With the Going Tough, One Broker Gets Going With More Sales

Though home sales are slow and foreclosures continue at record rates, a few brokers and agents are actually picking up business.

Some real estate professionals have moved into the foreclosure market with much success.

Gary Kent, a local broker with Denver-based Re/Max Associates, says he anticipated the rise in foreclosures during the market boom a few years ago.

“I knew the run-up couldn’t last, so I started calling Banks before they really had any foreclosures,” said Kent. “I started calling them in ’04 and ’05. They were saying things like ‘We don’t have any foreclosures’ and I was saying ‘You will, so how do I get your approved lists.’ ”

Now 46 clients, including Banks, asset management companies and mortgage insurance companies, update Kent on foreclosure properties for sale on a regular basis. He sees more than one new listing per day from his clients. And he has shifted his business focus to REO, or “real estate owned,” bank sales.

Last year, Kent, based in University Towne Center, sold 150 bank-owned properties. The sales represented 80 percent of his business, he says.

Redwood City-based Movoto reported that 21.5 percent of listings on the Multiple Listing Service at the end of March were distressed properties. The number of distressed or bank-owned properties, or in foreclosure or seeking a short sale, was up from 20.4 percent on Feb. 29.

Many of the foreclosure properties involve first-time home buyer listings and condominium conversions. And many are located in Spring Valley; Eastlake in Chula Vista; Escondido; Oceanside; El Cajon; and East San Diego.

Because foreclosure sales can be labor intensive, Kent says he has added five employees to the Gary Kent Team in the past couple of years.

Kent says buyers interested in foreclosure properties need to get pre-qualified for mortgages, be flexible and patient, and find a good agent who knows about REO properties.

Karen Wheeler of Coldwell Banker Del Mar agrees that buyers interested in foreclosed properties need someone to help in navigating transactions and finding listings often not on the MLS.

Wheeler says she sold more than 100 bank-owned properties last year.

She says brokers are often the first to learn about available foreclosed properties when Banks provide them with homes that need to be priced and marketed.

In this pre-marketing phase, and before homes are added to the MLS, brokers and their agents can provide information to buyers.

“With the number of foreclosures growing, we have knowledge of as many as 30 to 40 properties being prepared for sale but are not yet on the market,” Wheeler said.