Here is an interesting scenario, you put in an offer on a bank owned, reo, foreclosure home, you offer is higher than any other offer, and you don’t get the home? This allegedly happened to a couple looking to purchase a Brooklyn Park, MN Minnesota twinhome. The Star Tribune reported that The Minneapolis Area Association or Realtors will be holding an ethics hearing on the matter. Realtors, agent, brokers are required to presents “any and all written offers” for real estate. The buyers for this Brooklyn Park, MN listing had brought the “highest and best offer” and found out that a lower bidder got it.

From The Star Tribune, 11/26/2010, 

Couple lose out on home; Realtors face ethics case

“From the moment Erica and Mike Lenzen saw a foreclosed twin home for sale in Brooklyn Park, they thought it should be theirs. They even put in a no-strings-attached offer $8,000 above the asking price. But the home was sold to someone else. The Lenzens got suspicious when they learned the house sold for $2,000 less than their offer. When Mike Lenzen tracked down the bank representative in charge of selling the property, she told him she had no record of receiving the couple’s offer. Despite all the regulation and disclosure, buying a home can be a secretive process. Buyers are largely at the mercy of what sellers and their agents tell them. It’s especially mysterious these days, as foreclosed homes flood the market and the banks that own them make sales decisions that sometimes defy explanation. Most buyers who lose out on a deal just move on. The Lenzens spent weeks investigating the transaction and scrutinizing documents. They are convinced their offer was withheld by the bank’s agents at EXIT Realty Metro. They’re not quite sure why, except that the winning bidder, an investor who plans to rent it out, had no agent, allowing EXIT Realty to earn a larger commission.”

http://www.startribune.com/local/north/110890349.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUac8HEaDiaMDCinchO7DU

If you are thinking of buying a foreclosure home, condo, townhome, twinhome or land, you need a good buyer’s agent to ensure your offer is presented and received and that you have all the info to put in the best offer. It is important to work with a Realtor/real estate agent that knows REO Foreclosure properties. Although there will be other listings in the Brooklyn Park area for these buyers and I am sure they search the MLS daily for new bank owned deals, they felt they were slighted in this deal and they want justice! Brooklyn Park borders on Brooklyn Center, Fridley, Champlin, New Hope and Maple Grove Minnesota. – John Schuster is the #1 Listing Agent with Coldwell Banker Burnet in 2010 and is a leader in Foreclosure/Bank Owned/REO properties and listings.

The Minnesota foreclosure machine for the most part has not been affected by the recent halt to foreclosures by some of the big mortgage players (Bank of America BAC, PNC
Financial, Chase). This is mostly because Twin Cities foreclosures (actually all Minnesota foreclosures) happen in a redemption state. If the owner has cause, she or he can likely get the sheriff’s sale postponed and after the Minnesota sheriff’s sale has happened, the prior owner has 6 month’s to “redeem” themselves and take back title to their home. MN NPR has an interesting article about this issue.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/10/17/foreclosures/
For more info on Hennepin County Foreclosures, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Sales,Dakota County Foreclosures, Dakota County Sheriff’s Sales, Anoka County Foreclosures, Anoka County Sheriff’s Sales,Carver County Foreclosures, Carver County Sheriff’s Sales,Washington County Foreclosures, Washington County Sheriff’s Sales,Scott County Foreclosures, Scott County Sheriff’s Sales,Ramsey County Foreclosures, Ramsey County Sheriff’s Sales http://mnforeclosureproperties.com/?p=161 

Here is an interesting interview with PBS and HUD Secretary Donovan

All in all, the foreclosure are going to keep coming. I think we will see a little more QC done during some of the legal filings and such, but the banks are going to take back homes where someone is not paying their mortgage. For the most part Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul), Hennepin County / Ramsey County / Dakota County / Washington County / Anoka County / Carver County / Scott County foreclosures (REO) listings will continue to work their way through the legal process and be resold on the open market. Coming into the winter market with an ever increasing inventory has created some fabulous opportunities for investors to pick up some excellent CASH FLOW properties with little money down. I think we have about 2-4 more years of this market. The best deals will be in the next year to 18 months before Minnesota foreclosures start to tapper off. If you have good credit, a little money, time to put into an income property and you want to wealth in a decade from now, talk to a good Minneapolis / St. Paul Twin Cities Minnesota real estate broker. – John Schuster

Looking for steal of a deal on your next home? Do you think buying your next Minneapolis Home, Minneapolis Condo or Minneapolis Town Home at a real estate auction can save you tons of money? Maybe so, especially if that auction is a foreclosure (REO) Auction! Hudson and Marshall just left the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) on their Midwest home selling spree!

Here you can see a listing @ 140 10th Street S, South St. Paul MN that was last actively listed @ $119,900 that “Sold” at the Minnesota foreclosure auction at almost half price! This is what I call “Cheap MN real estate”. Note that most real estate foreclosure auctions have a “reserve” price and if the property does not fetch the reserve price – the seller (i.e. the foreclosing bank) can decide if they want to accept, reject or counter the auction sale price.

Auctions can be a great deal and a major headache! First, you must do ALL of your due diligence (buyer inspection) prior to bidding. You might need to pay an inspector to inspect a home that you do not yet own – and might be outbid at auction! Second, you most likely need to be a Cash buyer of real estate as auction sales cannot be contingent upon financing. And third, most auctions have a “buyer’s premium” added to the sales price which is usually 5%. This means if you are the winning bidder at the auction for $100000, this home will really cost you $105000.

Know what your doing if you buy via auction…and if you don’t find a good Realtor that navigate all the Twin Cities auction pitfalls for you. – John Schuster

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.

Worst, No. 4: Minneapolis, Minn.

Index score: 127

Prices were last this low: April 2002

Month-to-month drop: -4.6%

Year-over-year drop: -18.45%

Deceleration rank: No. 20

http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/24/housing-cities-ten-lifestyle-real-estate_home_prices_slide_18.html?thisSpeed=15000

Forbes.com just released data from S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index, released Feb. 24, 2009.

They state that Minneapolis, MN is the #4 worst housing market in their “10 Best And 10 Worst U.S. Housing Markets”.  Although our real estate market has gone through tremendous stresses in the last year, there is no way we should have even made this list.  We have seen values drop 5-50+% depending on which area of Minneapolis you focus on.  The SW Minneapolis and Lakes area have been able to hold their values much better that North Minneapolis, Phillips and Powderhorn neighborhoods.  The silver lining to declining market values is affordable housing.  First time buyers now have the opportunity to own homes that they can actually afford.  If you are thinking of purchasing a home in Minneapolis or St. Paul or in the Twin Cities metropolitain area, now may be the time.  It is very important to find an agent that know foreclosures / REO properties and regulations in Minneapolis, St. Paul or the municipality in which that home resides.