Lynne Pope is your Realtor in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach

REO Bank Owned open houses attract buyers. People who stop by are doing it as First time home buyers, investments,  to help a family member or friend. March 2009 sales were 41% first time home buyers. Banks are lending. South Bay properties in Redondo Beach, Torrance, Palos Verdes, Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach actually have some REO listings and…they sell quickly. At my open  houses I post a list of the sold foreclosed properties in each area over the past year. I post all the REO active listings in the local cities. People want to be on the list to receive emails of every bank owned property and they also want to know what is comparable.

I was at a Tom Ferry Focus training event in Long Beach this week and we talked about the growing numbers of regular homes sold, selling and pending sales. One thousand agents all over the countryin the room were selling. Last year out of 50 Thousand California licenced real estate agents only 578 sold over 6 homes.  We talked about working harder and working smarter.  It means getting people qualified by a lender to buy. Most people stopping at the open houses have to get qualified. That is why this website has a wholesale mortgage page. Check it out. When buyers know what their price range is they are ready to shop.  Buyers they need to know they have competition too. Be ready to lose one or more if you see a good value and expect to pay less than asking. Local surrounding areas under 400K are getting multiple offers. Spring 2009 has people out there shopping. Buyers are informed and ready.

Same thing! ROHRS certified agents are out there from every company but there to help they buyers buy… It’s the brainchild of Long Beach Phil Chenier and Ron Brown.

Agents wanting to take the certification test and join in theROHRS open houses are  preferred bank trained agents to get the red tape, the challenges the unknows solved, answered, completed, offered and often accepted contracts.

Hurry…the test is Wed and Thursday in Long Beach. Call me for details.

I say it has put the fun back in real estate…Fun to do open houses, fun to talk to hundreds of people and Fun to write and close offers.

Its the sign of the times.

The awakening of the first time buyer has been cautious. There was a surge in April and early this month in home buying. The misleading fact of 1/2 of all sales have been REO or bank owned in our state is one thing but the south bay beach areas have few bank owned properties. The slowdown and lending crunch has affected prices. We have higher inventory and it takes longer to sell properties and there are price reductions that have to be factored in. The other BIG and GOOD factor is that these homes are a short drive to the beach. The glorious Pacific Ocean! This week we toured a new Bank Owned listing on Perkins in North Redondo Beach. We were excited that it was under 700K. Every agent that went on our agent thought it was a great deal. The interesting thing is that some of the listings have had to price accordingly. The new listing coming up down the street that is similar is in top condition, it is also in a block that has a preferred school district for higher performing student test scores. It will be priced slightly more than the bank owned for those 2 reasons. This is actually why some people are buying the other homes sometimes before the bank owned ones. Investors and out of the country buyers are out buying more than one property at a time. They LOVE LA! Canada, Korea, and Japan, residents, that I have met are visiting and buying.
I have a listing in Torrance with value built in of over 80K in upgrades. The electrical, plumbing, new windows and roof make it more desirable than a similar home without those updates. The sharp first time home buyer today is educated in real estate values and prices. They shop the internet and visit open houses.They don’t have to be told to get a lender although they may need to get an update from the lender they have on a regular basis. The rates are still fantastic.