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Harma Hartouni, Harma Hartouni, GRI, CRS, Broker, Owner (Keller Williams Encino-Sherman Oaks) Real Estate Broker/Owner

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Harma Hartouni
Harma Hartouni, GRI, CRS, Broker, Owner
location_on Sherman Oaks, CA — Keller Williams Encino-Sherman Oaks
Keller Williams Realty Inc.
01467929
Get to Know Harma Hartouni

With eighteen years of experience in real estate, Harma began his career in development and new construction condominiums, while building his own real estate team. Working through market shifts in Southern California, Harma gained experience working with multiple financial institutions, servicing their bank-owned property/REO departments.

In 2009, Harma became owner of multiple Keller Williams Franchises in the Los Angeles area, and in 2017, as Operating Principal his combined offices grew to over 900 agents with a record $2.5B in volume.

Harma and his real estate team services the greater Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley areas, focusing on Hollywood Hills, West Hollywood and surrounding cities, closing over 1300 transactions himself since being in business. Harma’s team has consistently ranked #1 in Southern California in both units closed and volume.

Harma has also successfully overseen the launch of multiple ancillary businesses including Escrow and Natural Hazard Disclosure, while building his knowledge and expertise of the economy, the real estate market and trends, and actively coaches multiple top agents – delivering a robust marketing strategy and high level of customer service to their individual clients.

Harma holds multiple real estate designations including Graduate Realtor Institute, Certified Residential Specialist, Real Estate Broker, Luxury Home Certification and Certified REO Broker. Among awards and honors received are Top Team in Keller Williams, National Association of Realtors “30 Under 30” and Los Angeles Business Journal “40 Under 40.”

Certifications

Residential, New Construction, REO's, Short Sales, Probate and Trust Sales

Buying bank owned properties:
There is a lot of interest in buying bank owned properties these days. A lot of information, some good and some bad, is floating around about the subject. Often the information offered is for sale, with the promise that you can make a lot of money with little effort once you know “the secret formula”. The fact is that there are no secrets, and to make money does require effort.

What’s an REO?REO stands for “Real Estate Owned”. These are properties that have gone through foreclosure and are now owned by the bank or mortgage company. This is not the same as a property up for foreclosure auction. When buying a property during a foreclosure sale, you must pay at least the loan balance plus any interest and other fees accumulated during the foreclosure process. You must also be prepared to pay with cash in hand. And on top of all that, you’ll receive the property 100% “as is”. That could include existing liens and even current occupants that need to be evicted. A REO, by contrast, is a much “cleaner” and attractive transaction. The REO property did not find a buyer during foreclosure auction. The bank now owns it. The bank will see to the removal of tax liens, evict occupants if needed and generally prepare for the issuance of a title insurance policy to the buyer at closing. Do be aware that REO’s may be exempt from normal disclosure requirements. In California, for example, banks are exempt from giving a Transfer Disclosure Statement, a document that normally requires sellers to tell you about any defects they are aware of.

Is it a bargain?It’s commonly assumed that any REO must be a bargain and an opportunity for easy money. This simply isn’t true. You have to be very careful about buying a REO if your intent is to make money off of it. While it’s true that the bank is typically anxious to sell it quickly, they are also strongly motivated to get as much as they can for it. When considering the value of a REO, you need to look closely at comparable sales in the neighborhood and be sure to take into account the time and cost of any repairs or remodeling needed to prepare the house for resale. The bargains with money making potential exist, and many people do very well buying foreclosures. But there are also many REO’s that are not good buys and not likely to turn a profit.

Ready to make an offer?Most banks have a REO department that you’ll work with in buying a REO property from them. Typically the REO department will use a listing agent to get their REO properties listed on the local MLS. Before making your offer, you’ll want to contact either the listing agent or REO department at the bank and find out as much as you can about what they know about the condition of the property and what their process is for receiving offers. Since banks almost always sell REO properties “as is”, you’ll want to be sure and include an inspection contingency in your offer that gives you time to check for hidden damage and terminate the offer if you find it. As with making any offer on real estate, you’ll make your offer more attractive if you can include documentation of your ability to pay, such as a pre-approval letter from a lender. After you’ve made your offer, you can expect the bank to make a counter offer. Then it will be up to you to decide whether to accept their counter, or offer a counter to the counter offer. Realize, you’ll be dealing with a process that probably involves multiple people at the bank, and they don’t work evenings or weekends. It’s not unusual for the process of offers and counter offers to take days or even weeks.

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Over 1.35B sold in 2019 at Keller Williams Encino-Sherman Oaks!