Mark Wisterman's Paradise & Lake Oroville Real Estate Blog

We’ve all heard the old saying , “Give them an inch and they will take a mile.” Right?

Well, this has never held more true than it does today in this age of bank owned properties. No, this is not another one of those bank, bashing blog posts that seem to be everywhere these days. Quite frankly it is difficult to tell if the expanding trend of banks REQUIRING  more and more of a potential purchaser before accepting an offer, is the work of the banks or of some of the bank-employed REALTORS® that have hitched their fortunes to their bank-employer.

Let’s take a little walk down memory lane to see what I mean.

Inch #1-In the beginning, banks that owned foreclosed homes simply required that a buyer present a loan prequalification letter with any offer that was made on one of their homes. This seemed fair, as no seller wants to be dealing with a buyer that is not qualified for a loan.

Inch #2- It was then not good enough that the purchase contract stated that the buyer had given a deposit check to their agent. The bank wanted a copy of the check.

Inch #3-Next the major banks required that any prospective buyer be loan prequalified with their bank before they would consider the buyer’s offer. Great way for the bank’s loan officers to try and persuade a buyer to swtich their business to them. Yes, it is happening! Read the rest of this entry »

So you just had your offer accepted on a property in the Lake Oroville real estate market that is owned by a bank. Your agent opens escrow with the title company and advises you that the bank’s agent will be sending the appropriate disclosures for your review.

When you finally get the disclosures all you see written across them are the words, “Bank owned, Seller Exempt.” You ask your REALTOR® about the lack of disclosure and he or she tells you that the bank is not obligated to provide disclosures to you because the home was taken back in foreclosure.  Only problem is, that this is not exactly true.

While it is accurate that the banks are exempt from providing some disclosure documents, they are not exempt from ALL disclosure requirements. And your REALTOR is not exempt from ANY disclosure requirements. Unfortunately what I am seeing is banks, and agents alike, ignoring their disclosure obligations by hiding behind the “bank owned”  excuse.

Here is an example of what I am talking about.  The following link will take you to a disclosure a BROKER from another office sent to one of my associates as part of the broker’s disclosures. By the way, I really wanted to leave the broker’s name and office information visible but thought  that even though it demonstrated his incompetence, I don’t want to appear unprofessional.

Click Here to See “Disclosure” 

This document is a form that most REALTORS® are now using to fulfill their duty to perform a diligent visual inspection of a home and report their findings to the buyer. Writing “exempt” across the front of this form does not relieve the broker of his LEGAL duty to disclose and is not a correct use of this particular form.

As a buyer you, and more importantly your REALTOR® need to insist on getting the required disclosures from the seller, whether it be a bank, or not. Don’t continue with your transaction if you are being deprived of your legally required disclosures.

We’ll review what these disclosure documents are in upcoming posts.

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