patrick.net

Hi Gary, thanks for the reads.

Just curious, what do you do for a living?

No worries. It's only pension funds that are being lost. They might get replaced with funny money from the keyboard. Then everyone has 30% less buying power thanks to having to compete with the new sociopathic rich and whatever they decide to hoard that day (houses are in right now). The tax of inflation is equitable across the board. Of coarse if you don't happen to get the million dollar bonuses for running this game you just get confused. You might also wonder about the higher food prices and the new shitty landlord.

BayArea,

If I make an offer on a short sale there is always an acceptance date in the offer. Here we have to sign a multiple offer agreement. I sign but forget it. If the offer is not accepted by the offer date, I'm gone.

HEY YOU don't play that.

The only way to win this game is not to play. That would be my opinion any way.

I am practicing the following statement so I can deliver it flawlessly to the listing agent the day a short sale/REO property of interest comes on the market:

"Hello, I am interested in purchasing your listed property that came out on MLS today. I have no realtor representation and I want you to represent me. Where do I have to be for the house to go pending today?"

Now everyone try it, "Hello, ... "

hey thats a good line.
also sneak in key words 'im pre approved, have excellent credit, large down payment'.

Agents are really good at sniffing out buyers who cant get loans or are wishy washy. Because agents who are bad at this leave the industry -everyone wastes their time.

PockyClipsNow says

hey thats a good line.
also sneak in key words 'im pre approved, have excellent credit, large down payment'.
Agents are really good at sniffing out buyers who cant get loans or are wishy washy. Because agents who are bad at this leave the industry -everyone wastes their time.

"Hello, I am interested in purchasing your listed property that came out on MLS today. I have no realtor representation and I want you to represent me. I'm pre-approved, have excellent credit, and a large down payment. Where do I have to come in at for the house to go pending today?"

thats great! good luck.
short sales are all fraud as far as im concerned - and yet they are legal.
They are the best way to 'gettadeal' now I think.

If it works, I will dedicate my success to your knowledge of realtor fraud and willingness to lend a helping hand :)

It will work.
But you will still get 'beat out' by a list of known buyers the agent already has 'in pocket'.

You could also email every agent in town and state what you are looking for and that they should contact you if they get a listing asap. Get thier contact info from thier listings past and present from redfin.

There are only 3 types of agents im my experience:
1. Lazy (mostly bored house wives who dont need to work)
2. Crooks (motivated to earn high $)
3. Lazy Crooks (this is largest category)

You won't find any hardworking+honest agents. You are lucky to get an honest lazy one (#1 above) but this person is too lazy to get a broker license and be independent broker so they are attached to a #2 which can make problems for you.

Can you smell something?
Listed and price dropped $94,600 in the same day just before the July 4th holiday and pending the first working day after.

Property History for 187 TRESTLE Cv. Hercules, CA
Date Event Price Appreciation Source
Jul 05, 2012 Pending -- -- EBRD #1
Jul 02, 2012 Price Changed $504,400 -- EBRD #1
Jul 02, 2012 Listed (New) $599,000 -- EBRD #1
Dec 19, 2003 Sold (Public Records) $732,500 -- Public Records

187 TRESTLE Cv. Hercules, CA
Hercules? SFace, are you buying?

Not in office for two days. Just clicked on the email as new list from Redfin, but see "pending".

BobMSN says

Can you smell something?
Listed and price dropped $94,600 in the same day just before the July 4th holiday and pending the first working day after.
Property History for 187 TRESTLE Cv. Hercules, CA
Date Event Price Appreciation Source
Jul 05, 2012 Pending -- -- EBRD #1
Jul 02, 2012 Price Changed $504,400 -- EBRD #1
Jul 02, 2012 Listed (New) $599,000 -- EBRD #1
Dec 19, 2003 Sold (Public Records) $732,500 -- Public Records

Stinks, pew!

Anyone knows where to report if a fraud is suspected?

BayArea says

"Hello, I am interested in purchasing your listed property that came out on MLS today. I have no realtor representation and I want you to represent me. I'm pre-approved, have excellent credit, and a large down payment. Where do I have to come in at for the house to go pending today?"

LOL! You're funny. You'd have to do better than that. One thing you're missing from your equation is CASH. :o)

E-man says

LOL! You're funny. You'd have to do better than that. One thing you're missing from your equation is CASH. :o)

Ya think? My 25% DP is not enticing enough to have the realtor try to double dip with me?

I guess it will come down to which double dip option looks best for the selling agent huh?

