My two sales each closed a day late. A colleague told me he had one close 2 weeks late and another told me of one that close a month late. This costs the buyer and in retrospect, the bank money. As a buyer of a bank owned property there is nothing, I repeat nothing you can do about the delay. The process for selling the property is complex and the bank divides the job into segments. The listing agent deals with someone called an Asset Manager. This person approves the contract, sends out the bank term sheet, negotiates with the buying agent and signs off on the process. Then someone else comes in. This is the un-named mystery man or woman who has control of the deed and HUD-1. They are the lynchpin in the process.

If you have some cash in the bank this is a great time for investors to buy real estate here in our own San Mateo County.  It’s been a long time for anyone to see a positive cash flow from investment real estate around here, but with the large number of short sales and bank [...]