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I recently held a little seminar on “How to buy a foreclosure property in Durango” at our local Durango Real Estate Investor’s chapter, called IRIN Durango. We meet once a month on Thursday evenings to trade information and listen to a speaker. For more informationon this group click here.

I will share with you my brief handout with valuable  informational websites for you here (in two parts), if you’d like more detail feel free to call or email me.  

Disclaimer:  I, Claudia Williams, am a licensed real estate agent. All information presented here is based on my personal experience and there are no promises or guarantees to its accuracy. Buying real estate, especially foreclosures, is inherently risky. I recommend consulting a real estate attorney and tax accountant. Do all your due diligence!

Introduction: Blue Ribbon Properties – has been selling real estate in around Durango for 20 years. My name is Claudia Williams and I’ve been in real estate for 8 years and owner of Blue Ribbon for 6. We are a full service real estate company with 5 agents, located in Downtown Durango’s main mall. Blue Ribbon is a boutique style real estate company, small enough for personal service, big enough there is always someone there to take care of your needs.

Even though small, we are a player in the market. I have placed in the top 5% of sales volume for real estate in Durango over the past 5 years. I’ve been on the cutting edge of innovation, and became Durango’s first ecobroker, by getting my green designation 3 years ago. I’m a nationally certified property exchangor (if we have time later we can talk about that too). And most importantly I’m a real estate investor and have invested for my self and my clients.

I’ve done 2 fix and flip projects intown Durango, owned one Duplex, sold all those while the market was good, bought a commercial property in Aztec, the old Aztec Theatre 2 years ago, fixed it up, but the market turned. I was able to trade that into a nice commercial property in Moab Utah.

Last Fall a group of investors, including myself and Katie, bought the PakRat Storage, spearheaded by Katie Sturm, one of my agents. Blue Ribbon Properties successfully manages the mini storage facility, we are over 90% full and get over 10% cap rate. After this presentation Katie will present on another mini storage investment opportunity.  

Finally, 2 months ago I bought my first investment property out of foreclosure and we’ll talk more about that in a bit.

Durango Real Estate Market Statistics: Quick overview of the Durango real estate market: Volume is way down, prices are relatively stable, average price is down only 5% from last year. Average sale price to list price is consistently at 96% to 98%.

This past months the volume has picked up quite a bit, the sale pending numbers are up, which is a good indicator for real estate sales.

My Durango Real Estate Blog: I have a blog on my website and we post a market update every week with sales, sometimes good deals. D.As things pick up again – draw curve of market – buyer’s will get off the sidelines or fence if you will and enter the market again. We’ll see multiple offers on the good deals and it will be harder to get good deals. It is my feeling that this is the time to buy. I’m in acquisition mode, buying low for my retirement in years to come.

Real estate is historically the one easiest way for people to build wealth. Historically the prices of real estate go up, just have to stay in long enough. It is a fact that you make the money when you buy. And my piece of advice, be conservative with payment, do all your due diligence and have a worst case exit strategy.

 Types of Distress/Foreclosure Sales:

  A. Buy Pre-Foreclosure

1)It’s our duty to help. Colorado Foreclosure Hotline, 1-877-601-HOPE www.coloradoforeclosurehotline.org,  4 out of 5 people who met with the foreclosure hotline were able to avoid foreclosure.

2)Buy from owner, can negotiate if there is equity and motivation

3)Short Sale – negotiate with bank to take a short payoff, can take a very long time

4)Negotiate with banks to buy non-performing notes, complicated, takes work and research, can be lucrative, www.fdic.gov to look up banks financials

  B. Buy at Foreclosure Auction

1)Colorado is a Public Trustee State, meaning the public trustee sells properties at auction, here every Wed at 10am at the public trustee’s office at 1060 Main Ave. Suite 103. Copy of Colorado Federal Statutes concerning foreclosures at www.frascona.com/practice/foreclosure.htm

2)Durango Foreclosure Statistics, from Marcia Larsen, who works at the trustee’s office and is in charge of holding the trustee’s sales in her office. As of today, this year 80 properties sold at auction, of these 72 were purchased by the foreclosing bank (or private noteholder) and only 8 sold to independent third parties, or these 8 one was redeemed. There are 160 more auctions scheduled for this year.  See Monday’s blog to find out how to research and find a foreclosure property in Durango, La Plata County.

 C . Buy Bank Owned Properties, REO (real estate owned)

1)Buy REO listings, after the bank purchases they typically will list the property on the MLS at a discount.

2)You will have inspection period, get clean title. Can be tough to deal with bank.

D. Buy other Property, priced like distressed property

1)Get with your favorite realtor and check out well-priced properties, that have motivated sellers.

 To find out how to research and buy that foreclosure property at auction stay tuned, I’ll post it on Monday, Columbus Day.

Disclaimer:  I, Claudia Williams, am a licensed real estate agent. All information presented here is based on my personal experience and there are no promises or guarantees to its accuracy. Buying real estate, especially foreclosures, is inherently risky. I recommend consulting a real estate attorney and tax accountant. Do all your due diligence!

I hope you enjoyed this bit of advice. Remember, this is all my personal experience, every deal is different. Be careful! I can help you with this, with the research, with the decision making. However, since some property sales, such as buying at foreclosure, don’t pay us realtors a commission, it will be hard for you to get help from a realtor without some sort of reward. You can hire me as a buyer’s agent and pay a commission on every purchase, or you can pay me hourly or you can do multiple purchases with me and I’ll help you for free on those that don’t pay if I know I’ll make a commission on another property, say when you flip and sell this one. Let’s meet and we can discuss it all.