That is correct..the MLS has the current and accurate properties in Short Sale. Realty trac has things listed that "were" in NOD but the default has been cured..or property that was sold long ago..they waste your time and take your money! A realtor will work for you and give you correct information.

realty trac is a marketer...they want to capture your leads to sell them...simple.

the Reatytrac info is not current, timely or accurate. the local MLS's have timeliness, accuracy and completeness rules that if flaunted can result in monetary fines and sanctions for the subscribers. the MLS is what the internet may grow up to be.

jay, you're killin' me. realtors cannot make a dead market look any healthier than it is...we are not a cabal of conspirators with the goal of shanking you into buying a property. you might run onto a rah rah type but the fact remains that the market is what it is and no amount of spin will make a dead horse run. the ease of gathering information has made every bit of information easily confirmed or denied.

Because Realtytrac lists properties that aren't bank owned; if a seller is behind in their payments and has a Notice of Default filed Realtytrac picks it up. The home may be on the market as a "short sale" and not be "bank owned". Due to that situation a lot of these homes never become "bank owned" as the seller either cures the default (pays the back payments) or works out a payment situation with the bank or sells the property as a "short sale".

Realtytrac keeps old and new foreclosure listing for advertising purposes. The property you see in the website might be already sold months ago. There's a reason why they keep it there to attract subscribers.

Charita King
562-276-8681

Jay, I think you are partly correct, there are those in the industry that live off hype not all of us.

Nice chart. I bought in 1994 and in 1986 when the market was down and did very well. The difference this time is the explosion between 2002 and 2005.

Check out the Interest Rate and Inflation Chart I created. http://homebuysblog.com/2008/07/03/interest-rates-and-inflat… 2004 housing prices went up almost 30%. That is too much too fast.

Joyce is right about realtytrac. In my market especially, the discrepancy is simply because realtytrac is not updated. They add the bank-owned properties to the site but do not remove them once they are sold. Many have been listed and sold through the MLS months ago, if not over a year ago.

Jay,

Realtors don't make the market. We work with the market.

There is no way for Realtors to 'make the market look healthier than it is.' Only wish we had that much control over the economy.

We work off of current information not old information that is posted on many sites. Some sites are posting NODs as foreclosures in is not true. Not all NODs become bank owned properties.

"Doing Real Estate Right"

The realtors are biased and wish to make the market look healthier than it is.
If you really want to know why there are more foreclosures than homes, then just take a peek at this chart
http://tinyurl.com/46c435

Notice, the last point plotted is only for a single quarter, not the whole year. The previous housing market crash driven by high numbers of foreclosures is completely eclipsed by this crash.

Pop quiz: Whats the quickest way to get 100,000 dollars?
Answer: Buy a $200,000 dollar home in california right now and wait a year or two LOL

Judy,

Since I just got finished showing six bank owned houses in Camarillo which are all listed in the MLS, I thought I'd check Realtytrac.

Wow! you are right! But here's the deal -- Realtytrac is not updated like the MLS. Many of those homes on the Realtytrac site are either in escrow or have closed escrow. Currently there are twenty active listing of homes for sale in Camarillo in the MLS that are bank owned; Realtytrac shows 69 homes.

Judy, if you want some help finding bank owned homes in Ventura County, please let me know. We will send you auto emails so you can have daily updates.

"Doing Real Estate Right"

Judy, I posted my answer on my Youtube Channel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5Ux90z1Jek

Hi there Judy. There are many reason but the most common reason for this is that Realty Trac reports properties that have had NOD filed. Many of these are not yet bank owned. I t has to go throught a process in California before it becomes a bank owned property. Which MLS are you using to look?
If you are interested in Bank Owned Properties we have many in stock

If you would like a list of them drop me a line
Hope you have received some helpful answers
Kind Regards
Michael Barron
Realtor/MBA
First Team Real Estate
(714) 552-6817

The answer is quite simple. Because there are a lot more foreclosure properties for sale than re-sale and new properties. The product of the USA's largest housing crash ever recorded. There is additional shadow inventory that is not listed anywhere. Banks are overloaded with homes being returned to them, and they are not staffed properly to list and move these properties. The foreclosure market IS the market now. Regular homes in the MLS are now a sub-market of the larger market.

Judy:

RealtyTrac gets their information from the public records. The look at who took title to the property after the Trustee Action, and then report that property as bank owned. Here are a few reasons that RealtyTrac might report a property as bank owned and that property is not on the MLS:
1. Quite often banks do not know that they own the property right after the Trustee Sale. They are often represented by attorneys or other intermediaries. Quite often it is days, even weeks, before the bank knows they have to administer the property and either assigns it to an asset manager or bundles it up with other foreclosed property and sells it to an investor group.
2. If assigned to an asset manager it is now time to make sure that the paperwork is in order, anyone living in the property is properly evicted, and a realtor is hired to sell the property. Then the bank needs to get an appraisal or BPO to determine how much they want to sell the property for. Quite often there are also issues to deal with regarding mortgage insurance and/or investor groups. Properties can take 90 days from the auction date before the bank markets them to buyers.
3. If the property is bundled up and sold in bulk, then the investor group has to acquire title and then do pretty much the same stuff as the asset manager, minus the investor groups and mortgage insurance parts. Again, it can take a while to be ready to be resold.
4. The last reason might be that there is an error in the records about who owns the property. I have seen properties that were sold through a successful short sale show up on REO lists, hence the reason asset managers have to check that all the paperwork is in order.

I am sure there are numerous other reasons, however, you can see that there is quite a lag time before the home is marketable as an REO. Hope that helps to clear up things. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me directly. And Dare to Dream

Shel-lee Davis
Real Estate Consultant
RE/MAX Palos Verdes Realty

There are 2 reasons for this:
Some websites like Realtytrack are not including accurate and updated information. They "list" foreclosures properties based on NOD ( Notice of defaults) Not all NOD go in to foreclosures.
The second reason is that some banks have a policy of not disclosing the fact that a specific property is " bank owned" on the MLS. They do it afterwards, so only an experienced agent can determine if a property is in fact " bak owned" ( although technically REO, means that a "corporation" owns a property, it doenst necesarily means its a bank.

Because a lot of the bank owned homes are not listed. Banks deliberately hold off on some of their inventory, to try to not flood certain areas with too many homes ( if that is possible lol), and therfore increase the competition for themselves.