Recently, my clients and I threw a hat in the ring for a bank-owned property. Form my previous experience, it seemed like everything was going smoothly.

A week or so went by, and I didn’t become concerned yet. Red flags went off however, after the second week came and went. I began calling and E-mailing the listing agent up to three times a day for three days in a row trying to get a response from him. When that didn’t get a rise out of anybody, I finally had to call the broker to suggest maybe they needed to get an agent on the dealings that knew what they were doing. I was then sent over to their assistant, who luckily for me, appeared to know what she was doing.

After this whole process and the waiting game, I received an E-mail stating that the bank was requesting an extension due to the escrow being opened with the wrong company! This took two weeks before anybody noticed. If I wasn’t on top of the deal like you should be, my agent would have sat around twiddling his thumbs until the whole deal went in the dump.

I’ve also been fortunate enough to experience dealings that were completely opposite from this situation. I had sold a property not to long ago for an agent listed in Lake Arrowhead. It wasn’t a surprise when it took awhile for the bank to finally open the escrow, but the rest of the closing process was very successful. This agent was very good at keeping me updated, as well was her assistant. I was then able to complete all of my paperwork correctly and in a timely fashion.

Because of this, I was able to deliver excellent customer service to my client. Please be aware when you are hiring an agent, and make sure you are asking plenty of questions to make sure they are on the up and up. It is important to make sure that your Realtor is a fulltime agent and can devote all his time to you. Always make sure they are knowledgeable about how the of your local housing market.

If you do have plans on purchasing a property in the Big Bear area, I wouldn’t suggest using a Realtor from the L.A or Orange County area. If you find yourself wanting to purchase a bank owned property, it is very important that you work with a Realtor that is familiar with how this process works. If you do have an agent that isn’t familiar with the differences in a bank owned property, you could find yourself out a chuck of money or even worse, your property.

Author Info: Ali Combs knows all about researching single-family homes for sale and realty in general. Check out her other articles on the internet.