I often receive calls from buyers with lots of cash but nothing to buy from banks.There’s a lot of shared frustration for investors trying to find good discounted bank deals. Unfortunately, the opportunities to buy from institutions have dwindled to almost none from a year ago. Everyone wants California, Nevada, and Arizona at 60% – 65% but these discounts no longer exist. If you try buying from the banks today or Freddie/Fannie Mac, you can expect discounts of between 76% to 82%. But there are groups of investors who have devised some creative ways to get those discounts between 60% to 70%.
In the old days, buying at auction at the county courthouse was usually an excercise in futility. Bank representatives were bidding up their properties close to FMV or simply bidding up to the amount owed on the note. Banks took back the properties, put them on the market and within a few weeks sold the property and recouped nearly the full amount of the forclosed note. These days, home values have plummeted and values are so depressed that banks are simply taking the highest price bid at the auction offered by investors and selling them off. The auction sales price is typically a fraction of what the previous note was and well under market value. It’s like stealing candy from a baby.
