This week I submitted two offers for REO properties for two separate clients.  One was a single family 3 bedroom 2 bath home in Santa Clara that was listed at $400,000.  The home was in poor condition but the price reflected it.   My experience with REOs (bank owned properties) is that they are seldom in good condition, so a little extra work was no big deal for my client.

We submitted an offer at $407,000 and there were 4 other offers at that time.  In this Santa Clara neighborhood alone there were 3 other bank owned properties on the market, the next lowest in price was $461,000 and needed just about the same amount of work.

The response from the seller was a highest and best counter in the form of an email.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with this strategy, the seller comes back to all the interested parties and asks them to submit their highest and best offer.  We responded knowing that this home was under priced and offered $420,000 as our highest and best.  That was 3 days ago and are still waiting for a response from the bank.