Banking Bailout. Banks Handle Real Estate Marketing Wrong. The Real Estate Maven

Most of the injuries that many Banks are currently suffering from are self-inflicted. Financial institutions have been holding onto more foreclosed property than it is obviously healthy for them to own. It now seems painfully apparent this is because Banks do not have a clue about marketing and how to sell the very real estate that they were so hasty to reposes.

Trying to deal with most banks about their owned properties has been like some weird form of a cloak and dagger game. It seems that most Bankers find some sort of perverse pleasure in avoiding the very thing that they need the most BUYERS.

You see the banks have made it is almost impossible for the average buyer with interest to contact them about the very property that they are sitting on and need to sell. Even though this Property is obviously doing the banks more harm than good most financial institutions refuse to deal directly with individual buyers.

Larger financial institutions have not wanted to be bothered with the individual investors. They have sought to repackage groups of multiple properties into large portfolios to be resold to institutional investors. Maybe that is all that their staffs know how to do but it is time for them to change focus.

Many Banks have acted too high and mighty to deal with the individual investors. While they have shunned the small investor they have wasted precious marketing time and now look to the government for a solution

One can find the banks identity and address from town and city records but there is never a contact person to direct inquires to. An interested buyer cannot call these institutions and submit an offer and receive a call back. An interested buyer cannot write to these institutions and receive an answer about how to purchase the property in question. There is usually no way to have any dialogue whatsoever about the very real estate the financial institutions need to sell. It’s as if they actually do not want to sell. They do not want to be bothered with the little guy only the other giants of the industry. This attitude or strategy does not appear to have proven wise.

Some of the Bank Real Estate Owned departments utilize the services of the Realtor community. From what I have seen of the properties either the Realtor was trying to hard to impress the banks in order to obtain other listings from the banks or the banks are unrealistic in their appraisals of value. Either way the pricing I have seen has been completely out of line and this is not the time to be unrealistic.

The Banks need someone in house to see the properties, accurately price the properties and then concentrate on marketing the properties to each and every buyer they can find. Marketing over the Internet is simply not that hard to figure out.

 

The enormous difference between the RTC in the 80’s and the New Bailout bantered about this September is the Internet and the potential it creates to reach millions of individual buyers. Will the banks embrace this Internet marketing opportunity and liquidate their real estate holdings to each and every qualified buyer?

 

 

 

 

 Most banks have created an impermeable barrier that the ordinary purchaser cannot penetrate.  Financial institutions have made it all but almost impossible for the ordinary buyer to approach them about the foreclosed properties that they so desperately need to sell. Strangely, most of the very banks that turn the Government for bailout assistance make it all but impossible for buyers to contact them and negotiate to purchase on their Bank Owned Real Estate. In this volatile market banks should be looking at every buyer, big and small, as a potential sale.

 

Realtor conflict of interest: The Dept. of Justice vs. The National Association of Realtors. The R/E Maven

 

 

 

Realtors are supposed to have a fiduciary relationship with buyers or sellers of real estate. They are sworn to uphold this capacity and work in the best interest of either the buyer or the seller. That is to place the best interest of the buyer or seller first, above their best interest.

 

Interestingly, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) choose to fight the government long and hard to prevent other brokers from modernizing the sales system through some new marketing capabilities of the Internet.

 

The Multiple Listing Service was built upon the premise that Agents and brokers would cooperate and have equal access to sell one another’s inventory.

In the proposed settlement between the Dept. of Justice vs. The National Association of Realtors, President Richard Gaylord recently announced, “the settlement affirms the value of Multiple Listing Services as a tool of broker-to-broker cooperation.” But this is exactly one of the reasons why the Department of Justice (at the expense of the American public) had to file an antitrust lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors in the first place. The NAR was blocking the equal opportunity use of the MLS system by virtual office (Internet) brokers. They were not letting every broker use the tools Mr. Gaylord claims are of such value to share broker-to-broker.

Mr. Gaylord is taking credit for bring about the very change that he and the NAR were trying to stop and had to be forced to allow. It seems rather hypocritical to run an organization and system, that functions on member cooperation, to then only turn around and prevent this same cooperation. Then for the sake of public relations, the NAR claims victory over the government when it was the government that actually had to force them into this cooperation. And at a cost of how many thousands of dollars out of the taxpayers pockets for them to attempt to do business in a self-serving fashion.

Who’s kidding whom?

The national Association of Realtors took money away from the taxpayers of this country in order to protect their own pocketbooks and then, they want to look like the good guys when they loose the fight. This proposed settlement will bring about change to enable competition, perhaps resulting in lower commission rates and this is what the fight was truly over, the NAR wanted to keep commission rates higher. Not helping the consumers as Mr. Gaylord had the Audacity to announce. This is a conflict of interest. The National Association of Realtor’s interest above all others.

 

It is sad to see the MLS has become such a dinosaur but with this attitude it is small wonder why. They survive because they are the giant but so was Tyrannosaurus Rex. Instead of embracing the capabilities of the Internet they have once again spent years and the taxpayers money being greedy obstructionists to advancement. It seems they have been so bust fighting the inclusion of others that they lost sight in their own system.

 

 

 

 

Realtor conflict of interest: Who to believe, The Dept. of Justice or The National Association of Realtors. The R/E Maven

 

 

 

The Department of Justice announced a proposed settlement to the now almost three year old, civil antitrust lawsuit that they filed against the National Association of Realtors.

 

The Justice Department announced that the “settlement will result in more choices, better services and lower commission rates for consumers.

The Department of Justice challenged the National Association of Realtors polices and related rules that obstruct real estate brokers who use innovative Internet-based tools to offer better services and lower costs to consumers. These policies by the National Association of Realtors prevented consumers from receiving the full benefit of competition. Under the terms of the announced settlement, The National Association of Realtors will repeal its anticompetitive polices and require affiliated Multiple Listing Services to do the same.

 

On the other hand the National Association of Realtors President Richard F. Gaylord recently announced in Realtor Magazine that the proposes settlement is “a win for consumers and Realtors.” Further stating that the proposed settlement resolves Department of Justice concerns, ensuring a level playing field for brokers operating a virtual office Web site and that the settlement affirms the value of the Multiple Listing Service as a tool of broker-to-broker cooperation.

 

So who are we to believe, the Department of Justice or The National Association of realtors? Both the Realtors and the Government spent an enormous amount of money on the action. Who is telling the truth and who do you suspect is putting a lot of spin on this one?

 

Perhaps tomorrow I will examine this a little deeper.