What is an REO property?

It stands for “Real Estate Owned”. It refers to an accounting line item on a company’s asset information. It is property that the company owns, or is holding as an asset. In this case the bank owns the property. You can easily determine what the bank paid for the property by looking up the tax record and looking at the last sale amount.

How low is the bank willing to go?

Not as low as most people think. The bank knows from experience that if they offer the property at a reasonable price or just slightly below market value (depending on the condition of the home) they will invariably get an offer at or close to what they are asking in a reasonable amont of time. Your buyer can offer as low as they wish, but the bank will often ignore “low ball” offers and in fact are not required to even give a response back to the buyer at all. My suggestion is to make your best offer if you want the bank to accept your offer or at least counter it. Just a statistical fact to give you some food for thought, Las Vegas homes typically sell for around 97% of the asking price.

How long does it take to get a response after I put in an offer?

Typically it takes about 1 week. The offer goes to the asset manager who generally has a couple of hundred files that he or she is managing, so it takes a little time. If the offer is in an acceptable range, he will in turn take it to his supervisor for approval or to issue a counter offer.

Can my buyer ask for closing costs?

Yes, you can ask for closing costs. You can ask for anything like you would when making an offer on any other property. The best strategy to get an approval though, is to make the offer as “clean” as possible.

Can we do an inspection?

Yes you can have a home inspection. It is best to accomplish this within your due diligence period as stated within your purchase agreement.

What does as-is mean? Why is there no SRPD?

The property’s were obtained through process of foreclosure and as such, the seller is not required under Nevada law to provide an SRPD if they get the buyer to waive the requirement. The property is being sold as-is, “what you see is what you get”. There is no guarantee of the condition of the property as the seller has little or no direct knowledge about the property.