Part of our motivation in joining Atlantic & Pacific Real Estate in November was to gain access to bank owned listings in Portland and the surrounding areas to compliment our existing business.  Bank owned listings are going to be a significant part of our market for a number of years and we have no intention of heading down the road of being the stereotypical “bank owned agents” and foregoing the core of our business: our past clients, their referrals and our Internet presence, including this blog .  We saw what happened to the “new construction agents”: eventually the niche players become extinct if they fail to evolve as the market changes.  In the near future we’ll be launching a website featuring pre-list bank owned homes.  It will be a place to be notified of upcoming listings before they are in RMLS.

Part of APRE’s motivation in wanting us is to hire successful agents that can apply traditional real estate methods to the oft maligned stigma of bank listings; some of it well earned.  Our goal, along with Atlantic & Pacific’s, is to elevate the purchase and sale of REO/Bank Owned property to an experience on par with that of traditional real estate.  Atlantic & Pacific, through their affiliated business ventures and systems, is able to alleviate some of the challenges of taking on bank owned listings so that we can focus on getting them sold.  During a recent call to a utility company it was assumed that I was putting the utility in my name and on my credit card.  Not the case, we have a department that takes care of that.  Her response, “that’s cool, I wish more did it that way.”  That’s an indication of APRE’s tagline, “Different & Better.”

Ultimately John Q. Public Seller and an institutional seller want the same thing: the most amount of money possible for their listing for the least amount of hassle.  The process of getting there is similar but no two properties or sellers need every tool available.  Monitoring bank owned listings requires a systematic approach and an understanding that we are the eyes and ears locally; they’ll never see the property they’ve been charged with selling first hand.  What’s obvious to you and me standing there has to be conveyed in pictures and words- the same for a traditional seller who has relocated or is selling an investment property.  Honing those skill benefits our traditional sellers too.

Our newest listing (bank owned) in the Pearl District’s Pinnacle Condominiums provided the perfect opportunity to try something new: a time lapse movie highlighting the view.  The two bedroom/two bathroom unit has 180 degree views from the West Hills to the Fremont Bridge.  I  used painter’s tape to fix the iPad to the window for 18 hours.  What you see here is nearly 4000 photographs compressed into just over two minutes.  It’s not perfect but its pretty cool to me nonetheless.  I learned some things that should make the next one better.