Here are two examples of short sale fraud I have seen.

1.)   A real estate agent takes a short sale listing.  He tries to influence the banks BPO agent to give a low price.  If he is able to negotiate a low price below market value he has a "friend" buy the property.  The friend buys the property and then the agent re-lists the property after a little fix up.  The agent gets some of the profit from the sale and gets the listing commission too.

2.)   A seller hires a real estate agent they know to get ready to list a short sale.  The sellers friend or family member with a different name gets another agent.  The buyer tells them they know of a short sale that is coming on the market. The same day the house comes on the market before anybody else can bid on it the sellers friend or family member puts in an offer.  That offer goes into the bank because the listing agent is using first in only.

Other higher and better offers come in, but the sellers agent disreguards them because they use the "first in" rule.  They dis reguard their obligation to get the best deal or highest offer for the bank.  They protect the seller.  The seller's friend or family member buys the house.  The seller continues to live in the house.  The seller's friend either leases it back to the seller, or has the seller pay the mortgage payment to them.

The short sale seller has bought their own house back at a much lower price than they originally bought it for with the aid of their real estate agent.  They have beaten the bank out of money and helped commit mortgage fraud. 

It's happening already and I don't think the banks or the FBI is going after these people individually.     

 I always say the longer the house is on the market the more likely the house is over priced.  All homes will sell if priced right.  The home will sell when it becomes a value.  I would say those homes in the $700 - $750,000 range are over priced for what they are. 

Novi home Price Statistics

Range Name Price Range Number of Listings Days on Market           50,000 to 100,000 8 142   100,001 to 150,000 15 179   150,001 to 200,000 29 161   200,001 to 250,000 17 109   250,001 to 300,000 18 102   300,001 to 350,000 13 145   350,001 to 400,000 13 160   400,001 to 450,000 17 75   450,001 to 500,000 5 125   500,001 to 550,000 12 285   550,001 to 600,000 12 186   600,001 to 650,000 3 31   650,001 to 700,000 7 125   700,001 to 750,000 3 512   750,001 to 800,000 6 277   800,001 to 850,000 1 13   850,001 to 900,000 0 0   900,001 to 950,000 0 0   950,001 to 1,000,000 4 299 For the 183 Novi home listings: For the Novi Sold listings: Average List Price $370,010.00 Average Sold Price $0.00 Median List Price $330,000.00 Median Sold Price $0.00 Highest List Price $999,900.00 Highest Sold Price $0.00 Lowest List Price $59,000.00 Lowest Sold Price $0.00 List Volume $67,711,750.00 Sales Volume $0.00 Avg. Days On Market 158 Avg. Days On Market 0

More Novi real estate information

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Then they went to another real estate agent and worked with her for a while. (I didn't know they had gone with somebody else)  Until I had gotten a call from the buyer complaining that the list I was sending them was exactly like the other real estate agents list.  IT WOULD BE.  WE CAN'T MAGICALLY MAKE HOMES APPEAR FOR SALE.

• We send you what fits your criteria.
• There aren't any "SECRET" homes
• If they aren't on the list then they don't fit your criteria or price range

The buyers had a certain payment they wanted.  They wanted a newer house, with a certain minimum square footage.   The problem was that most of the houses were out of their price range.  They would bid on them but lose them because they couldn't bid high enough.  Or they couldn't bid higher because the high taxes in the city (Southfield is one example) would put them over the payment range they wanted.  There were a few that fit their criteria.  They could buy the house, but they would turn their nose up at them over cosmetic details.

  They would look on other sites than Realtor.com, or MoveinMichigan.com and find "other" homes.  But unfortunately some of the sites they were looking on had outdated listings.  They were sold over a month ago.  Which added to their frustration.  They would not listen to the advice to look on Realtor.com for the latest listings.  "These other sites had different listings" they said.  Of course they did they were out dated listings!

So over a year later they still had not found a house.  The buyers were on to their 3rd or 4th real estate agent.  They will still be looking for a long time. 

