Have a Real Estate Question? Post it here in the real estate forum and get an answer within hours!!!

[REOQuestion]

When going out to do a occupancy check on a new REO assignment. Should I contact the previous listing agent if the home currently has a for sale sign on it?

[aguilar]

If it is currently listed with another real estate company then you need to get it canceled, get status of the listing, and see if the previous listing agent can give you any details of occupancy. Another thing you should always do is check the MLS to see if it still active on the MLS. Our experience has been that many of the new REO assignments that we take are still active on the MLS as a short sale. Doing this initial work can really help answer a lot of the initial questions.

Also, when you prepare your BPO you really need to know if it was previously listed so you can make note on the BPO. The BPO always asks if the property has been listed in the last 12 months. It’s important to note if it was previously on the market because the bank wants to know if it was listed at a certain price. The reason being, if the bank knows that some other agent already made an attempt to list the home at a price of $100,000 and it didn’t sell after being on the market for 150 days then this would be a good indication of where the value needs to come in at. The bank would be wasting their time to list the home at or above $100,000.

You should really work hard on preparing a really good BPO, the banks rely on their real estate agent in the field to be their EYES and let them know every positive / negative thing about the property.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

[sharon]

I always wondering how to approach that issue. I will have to try that next time I am dealing with an occupancy check.