I heard an interesting story yesterday from a fellow Phoenix AZ real estate agent about a bank owned property with multiple offers in Mesa AZ.

Here’s the scenario.

• A buyer found a property in Mesa AZ that was bank owned listed for sale at $140K.
• The listing agent representing the bank informed the buyer that there was a pending offer.
• The buyers, who loved the home, made a higher priced offer at $150K to make sure they won the bidding.
• The $150K offer was submitted to the bank for consideration.
• However, the bank had accepted the lower price offer.

The buyer’s agent asked the listing agent for some explanation.

The listing agent told the buyer that although, this was a Mesa AZ bank owned property, this was a Wisconsin bank. Apparently, in Wisconsin the bank has to consider offers on a first come first serve basis.

The asset manager of the bank was under the impression that they had to negotiate with the first lower priced offer.Though, it was in the best interest of the bank to accept the higher priced offer.

The transaction occurred in Mesa AZ ; According to Arizona real estate law, the bank has to entertain both offers. However, they can accept the better offer had there been no signed contract acknowledging mutual agreement.

I point this scenario out as an example of one of the problems we continue to face in the real estate market.

Banks , bank asset managers and inexperienced real estate agents are managing a large inventory of Phoenix real estate. Though bank owned real estate is a small number of Phoenix real estate it is a large percentage of sales. As a result, we need local professionals, not out of state bank employees not familiar with Phoenix AZ real estate to handle the transactions to help consumer confidence and stabilize pricing.

The key to our  economic recovery is the recovery of the real estate market. If we do not reduce foreclosures and manage the inventory of bank owned real estate we will not see a housing recovery or national economic recovery for a long time.

————————————————————————————

Copyright © James Wexler *Are Short Sales the same as regular transactions ?*

If you are listing your home as a short sale in Phoenix Arizona or Scottsdale Arizona make sure you hire an agent who knows how to work with bank asset managers and has experience with bank owned real estate (REO) transactions.

Call 480.221.8080 to find out more about Phoenix AZ bank owned real estate and Scottsdale REO ‘s