• THE BUYER NEEDS TO CHANGE THEIR CRITERIA. 
• THE BUYER NEEDS TO LOWER THEIR EXPECTATIONS
• THE BUYER NEEDS TO UP THEIR PRICE RANGE

I have seen this happen over and over through the years.  Buyers that have unrealistic expectations that go through 3 or 4 real estate agents.  Put 5 or 6 offers in and lose them.  Look for over a year.  I lose buyers like that because they get frustrated with me telling them they need to change their criteria, Or they get frustrated with losing the houses.  Somehow they feel it is the real estate agents fault.  That somehow we can magically make their low bid become the best bid.

Unfortunately we don't have a magic wand.  I too get people that come to me from other agents that are frustrated.  I talk to them and ask them why it didn't work out with the first agent.  I work with them to adjust their criteria to find a house that fits their needs and pocketbook.  Sometimes they have to give something up.  Sometimes they refuse to become realistic and we go our separate ways.  I once met a past client with another new agent 2 1/2 years later.  They were still looking for the "special house"  2 1/2 years should be long enough to tell you it is not going to happen.

If you have been looking for over a year and have lost 4 or 5 homes then look at your criteria, your price range, your cities you want to live in. .  I know it's hard, but sometimes you have to give up something in order to buy a house that fits your pocketbook.

Russ Ravary your Metro Detroit real estate agent 

                        Search Detroit suburb home listings and foreclosures

Baileys (Canton)

Claddaugh (Livonia)

Cloverleaf Bar (Southgate)

Conor O'Neill's (Ann Arbor) 

Colleen's Irish Pub (St. Clair Shores) 

Cowley's Old Village Inn (Farmington)

Chris McGurrin's (Hartland)

Dick O'Dow's (Birmingham) 

 
Dunleavy's Downriver (Allen Park)

Dunleavy's (Farmington)

Dunleavy's (Plymouth)

Irish-American Club (Detroit)

Gus O'Connors (Novi)

Gus O'Connors  (Rochester)

Irish Tavern (Waterford)

Kelleys' (Dearborn)

Maggie's Irish Pub (Detroit) 

Malarkey's (Westland) 

Mangan's Irish Hut (Mt. Clemens)

Mulligans (Farmington Hills)

Murphy's (Livonia)

O'Mara's (Berkley)

O'Malley's (Livonia)

O'Tooles (Novi)

Paddy's Pub (Livonia)

Sean O'Callaghan's (Plymouth)

Shanahan's ( Holiday Inn-Livonia)

Stout Irish Pub (Brighton)

The Claddagh Pub (Livonia)

The Fenian's Irish Pub (Conklin)

The Old Dublin (Taylor)

The Tipperary Pub (Detroit)

I will be updating this list of Metro Detroit Irish pubs and taverns before St. Patrick's Day.

One of the keys to negotiationis to know what you want.  What I mean by that is that you can't change your mind in the middle of negotiations.  You will come across as flakey and not knowing what you want.  The other side all of a sudden will realize that you don't know what you want.  That you aren't sure of what you want and that the negotiations may never reach a conclusion.  Because you don't know what you want now, how does the other side know that you will stay on course.

My example is a client was putting in an offer on a Novi lease.  The list price was $1900  My clients offered $1750.  They were close to an agreement at $1800.  Then my client's father got involved and said they should not be paying so much that they should only pay $1700.  So my client instructed me to offer the landlord $1700 over my objections.

I did what they said.  The seller rejected the offer and leased the Novi home to another person at $1800.

The buyer killed the deal by going in the opposite direction.  They changed what they wanted midstream into the negotiations.  They started asking for more than they originally asked for in the beginning.  Another example would be when you are closing in on price and then asking for extra concessions, or the refrigerator, or free rent.

So if you don't want to kill the negotiations..........know what you want before you start negotiating.  Don't go and add more issues to the negotiations halfway through, or when you get close to acceptance.  Don't get greedy.  You will kill the deal.