David Barr's Sarasota and Venice Real Estate Blog

I recently replied to an associate with our company who posted a comment for an article in the Sarasota Herald Tribune about buyers frustrated with multiple offers. This associate supposedly handles a large list of foreclosure properties.  His assertion was that many of the best foreclosures don't make it to the market, and sell before they are listed, so buyers should sign up with this broker to be the first to know about foreclosure listings. I found his assertion to be ludicrous.  Reference this excellent article:   http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?p=1&id=293426 If he's working with banks, they have no reason to withhold properties from the MLS and exposure to the general marketplace.  Banks want the highest price possible for their properties, and are extremely risk averse.  Withholding properties from the MLS for only a select group of buyers that register with a broker could be construed as discriminatory.  It's high...

This morning I read an article from the Sarasota Herald Tribune about early state foreclosures. Has anyone held an issue of the H/T in their hands lately?  Things must be getting really bad for them.  I think this article is an example why. To summarize the article , early stage foreclosures (technical term: lis pendens) are up for the second month in Sarasota County.  The source?  RealtyTrac. RealtyTrac is part of what I call the unholy trinity of real estate websites (including Trulia and Zillow) who mislead the real estate buying public by posting lis pendens properties they scrape from public tax data websites as available for sale.  None of these companies are licensed real estate brokers, and none of these properties exist to sell real estate.  They exist to draw a large audience through deceptive marketing, and sell that audience to advertisers. I'm not sure why the Herald Tribune bothered publishing this article.  They pounded the drum...