Help Wanted: Pre-Qual vs Pre-Approval!? Our struggle to communicate.

I am desperately looking for suggestion to better communicate our Asset Manager’s requirements for a true Pre-Approval vs the canned Pre-Quals we are still getting! Despite the fact that we state in the Private section if the MLS listing that the Pre-Approval should include a “Loan Number, Rate, Term, ....etc”, we are still getting the same Pre-Qual letter from the loan officer in their office!

Is it the similarity in the names!? Is it because most realtors don’t know what to ask for from their loan officers!? Is it the culture gap between the lending side and the real estate side of the house!? What is it?!

The problem becomes a tactical nightmare when we are getting more than 10 offers per listing and we have to unite the original Purchase contract with the 2^nd attempt at getting the pre-approval right! We are convinced that the buyers are put in a difficult position if their agent neglects the financing side of the transaction.

Have you figured out how to communicate this requirement!? Please help if you have!

Please, please help ………………………………!

Don't sell your REO twice!! Pre-Marketing is the answer!

Our Monterey County listing in South Salinas was posted on MLS yesterday (see attached) and it's already generated 4 offers. Part of the reason is that we aggressively marketed the property even while we were waiting for the Listing Agreement and price. We hosted an Open House and posted the property on Craig's List while we were waiting for the Listing Agreement and price!

Our own website which is syndicated to Yahoo, Google, Vast, HotPod, Trulia and Homescape also generated a lot of info requests for the property.
The results are more qualified, pre-screened buyers with less probability of cancellations! We got more than 12 buyers who had called and got on the waiting list for us to notify them and their agents when the price becomes available

After all who has time to sell the same property twice!? Do you!? Share your ideas on what works has worked for you as well.

Is this TERMITE guy your realtor!? I hope not!

Our recent REO listing in San Jose generated more than 27 offers and we had to stop accepting offers in 3 days when the Asset Manager wanted to focus on top 4 offers. That was when one agent called and insisted that he will be making a strong CASH offer. His offer came from an email address that had "TERMITE" in the domain name, but I was not going to hold it against him.

Since his offer was selected by the Asset Manager and it was a cash offer over the asking price; I contacted him by email that I needed him to update his client's proof of funds which were 3 months out of date!

He called back that he can NOT get a hold of his clients! This is me pausing on the phone now, which I was hoping would negate the possibilty of me telling him, "why is that my problem now"!! Well, it turns out there was more to the TERMITE domain name than meets the eye. Guess what the Asset Manager's reaction was when I told him that our TERMITE guy who is working as a realtor part time and can't get a hold of his client!? You guessed it, his clients didn't get the offer.

Moral of the story is that make certain that the package your realtors are sending to REO Listing agents is complete and comes across as professional and leaves a strong 1st impression. Specially when there are 27 offers and we have plenty to choose from.

Would you let this part time realtor write an offer for you on your REOs? I welcome your comments!!

Bad Manners or what?! Don't let this guy write REO offers for you!

Our recent REO listing in San Jose generated more than 27 offers and we had to stop accepting offers in 3 days when the Asset Manager wanted to focus on top 4 offers. That was when one agent called and insisted that he will be making a strong offer. I informed him that there are 27 offers with ALL of their pricing above the asking. What he told me next is the inspiration for this blog.

He asked me: "will you sign and Non-Disclosure Agreement that you will not share my offer with anyone else"!? At first, I wasn't sure what he was asking, so he repeated that he will require an NDA before he sends me an offer! I replied that I have 27 offers and I don't think I will have time to publish his offer to anyone! He then said, "I will take you word on it and won't send you an NDA"! The next day his office called and wanted to see if they can deliver the offer manually since their fax and scanners were NOT working!! A day after we had stopped taking offers they emailed us a document which was a scanned copy of an MS Word document which was NOT readable!!

Bottom line is that it takes alot more that filling out Real Estate forms for an agent to successfully represent a client when they are writing offers.

Would you let this guy write an offer!? I welcome your comments!!