Two weeks ago I contacted my local real estate board's attorney to discuss listing agents not negotating for the client (seller)best interest. Its become common place to list the proeprty, get an offer at any price and pass it onto the bank. No negotating for a higher price, just let the bank decide on the selling price.

The bigger issue, agents get the offer, withdraw the listing in the MLS so no one will make another offer. The bank has no idea the listing is withdrawn. With no other offers, banks may feel their hands are tied and accept a low offer.
This pushes the market down as well, everyone begins to lose.

Finally, listing agents are not disclosing the 1099 issue with the short sale, although 1099 issue may be resolved soon. However, the seller should be made aware of the 1099 so they can make an informed decision. hopefully make reasonable counter offers instead of leaving it to us to almost decide for the agents what the sale price should be.

I suspect someone will get sued for not fully disclosing the 1099 issue and for withdrawing the listing so other agent won't show the property. Certainly not working in the best interest of the client or being fiduiary irresponsible.

As agents, our profession is not helping the market when agents act in questionable tatics.

watch out if it doesn't come out at around $380k she'll be stalking you seeking revenge for ruining her deal and her commission and taking food off the table of her family.

i pulled comps...and honestly i think its worth less lol, slightly bigger condos within a half a mile completely remodeled 6 months ago went for 375....lol , dont know what her concern was ... lol

yea...what has my life become that this is the excitement for me...lol...this is my last bpo of the week...im going out and having a drink with friends tonight and not planning on accepting a single bpo all weekend...(im having my 1 year anniversary with my girlfriend on saturday...i feel like my life is slowly ending...lol...dont tell her i said that though...lol )

Moneymike, maybe you should follow in the blessed footsteps of the great 5-time Kentucky Derby winning jockey Bill Hartack, my friend who passed this week. His obituary reads: "Hartack never married, and dated freely." Sounds like a plan to me (and I'm a chick!)!!!! Bill had it figured out - God rest his sweet, grumpy soul! Never marry, and date freely!

California is a different short sale market in that the price points typically are above FHA and VA loan limits so your stuck with a jumbo loan.Some of these are insured and some are not and the don't discount as much.

I am telling you this is a buyers market and if banks think buyers will go through the hel% for a short sale and pay market value they are sadly mistaken.There are too many pther properties on market without all the bs that are regular sales.

Banks are not holding there ground.In my market investors call the shots.If they don't accept the price I want with the terms I want on a pre-foreclosure or reo I move on to the next and there is plenty more to move on too.I am seeing plenty of writedowns in my area to move the bad debt and the non-performing assett.

I influence the bpo all of the time.Most of the time I have a new agent or an agent who can't accurately assess repairs.If I didn't guide them what happens is the value comes way off the bank thinks they have a winner.The deny short,go to foreclose and the cash investors laugh at them at auction.

The bank takes the property back reo and then scratches there heads and later sell for 20k less than what they would have gotten on the short-I see it everyday.

If the banks would agree to an acceptable short sale price up front, agents could market it at that price and buyers would be less likely to avoid them.

The steep discounts come from the fact that lenders refuse to commit until an offer is presented. Essentially the listing price in the MLS for a short sale is just a come on. No one really knows what the bank will take until they give a response a month after an offer is made.

If banks proactively provided a price for short sales, there would be less uncertainty and higher sales prices for them.

tbtrackstar,

I just went to Wikipedia to look up your friend because I remembered his name from years back. That's where I read that he rode Tim Tam (my very favorite horse when I used to follow the races as a kid--my parents let me watch because I liked horses), which I did not remember because it was quite a while ago. Tim Tam was a very popular horse, and Bill was a very popular jockey judging from all his awards. It sounds like he died doing what he loved, which is about all anyone can ask for.

I did get a big kick out of the following little tidbit I copied from the Wikipedia page on him:

"Referred to by the media as both "Bill" and "Willie" (actually Hartack detested being called "Willie" because of his dislike for fellow jockey, Willie Shoemaker) during his racing career..."

Did you know that?

I'm off thread but wanted to share that with you about your good friend. Go read Wiki's article on him which itemizes all his many honors.

Darlene

My favorites are when an investor-buyer is the contact and they show up with a list of repairs as long as a Tom Clancy novel. They usually have a lot of cosmetic issues (paint, carpet, etc) and substance things that they can't really detail, but tell you (like the water heater is ten years old, so it may fail tomorrow).
Do you think any of these people tell the owner about the 1099 possibility?

I do irs form 982(insolvency) easy fix.Problems with 1099's is when the sellers are given bad information or don't use a competent tax professional who can easily eliminate the phantom gain for forgiveness of debt.

excuse my ignorance in my own thread...but im lost as to what you are discussing what is the 1099 issue with a short sale....1099's are the tax form an agent fills out after a sale correct?...whats the issue?

I don't mind the lists they have as long as they are realistic. I discount the value for cosmetics (paint, carpet), because they do impact what a buyer would be willing to spend. What bugs me is when they tell me that the house needs a $30k kitchen remodel when the house is 5 years old, it's only worth $150k repaired and there's nothing wrong with the kitchen.

A 1099 is a tax form used to report many types of non-employee income. Debt forgiveness is one of them. If a person owed $150k and the lender agrees to take $100k for the short sale, the seller is likley to get a 1099 for the amount of the debt that was forgiven (in this case $50k) and is responsible to report that on their tax return. As super mentioned, there are ways to deal with it, but if you are doing short sales, you need to understand this.

that makes perfect sense...ohagent your an asset to this site : )

thanks for the info