Real estate owned (REOs) form a large part of the inventory in the Valley of the Sun, for reasons that have been written of many times. In a nutshell, meteoric price rises fueled by speculators, followed by catastrophic price plummets equals mucho REOs.
So the chances are, especially in the lower to mid-priced range, that if you are looking to buy a home in one of the may burbs of Phoenix, you'll likely find some that are bank-owned. You also may find some that have been taken back by the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) as they insured many loans, and have since had to take possession of certain homes where the owner had defaulted on their loan.
Recently, I have written of our endeavors in Buckeye, AZ, where extreme low prices and excellent value for money, has enlivened the local real estate market. As previously noted, many are REOs, bank owned short sales. Such has been the intensity of the market, that the local paper carried a story of one young couple who had written 15 offers before successfully securing a property.
Our previously mentioned clients were a little forlorn at that news, but due to superior representation, Moi, we were able to get their dream home on only our third attempt. The seller was none other than Fannie Mae, and is the point of this post. Finally.
Being a government organization, they like to do things differently. Rarely better, but certainly different. I like to say that government being government, they like to add as many extra layers of efficiencies as possible. Let me explain.
We wrote and presented our offer in the normal fashion. We received a verbal counter, which goes against everything you have ever done, which you have to accept so that they can click the "accept" button on the computer. Then you get a written confirmation of your verbal agreement, signed only by the selling agent, in this case me, which is hardly binding on either party. Some days later you are again verbally informed that your offer is now "accepted", which starts the countdown on the various contingencies. Sometime the next day we received an entirely new purchase contract, generated by the seller, purporting to have amalgamated both the original contract and the counter into one document. In this case it did, but also added a few clauses and contingencies not previously mentioned. They were not deal-breaking, so our clients elected to sign off and secure their home. Bear in mind, at this point we do not have a single signature from a representative of Fannie Mae, which is a little disconcerting. Listing agent assures us this will be rectified in escrow, although from a legal standpoint I still doubt that the contract is binding on either party until that point. That's gubmint for ya!
Then the good news. The home had no stove and no water heater. We had advised our clients that as they were getting a USDA loan, the HUD appraiser would require them to be installed prior to closing in order for the home to be "habitable". They were willing to comply. However, we received a call that Fannie Mae was installing a brand new water heater, stove and microwave hood, plus a ceiling fan and sundry bathroom fixtures. Completely unbidden. Needless to say, my clients were ecstatic! A more duplicitous agent might have claimed it was as a result of endless hours of negotiation and desk-pounding on his part. I demurred.
So as I said, Fannie Mae and, then again, Fannie Mae not. In this case, she did.
