Radio ads, printed ads, Web sites, news broadcasts and television shows give consumers the message that they can find bargains or even achieve wealth by purchasing bank-owned homes. Media hype is all around and in my market we even have bus tours of foreclosed homes.

Real estate agents are bombarded with information on how to get rich selling foreclosures. Opportunities exist for investors and agents who want to run a high-volume, low-commission business. The homes and the opportunities are not as wonderful as the marketing leads us to believe.

For most Realtors, foreclosures are a growing part of the inventory and we work with them because we have buyers who want to purchase them. The process of buying a home from a bank is different than buying it from a private party — it is slower, and there is more paperwork and it always seems like the bank doesn’t really care if the home gets sold.

Getting these homes inspected is a challenge because often the water has been turned off by the city. The bank has a process and policies, which means it takes longer to get the simple things done that most of us handle on the spot with a phone call.

Large asset management departments handle foreclosures. Employees are in charge of "files," and they have hundreds of them. They get sick, take vacations and don’t answer the phone. These employees play the role of the seller. They don’t get to make decisions; they follow rules and they get paid vacations, and do not receive commissions or bonuses when their "file" closes.

Buyers’ agents make less money on lower-priced foreclosures and end up doing about four times as much work as they would with any other type of sale, mainly because of the extra paperwork and because our buyers will have to make a few offers. About one in every two or three offers a buyer’s agent writes will result in a sale that closes.

Teresa Boardman is a broker in St. Paul, Minn., and founder of the St. Paul Real Estate blog. Boardman will speak at Real Estate Connect in San Francisco, July 23-25, 2008. Register today.

***

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