Anyway, we did venture to an REO property that I found that I was curious about. It was listed for $54k, and the ARV looks to be about $93k, so I was curious to find out why this had not been taken yet. So we took a drive to see the area, as my county is very large, so I've only seen a small bit of it overall.
Well, we found out why it hadn't sold yet -- HUGE foundation problem. The house is kind of built into the slope of the property, kind of like a bi-level (it had a full basement), and a carport. Well, the carport area slab was sunken in, and the wall of the carport had seriously shifted. The front of the house also shifted. It would need a serious amount of repair, I imagine, to get it into livable condition again. It was in an ok area - kind of a mix of owner-occupant/rentals, and it was near the interstate (although I really didn't notice the traffic noise). Definitely good as a first time buyer house, or a RTO (rent-to-own), or even a rental. But I can see where a retail buyer is not going to go for this property, because I'm sure they couldn't get financing for it. And I guess the bank is being a bit stubborn on this and is just going to let it sit and adjust the price every few weeks.
As we were leaving, a woman drove by and told us that the house had had flooding issues and that "everyone had to get out". I felt bad for the previous buyers, because this probably happened while they were the owners and either they couldn't afford the repairs (maybe insurance didn't cover it) or perhaps they took the insurance money and walked away from the house (which I didn't think could happen if you have the mortgage company listed as additonal insured). I'm going to be keeping an eye on this, just to keep track to see if it gets sold and at what price.
I also called a broker who had been looking for agents to hang their licenses with her. She worked from home, and was basically a one person office. She was looking for at least one agent to work with her so she would have some cover when she went on vacation, but other than that, the agent was able to do their own thing. I explained that I hadn't gotten my license yet, but I was considering getting it, and basically wanted to do my own deals and have my own MLS access. She had no problem with that. The only thing that was a problem is that she was not a member of my county's MLS (she is the next county over). So I would have to call my county to see if I could subscribe to the MLS under her brokerage, even if she was in the next county and wasn't a member my county's Board of Realtors. This might prove to be a bit expensive, and might just mean I look for another investor friendly broker in my county.
Also, I was looking at real estate agent classes for my area. South Carolina requires a 60 hour course, and it cannot be held/taken online. The classes meet 8-5 on weekdays for 2 weeks. So that's something I would have to do while the kids are in school full time next year, and make arrangements for my mother-in-law or my husband to pick up the kids at school and look after them until I get out of class. I dont' think that will be a problem, but I would have to do it for the 2009-2010 school year, which starts in August. No big deal - in the interim, if I find deals that I want to pursue, I can work with a local broker to make my offers with, and when I get my license I can hang it with them.
So that's about it for now. Ebay is slow for me, so my motivation for listing has gone down...but I need to list. It's the only way I can get better sales is to have more things to offer.
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