Recent content by terago_IHB

awgee, Are you saying I should deal direct with the listing agent? Assuming a fixed 6% total commission, the net to the seller or the bank in this case is the same whether there's 1 or 2 agents involved. But if I went with a flat fee agent I'd get back 3% - 3K, for a 700K...

oc-conservative, There are no buyers for those REOs because the asking prices are still too high, especially most REOs are sold AS-IS and often trashed by the previous owners so the new owners have to spend extra to fix them up. I'm also wondering why banks are so reluctant to...

Does anyone have experience with buying an REO property? I'm wondering if it's better to deal direct with the listing agent or go thru my own agent? If I go thru a flat fee agent, like e-liststate.com, she charges 3K and rebates the rest back to me. I'm wondering there are...

Try craigslist: <a href="http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/search/apa?query=placentia&minAsk=min&maxAsk=1500&bedrooms=2">http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/search/apa?query=placentia&minAsk=min&maxAsk=1500&bedrooms=2</a> and the MLS: <a...

waiting2buylater, I agree with you about waiting to buy later. I only put up those 2 listings to counter your point "Most of what you get are very old, outdated and smaller (less than 2,000 square foot) homes for around 1 mil". The first one is a 3200sqft house on a 8100sqft lot with...

waiting2buylater, Actually, there are some decent deals like the ones below if you looked hard enough: <strong>MLS: S464130</strong>...

For those of you who can't wait and need to buy soon, have you tried low-ball offers on REOs? I think the bank would be more willing to accept a low-ball offer than a typical seller.

New Century update: https://lounge.newcentury.com/cms/pdfs/nc.com/broker_letter.pdf

I parked mine in CDs at World Savings. Wachovia Bank bought out World last year and they're pretty big so I'm not concerned. Plus I hold the CDs in separate titles and each is insured up to 100K. I also have an HSBC online savings account that pays 5% (currently 6% for new money). HSBC has been...

The ReconTrust website is www.ctcres.com, they list foreclosures for Countrywide and others. As for title search, I have an account with www.realquest.com (part of First American). There's no monthly charge, if you generate a "Property Detail" report then it's $4 per property which is not...

Regarding buying foreclosures, I've heard it's best to buy a property before it goes to the trustee auction. The bank is more inclined to deal to avoid the costs of foreclosure proceedings and subsequent carrying costs as an REO. Once it becomes an REO and re-listed on the MLS, the price is...

<a href="../../../account/64/">IIIrvine</a>, <em>"Does it affect the buyer if it is the seller who is paying for the house anyway?" </em>Where do you think the seller gets the money to pay the agents? ... from the buyer. An agent would say something like that to lure a naive...

Another approach is to do away with agents completely and deal with the owner directly. Say you found a listing that you may be interested, go to the open house or drive by and ask the owner to see it. If you're still interested then send the owner a letter that says you're interested but you're...

Last spring, I used e-liststate.com, a flat-fee service to list my home for only $500. By not paying the listing commission, I was able to lower the asking price by 20K and sold my home in a reasonable time frame. I paid 2.5% to the buyer's agent. I found that below 2.5%, most buyer agents won't...

TheSteelCurtain, If I were you, I'd wait for couple more years, renting & saving up for a larger downpayment while prices drop. It's funny, I was just looking at rentals earlier on realtor.com and I saw one in FV that I thought was a good deal...