How much discount is expected when you make an cash offer to repo companies like Vanderbilt or other repo companies? Calling and offering is one thing, but if you send a purchase agreement & guarantee cashiers check in the amount of let say … 40 to 60% discount, will they take it? Anyone try this before?
how do we know what someone else will do???
Try it - might work. Might not. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesnt.
I have had limited contact with Vanderbilt but have learned a couple of things.
The houses are handled by different individuals and they can cross check, what I mean is one agent can bring up another agents listing and give some info, but it seems the agent who’s name is on the listing on their website is the decision maker.
I have talked to a couple of people there who are annoyed at my calls and others who were very helpful. I called on one particular land/home package and was told the home had just “gone wholesale”. The agent told me he had only gotten the home about three weeks ago and as far as he could tell they were ready to take bids on it. He then said “He is ready to take bids so you can bid below the listed price but you want to get close if you want him to accept it”.
It seems they hold them for a while until they see there is no movement and then they transition into the “wholesale” mode. They may well go to a head decision maker who can authorize steep discounts.
I have heard differing opinions from diferent folks there on other things. One told me the homes where they were offering financing on were the decision of the agent and another person told me they only offered financing on homes in good enough shape that they would want to loan on them again.
I would say that if you call and hit a brick wall and an attitude you may just want to look up a homes with another listing agent and try again. The agents with the most homes may well be the ones with the worst atitudes about dealing with calls from the website. One guy was very annoyed and asked why I didn’t just call the listing Realtor on a land home. Why do they list them if they don’t want to be contacted?
The other thing I would advise is to approach with the attitude of trying to establish an ongoing business rellationship as opposed to asking outright how much of a discount you can get on a particular home.
" Hello my name is----. I am an investor/mobile park owner etc. I am researching opportunities for expanding my business and hoped to talk with someone to see if we could build a mutually helpful relationship. If we can work together I can see myself buying multiple homes."
Then ask about their pricing and which homes they may look at discounting and ask about what you would need to do to not be a nuisance but a business partner. This could well be your “in” to the company rather than a bad experience.
Another thing I learned is their website is full of glitches and most every listing is wrong in some way. They seem woefully under-enthused about fixing it. They say “get a few listings you want me to tell you about and I will gather the info on them and get it to you”. This seems to be the only way to know how they actually have then priced. Good luck with some of them returning your calls.
I suspect they have set up a system where the agent is given bonuses or job security tied to getting a good price at sale. It is my understanding from people who work “short sales” on houses that the bonus system is fairly standard. It is not in the best interest of the loss mitigation people to let you buy at too steep a discount because they are held personally accountable for the loss. As stocks of houses climb they may be forced to change tactics.
Like I said I don’t know if this is the system at Vanderbilt but if it is it could explain a lot. It may be the agent is very hard nosed until they reach a certain time on the market and/or “go wholesale” at which time their suprvisor takes over and the decision to discount is made.
This is most of what I know about Vanderbilt. If you find this helpful I would appreciate hearing back if you dig deeper and find I am right or wrong on these views. I think they are a great resouce but a mixed bag on who you get on the phone.
The sole purpose of this question was to learn from investors in the percentage discount they are currently getting in the market and from repo companies so, I can better position myself in what percentage I need to negotiate not, if it might work or not.
I tried bidding a little under $45k on a land/home listed for $69k on the mls and $49k on the webiste. I didn’t get a response back. I used the website to place the bid. The agent said the $49k price was a misprint when I called him about the home and $69 was the list price.
I did not send anything just bid on the site.
The percentage of discount varies, due to many factors. The region and which units are most in demand has a lot to do with it. How well the asset manager does at selling are a few variables. Keep in mind that Vanderbilt is servicing much of the old Associates portfolio and the portfolio originated by Oakwood. It has been my experience that Oakwood/Associates are more apt to be sold wholesale than those originated by Vandy.
Here in Missouri it seems that demand is such that GT and Vandy are now able to retail everything decent and wholesale the turds. I’ve been buying some new units for my MHP as the pricing of repos have climbed.
Bob,
Thanks for the information and I appreciate you sharing your experience with the board. Most of what you said, I would have to agree with you; however, I can’t help to wonder, how they would react to an discounted offer with cashiers check attached to the purchase agreement delivered to them? I have been always intrigued by how people are affected & motivated by money especially, when you give them all the money down NOW; not later.
They might say no and counter but that is where you can negotiate better position by asking for them to provide the financing as well.
There is no real incentive to send your check back if declined. I start at 25% off Vandy here in Fl. Get some, Lose some.
Very few repo companies are all that interested in discounts, even in quantity. They sell all of their inventory most months, why discount? And yes, I’ve bought a few mobiles.
The time for killer deals was 5 years ago. Pick up a 28 X 76 1999 (3 year old) Skyline for 12K…now the same 99 home is 30k, same repo office, same employees, different prices. Still half price or more from new.
Good Luck,
Greg
Taipan
I buy repos every month like a lot of people on this forum. The corporations like Vanderbilt have proceedures and policy to follow like getting 3 bids per home before they can let it go. If you want to pay a big number or their asking price you can get them in 24 hrs. Cash has worked best for me when it is a private seller (50% discounts no problem). The end of the month is when I get the best deals. The corps must have pressure to clear the books. Good Luck. Someone said try it who knows it might work
Rick
The hardest part about working with Vanderbilt is that they don’t have a true timeframe to sell the home. Greentree’s list tells you when the bidding ends. Also, Vanderbilt takes the top bid; Greentree calls the bidders below the top to try to get more money.
That said, we have bought Vanderbilt homes listed in the low 20’s at less than $10,000 and they were near-perfect. The bid was awarded more than 6 weeks after we made it, though. On another occasion we called because we had heard nothing. The winning bid was mere hundreds above ours and we would have raised ours for the particular home. It is a crapshoot! We inspect every home, every time. Others bid from looking at the pictures on the website. We normally bid somewhere in the 50% range.
We have gotten great Greentree deals too. We bought a DW for $12,500 and sold it to the end customer before it was set by our mover! (There was some repair work to do to it, too - there was a hole in the roof, easily fixed, that probably brought the price down that low. The buyer bought it anyway!) Greentree does not give a starting price, you just have to know about what they are selling for in your market. You do that by trial and error, but with them calling lower bids it sure makes it easier! We bid low on these homes because we know we are going to get called anyway - we always know the TOP number we will spend and bid considerably lower than that. Who knows? Our original bid on the DW was $12,500 and everybody else was apparently scared by the roof. With moving costs, we will have about $20,000 in the home. Sale price? $30,000.