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Barnaby33 asked, "Hey Jim, I’ve noticed you focus on REOs almost exclusively lately. Is that the market you feel you need to address for business right now?" 

I didn’t take it personal – it’s a good question.  I don’t particularily like the REO deals for business, because they tend to be very time-consuming.  The listing agents are so buried they are virtually non-responsive, right up to the date you’re supposed to close – then somehow they get real attentive.  And I have yet to catch on with any lenders to be one of their listing agents, though I’ve tried.

Here are the reasons I’ve had a lot of foreclosure/REO talk here, and why we’ve dedicated a top-row button to ‘foreclosures’ in the blog’s new-look (above).

1. Buyers want to know about them – nine out of ten conversations I have with buyers go like this. "Jim, I’m not in a hurry, but if you can get me one of those bank deals, let me know."

2. Sellers should want to know about them – the foreclosures have the ability to undermine their value.

3. The bank deals are setting the pace, price-wise.

The foreclosure button above will take you to a steady diet of REO properties for you to consider buying, or at least be entertained by.  I’m not splitting the website into two separate blogs, all the commentary and hot news about foreclosures will be right here.  But for those folks who are thinking about buying, you can keep your eye on that section of the blog.

I envision it being a well-rounded mix of pre-foreclosures-coming-soon-to-market, REOs-not-yet-on-market, active listings of REOs, list of REO addresses, foreclosures separated by area, by price, by bank, etc.  About every way we can slice the foreclosure market will be behind that button.

I want the main journal here to focus on the whys, and the how-tos – in order to help people disect the market piece by piece using statistics, experience, and common sense.  In the end, I hope it helps you make the best decisions possible, and if I can be your agent along the way, then great, I look forward to being there for you – call or email anytime.

I’ll work my way into the meebo thing, and I’m not crazy about the font type – but CA renter likes it and it does help get more words in a smaller space, which could keep my rambling a little more palatable.

Be patient with the MLS search site (top-left).  I rushed that one – probably a month too soon, but eventually I’d like to have it be better than both sdlookup and the MLS itself.

I have been fined repeatedly by the association of realtors, and some day they will kick me out for doing what I do.  I’ll play nice for now, but when that day comes, I won’t go out easy - my exit will look like an atomic fireball.

The search site is my ticket out.  The good realtors are sick of the lack of quality help, and lack of attention from the associations of realtors – NAR, CAR, and the local boards.  If they keep spending more time on the chili cook-off than providing quality help for both the agents and consumers, then they will get what they have coming.  I’ll rally up the good realtors and use our own search site!

I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Stefanie Fontecha and Peter Betlinski for their invaluable assistance in creating the new blog design and search site!

Posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 2:27 PM in About the author | 8 Comments » |  Print You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.