In real estate we talk about staging. Getting a home ready to show. We take care to clean, uncluttered and make the home look it’s best before buyers are invited to see it.
This home is owned by a bank and is on the market in St. Paul.
Notice how inviting it is. This place just says home. It is unheated and we saw it last week on one of those subzero days.
The bank that owns this home apparently decided to showcase the lath and plaster construction. Opening up the ceiling really calls attention to it. Most buyers can’t help but notice the gaping hole in the kitchen ceiling.
As much as I hate to be critical of how banks stage homes I think they missed an opportunity here. They could have posted their low, low rates for home equity lines of credit, next to the hole in the wall. Most buyers will look up and maybe they will think they can get some kind of a loan to fix the ceiling.
What I also find interesting is that becasue the bank has never actually seen the home they do not have to fill out a standard sellers disclosure. The sellers disclosure requires that sellers disclose any defects. This bank owned home is staged in such a way as to show off the defect so that mentioning it on the disclosure would be kind of redundant.
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LOL. If the next 1000 posts are any ware as entertaining as the first, I’ll be reading this blog for a long long time.
Todd I am trying to be serious here. LOL
Somehow I get the feeling that you don’t think banks can sell real estate! Very funny post.
Josette – you got that idea from reading my blog? wow! LOL
This bank mustn’t be Countrywide, because Linda Davis gets $1000 to stage the exterior of her bank owned properties.
I don’t know how the other banks will keep up if Countrywide pays for staging.
A nice wreath and maybe a fake Rubber plant on the porch will help this one sell…oh oh and a new “welcome mat” too.
It’s hard to avoid saying something really awful about this. Honestly, how much would it cost to hire someone like, say, a local REALTOR to take care of the obvious stuff at least?
I dunno. These banks are obviously way, way outta their league here. I wouldn’t care except for the obvious fact that this is my City we’re talkin’ about; we know that a large number of vacant buildings is a serious problem.
Bob – country wide does not do that nation wide for every home. Honestly I think they should at least get the steps cleared. it was very hard to get into.
Erik – some times agents can have some repairs done and the bank will reimburse. Since the banks are far away and never see the property they don’t know that it is hard to get into this house because of the snow. . . even if they did it would melt long before a decision to have the steps shoveled could be made.
Wow! I’d be laughing if it wasn’t so serious! I mean, it’s you almost have to just laugh and shake your head!
About 9 or 10 months ago, I had a family that did a short sale on their home. Three days before closing (it was a quick close), we discovered $5000 in back taxes on the property that the owners neglected to tell me or anyone else about. So here we were with a short sell on a property that was market valued at abotu $135K-$140K and I brought an offer at $129,000. When the taxes were discovered, the bank killed the deal and foreclosed on the home.
Fast forward 10 months and the home was back on the market for $117,00. The bank STILL had to pay the $5000 back taxes PLUS 9 months of new taxes and HOA fees and ultimately the house sold for $114,000.
I pleaded my case to the “man in California” when they killed the first deal to understand that they were going to have to pay the $5000 in back taxes regardless but they were not going to get a better offer. They declined and in the process it cost them OVER $15,000.
Sure banks can sell real estate…if the goal is to LOSE MONEY!
Maybe it’s a loss leader concept like supermarkets use. If we sell the house so much under market, maybe the new owners will come in and open a checking account with us! Hmmm…
I sincerely hope that the market will go ahead and flush out most of these short sales this year.
We have started to see banks posting low prices that they wouldn’t accept just to initiate multiple offers here.
Thanks for being a consistent voice that rings out loud and clear for the banks to hear.
Ow ow ow…Teresa, this is def weenie material.
Just proves it one more time that banks perfer not to own too much property,do no really want to be landlords and need the help of the Realtor-o-sphere and the bloggosphere to bring their marketing up to par for the consumer.
Steve
Hahahaha! I was curious to see how banks stage homes. I was pretty sure that they wouldn’t put any money into a foreclosed home to get their lost money back… and they don’t! Great post.
http://www.mystagedlife.com
http://www.stagedmakeovers.com
Wow! I can’t believe that they’re not even heating the place. How fast can we get outta here?
Wow! I can’t believe that they’re not even heating the place. How fast can we get outta here?
HA! I think that they used the same stager that’s been doing most of the homes in Loudoun County, Virginia!
At least they have the “transparency” part down when it comes to disclosing
Norm – many of them are not heated. What I find interesting is that it is always colder in the home than it is outside. You live in a colder climate, so you have to know how painful it is to show some of these homes. In one of them I had a client slip on the ice on the kitchen floor. . . banks can’t sell real estate.