One thing is for sure, doing it this way without 100% cash will give me a better chance than running around with my current agent which has gotten me nowhere in the past 6 months.

This is the best way IMO. Worst way is probably use a refin agent - you have 2 huge issues there 1. buyers agent and 2. a discounter the big brokers hate hate hate.

Some friends of mine who are not obsessed with RE just got a screaming deal, guess how? they simply were at the open house and said 'no im not working with an agent' and bammmo, they won the short sale. amaazing huh? The buyers agent unfortunately is a deal killer in a hot market they got 10 offers to choose, first they flush the ones with buyers agents. then filter the rest. but not always. they might let you outbid 10 others if you are lucky and have a buyers agent.

LOL!

And I thought I had it right

I understand your frustration. There is a lot of fraud with short sale. But if you think the seller is looking for the highest best offer your wrong. The sellers are looking to avoid foreclosure. Our job as realtors is NOT to get the bank the highest and best offer as you seem to think. Because 1. we work for the seller not the bank. 2. that highest and best offer will jump on the newest hot piece of crap that hits the market! Causing the seller to lose the property to foreclosure. Thus giving the bank a hard on thinking they will get that price when they take it back as an REO. Any property I list now in July needs to have a low enough price so that if the buyer walks while I'm in negotiations I can still move the property in Oct or Nov and not have to start the whole process over again. Realtors that double end Short sales are looking for trouble. http://www.ShortsaleinLosAngeles.com

Patrick- below is a brief history of one of ten houses the same buyers agent has tied up from the day the home is listed. In each case the house is listed as pending. Then as time goes on it changes status several times and in each case the house is sold for far less than the list price and there is zero competition. The buyers agent has done this 8 times in the past year with the same 3 buyers but he is not the listing agent. I know this is a scam but this foursome is making a killing with no competition. How dose this work and which one of the parties is committing fraud?. See below one example of the history. All the homes are in one city in Southern California.
PS-I know the investors and their agent. They know I know and are not saying a word.
Records For completeness, Redfin often displays two records for one sale: the MLS record and the public record. Learn More.
Date
Event Price Appreciation Source
Oct 26, 2011
Sold (Public Records)
$240,000 — Public Records
Oct 26, 2011
Sold (MLS) (Closed)
$240,000 — CRMLS #
Oct 25, 2011
Pending (Backup Offers Accepted)
—CRMLS #

Oct 05, 2011
Pending
— CRMLS #
Sep 30, 2011

Relisted (Active)
—CRMLS #

Sep 25, 2011
Pending
— CRMLS #

Sep 13, 2011
Price Changed
$250,000 — CRMLS #

Sep 09, 2011
Price Changed
$252,000 — CRMLS #

Sep 02, 2011
Price Changed (Active)
$257,000 — CRMLS #

Sep 02, 2011
Relisted (Active)
—CRMLS #

Aug 24, 2011
Delisted (Hold)
— CRMLS #

Aug 19, 2011
Price Changed
$260,000 — CRMLS #

Aug 17, 2011
Price Changed
$270,000 — CRMLS

Aug 12, 2011
Price Changed
$280,000 — CRMLS

Jun 16, 2011
Price Changed
$285,000 — CRMLS #

Jun 09, 2011
Price Changed
$290,000 — CRMLS #

May 13, 2011
Price Changed
$294,000 — CRMLS #

May 06, 2011
Price Changed
$299,000 — CRMLS #

Apr 29, 2011 
Price Changed
$305,000 — CRMLS #

Apr 22, 2011
Price Changed
$310,000 — CRMLS #

Apr 14, 2011
Listed (Active)
$315,000 — CRMLS #

BayArea@11
I agree with you on the other 10 offers & the banks position.

inflection point@12 covered my feelings
"The only way to win this game is not to play. That would be my opinion any way."

If nobody plays there will not be a game. Banks lose?

PockyClipsNow says

Some friends of mine who are not obsessed with RE just got a screaming deal, guess how? they simply were at the open house and said 'no im not working with an agent' and bammmo, they won the short sale. amaazing huh?

Lucky. My experience with short sales here in the Bay Area has been one of the following:

a.) pending the day it comes on the market before you can even establish contact with the selling agent

or

b.) open house arranged for a 1hr period during the week the house comes on the market with 20+ people showing up trying to find something in common with the seller assuming they are present (oh, we are the same religion or I also have kids your age, or we are both from India, etc).

It get's really frustrating when the selling agent has a buyer lined up and does the open house anyway to go through the motions to make it look a little less fraudulent. 20+ people waste their Sunday and several trees are killed in paperwork as everyone submits an offer.