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Foreclosure / Bank Owned (REO) Info

Santa Maria – Orcutt 2009 Real Estate & Foreclosure Market Update

1275 single family homes sold in Santa Maria and Orcutt in 2009. This excludes PUDs, condos, and manufactured homes. This figure is slightly higher than the 1230 homes which sold last year. 175 condos and PUDs sold during the same period in 2009; compared to 130 units in 2008. So, overall the number of sales in Santa Maria and Orcutt is up.
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Santa Maria CA & Lompoc CA Foreclosure Buyers Can Choose Local Escrow Companies

Finally! Those of you who read my blog recall my recent blog post on buying a foreclosure and not receiving your keys until the day after it closes. It appears that the Claifornia legislature has take a stab at the heart of the problem, which was the fact that buyers were not allwoed to pick their own excrow companies in these transactions. Banks would hire title and escrow companies to complete their foreclosure proceeding and when they turned around to sell the property as an REO, they would compel the buye to use that same title/escrow company to complete the purchase.
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Santa Maria & Lompoc Buyers Betting on Appraisals to Save Them From Bidding Wars

There is intense competition for homes in the Santa Maria and Lompoc markets, especially for homes priced under $300,000. There simply aren't enough homes for interested buyers. It is not unusual when competing for a home to go up against 12 - 15 other buyers. And, some are pulling no punches when it comes to asking price.
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Buying REOs (Foreclosures) – You May Not Get Your Keys Until the Day AFTER it closes!

Of all the delays that REO buyers must endure, this tends to be the most difficult to swallow. After you’ve crossed the finish line, the loan funded, and you’ve waited the additional day for the transaction to record, NO KEYS! I've had this happen about 3 times, but it is beginning to be a trend on REO purchases that buyers cannot get the keys to their new home until the day AFTER the transaction closes. Banks centralize their escrow and title work on foreclosures, so you are almost always dealing with an out-of-town escrow company that is overburdened with work and often doesn't care about your individual transaction.
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Buying Central Coast REOs (Foreclosures) & Market Trends

Appraisal Fears. It appears that banks are beginning to fear appraisals. In the last two months, twice I had banks come back and make my buyer agree that they would stick with the offered purchase price even if the home did not appraise. Frankly, I think this stinks. Buyers are forced to bid up on popular properties, and now they must risk that if the appraisal doesn't come in, they will have to walk away from the property or pay the difference out of pocket. For buyers without a large pool of cash, this in effect will keep them from buying the property.
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Mint Properties Offers New Central Coast Foreclosure Property Search

Mint Properties announced a new foreclosure search on my website: www.BuyCentralCoastForeclosures.com. Potential buyers can search for pre-foreclosure, auction, and bank owned properties. So, you can find information on properties throughout California once they have a Notice of Default (the first step in foreclosure) filed. Some of these properties are already listed as short sales on the local MLS. Others will only be listed if they complete the foreclsoure process and come back as bank owned properties.
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Is Cash Still King in the Santa Maria CA Foreclosure Market?

Cash buyers are getting the best deals in this competitive market. I've found that the best deals tend to be bank owned homes vs. short sales, and cash does help in the ban owned bidding process. Banks tend to be more conservative about selling prices for short sales where they still have the borrower on the hook. So, I find that short sales tend to close right at current selling prices or slightly higher. Whereas, the goal with REOs is to move that asset off of the books quickly. So, you will see bigger price discounts on bank owned properties.
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Another Twist to REO Contracts in the Santa Maria CA Market

I just received a counter offer back on a Bank of America property (formerly Countrywide) with a new twist that I haven't seen before in REO contracts. Countrywide officially became Bank of America Home Loans about two weeks ago. I've sold quite a few Countrywide REOs and was used to how they did things. However, it appears that the switch over to Bank of America has changed some things.
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Bank Owned (REO) Delays in the Central Coast Market

You would think that once a bank found a willing buyer, who won the "highest and best" bidding process for a foreclosure property, they would be hot to close the transaction. Well think again. I've actually had an all cash buyer trying to close in 10 days (or less) and the bank and their escrow company simply were not able to do it! The buyer couldn't believe it, but having dealt with REO properties many times before I certainly could There are several delays that seem to happen time and time again in bank owned purchases:
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