Fabulous Bank Owned REO opportunities are presenting themselves around the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) area. A great opportunity for an owner occupant or investor is available in Eagan, MN. 4078  Meadowlark Lane Eagan, MN 55122 2BR Town Home $99k. Eagan, MN Foreclosures for sale, Eagan MN REO. www.JohnSchusterGroup.com Charming Move-In Ready 3 Level Townhome. Freshly Painted and New Carpet! Association is Working on Deck Renovations. Endless Amounts of Potential.

Also view a full copy of the listing @ http://mnforeclosureproperties.com/tc/spw/3984004/index.do

For more info or to scheudal a showing contact John Schuster @ jdschuster@cbburnet.com 612-924-7140 www.JohnSchusterGroup.com Coldwell Banker Burnet’s #1 Listing agent in 2010 (STATEWIDE)

It looks as if Twin Cities (Minneapolis  & St. Paul Saint Paul) Foreclosures (REO) activity is on the rise.  What does this mean for you if you are an investor or home buyer?  A good deal!

Yesterday, there was an article in the Star Tribune by veteran reporter  ( Jim Buchta • 612-673-7376  jbuchta@startribune.com )

http://www.startribune.com/business/107117148.html?page=1&c=y

“With foreclosures still entering the market at near-record pace, inventory levels continue to rise. And even though the number of new listings slowed last month, total inventory is 10.6 percent higher than last year at this time. That, coupled with a decline in sales, has caused the supply of houses on the market to increase from 6.1 months in October 2009 to 8.2 months last month. That means that at the current sales pace and inventory levels, there are enough houses on the market to last 8.2 months if no new inventory were added.”

Twin Cities housing prices are going to continue to decline, it’s simple supply and demand.  Bank owned REO  foreclosures, short sales continue to rule the market.  With an increasing supply of these distressed sales on hand, regular sellers can have a difficult time competing!  Investors have been picking up investment property (Duplexes, Triplex, FourPlex 4-plex) and such a discount, they CASH FLOW with very little money down!  First time buyers can now purchase affordable homes!  (although if they are using FHA financing, which they all are, the home must be in FHA -able condition) – John Schuster, Top REO Broker in the Twin Cities area!

My team and I have begun to notice that many first time buyer homes are now selling in multiple offers!  In fact multiple-multiple offers – one bank owned (REO listing) had 11 offers!  If the property is move in ready and is priced way below the other active listings – it sells fast!  Banks have been getting wiser to have their inventory of homes in better condition and have them priced correctly out the door!  Fannie Mae, a lender that The John Schuster Group, with Coldwell Banker Burnet, represents in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area, has stringent requirements for how their properties must look.  The goal is for the foreclosure not to look like a foreclosure!  Our inventory has been drying up in the Twin Cities:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124044612611045827.html

One might think that we are nearing the bottom because the foreclosure inventory is drying up.  One would be wrong to think that!  All of the big banks and mortgage holding companies (including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) have had a moratorium on foreclosures from mid-November, 2008 to April 1, 2009.  They are all so backloged with 5+ months of defaults (on properties that were not foreclosed on during the moratorium), plus new defaults that a tsunami to reo’s are-a-coming!

Expect a high number of sheriff-sales in the next couple of month, then a cure time of 2-6/months for redemption (depending on if the property is abandoned), then about another month of time for cleaning and market evaluations (BPO, Broker Price Opinion and an appraisal) and then it his the market.  I predict we will have a flood of new REO’s mid-fall 2009.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123975395670518941.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

-Year to day (4/26/09) John Schuster and his team have sold over 68 properties in 2009, many of them being “bank owned foreclosures”. Schuster and his team have sold foreclosure homes, town homes and condos this year in Minneapolis, St. Paul, New Hope, Maple Grove, Savage, South St.Paul, North St. Paul, Maplewood, White Bear Lake, Woodbury, Bloomington and Uptown. You can follow John Schuster on Twitter @ Twitter@jdschuster

FROM MSNBC.COM

“We’ve all heard so much bad economic news, many folks are afraid to buy homes. But those in the real estate industry say, this could actually be a great time to buy. 8 thousand dollars. That’s how much the feds are waving in the faces of first time home buyers. It’s part of an incentive to encourage home buying and stimulate the economy.” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29537044/

This tax credit for first time buyers (10% of the homes value up to $8k total credit) is great news for the housing market.  In the Twin Cities / Minneapolis / St. Paul area – there are a ton of first time buyer homes available and now a glut of move-up and upper-bracket homes.  The buyer to purchase these move up homes doesn’t have the equity in their current home anymore AND they can’t get anyone to buy it.  Not any more!  The good first-time-buyer homes are selling!  Selling so fast, ~25% of my homes listed under $150k are selling in multiple offers! Housing is now affordable and this tax credit is icing on the cake!  This will help the mid and upper bracket only a bit…  Many first time sellers cannot compete with bank owned foreclosures and they cannot sell themselves because they are upside-down in their home OR they would walk with such little money, they would have enough down-payment to move up to the 250-400 bracket.  I predict you will see a bottom come to the first time buyer market mid-2009 and mid-to-upper bracket market will return when the economy FULLY recovers which will be 2-5 years out.  2009 is the year to buy real estate.  John Schuster sold over 100 homes in 2008 and he offices out of the Minneapolis Lakes Office of Coldwell Banker Burnet  www.TwinCitiesListed.com612-924-7140.  John Schuster has a full time team of 5 people and loves to work with both buyers and sellers in this market.