Short Sales in AZ??? (Fountain Hills: foreclosure, houses, buyers) - Arizona - City-Data Forum

AZbound :) · 09-22-2009, 06:01 PM

Hello!! Well, my wife and I are looking to move out to AZ and we just came back from a 5-day trip from there so we could see what areas we would want --We pretty much have our hearts set on the 'Fountain Hills' area but we noticed alot of houses that are in Short Sale or Foreclosure, why is that?? We really are not sure of what either term means..we are confused since there so many different takes in the Short Sale idea and Foreclosure--HELP!!!!! We think the area is gorgeous and all the homes are beautiful and we just don't understand why there are so many houses with signs outside of them; is something going on with the area or is this an example of people's poor decision-making???

Please shed light on this for us -- so we can make an educated decision about our move!!
thanx

Boompa · 09-22-2009, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AZbound :)

Hello!! Well, my wife and I are looking to move out to AZ and we just came back from a 5-day trip from there so we could see what areas we would want --We pretty much have our hearts set on the 'Fountain Hills' area but we noticed alot of houses that are in Short Sale or Foreclosure, why is that?? We really are not sure of what either term means..we are confused since there so many different takes in the Short Sale idea and Foreclosure--HELP!!!!! We think the area is gorgeous and all the homes are beautiful and we just don't understand why there are so many houses with signs outside of them; is something going on with the area or is this an example of people's poor decision-making???

Please shed light on this for us -- so we can make an educated decision about our move!!
thanx

Stay away from "Short" Sales. They advertise a house for $80,000 you bid $85,000 a month lateer they tell you someone else bid $90,000 and on it goes. The house finally goes for $120,000 or is removed from the market.
Look for a straight up sale

Rick Lee · 09-23-2009, 08:34 AM

I have two accepted short sale offers right now. One could probably close withing three wks. if we weren't holding out for the other house we want more. The one we're pretty far along with took our offer at asking price. The other one we offered about 3% over asking and it was accepted. Both of these offers were made in late June and we had bank acceptance on one about three wks. ago and are told the other one will come this Friday. Short sales can be great bargains, but nothing works fast with short sales.

altus2006 · 09-23-2009, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I have two accepted short sale offers right now. One could probably close withing three wks. if we weren't holding out for the other house we want more. The one we're pretty far along with took our offer at asking price. The other one we offered about 3% over asking and it was accepted. Both of these offers were made in late June and we had bank acceptance on one about three wks. ago and are told the other one will come this Friday. Short sales can be great bargains, but nothing works fast with short sales.

Both of the sellers of the short sales that you have submitted offers on are under extreme financial duress. Now you have two families that think they may have sold their home and yet only one will possibly get their home sold because of the games buyers are playing with these sellers.

I think the Realtor should fess up when one of their offers is approved so that the other sellers have the opportunity to back away from the second offer and resell their house to someone who might really want it.

There is a lot of work being done for naught when the buyers are making multiple offers and have no intention of purchasing all of the homes. This is a waste of a lot of people's time.

altus2006

Rick Lee · 09-23-2009, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by altus2006

Both of the sellers of the short sales that you have submitted offers on are under extreme financial duress. Now you have two families that think they may have sold their home and yet only one will possibly get their home sold because of the games buyers are playing with these sellers.

Erroneous. Both sellers abandoned these houses months ago and stopped making payments well before that. One of them has at least two other houses. The other racked up a huge HELOC balance, bought toys and skipped. I don't feel too sorry for them.

MotleyCrew · 09-23-2009, 01:39 PM

To the OP. I would look at foreclosed homes or just straight sales. The foreclosed homes in AZ have had quite an impact on prices, even the ones owners want to sell that are not in trouble. Short sales can be a headache.

altus2006 · 09-23-2009, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Erroneous. Both sellers abandoned these houses months ago and stopped making payments well before that. One of them has at least two other houses. The other racked up a huge HELOC balance, bought toys and skipped. I don't feel too sorry for them.

That is different if the houses are abandoned. All of the ones we went into had sellers still living in them and most were in serious financial straits due to relocations, job losses, divorces, etc.

altus2006

Rick Lee · 09-23-2009, 07:38 PM

Oh, the first time we looked at both of these houses, the sellers were living there and we talked to them all about the houses. A few weeks later I just happened to be riding by the one we wanted the most and noticed a bunch of newspapers stacked up in the driveway. I then walked up to the door and saw a foreclosure notice on it. I went around the back and the pool had turned green. We went in with our realtor again and the power was turned off, though the inside looked pretty good. The second one was occupied until just a few days before we did the home inspection and was still in excellent shape. We're getting that one for exactly half of what it last sold for in 2005, which was before they spent $50k putting in a nice pool.

BTW, plenty of folks are in dire financial straits. Most put themselves there by racking up huge debt they couldn't afford to carry when times got lean. I don't consider it taking advantage of someone by offering them market price for a house they feel they can walk away from because they overleveraged it.

altus2006 · 09-24-2009, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

BTW, plenty of folks are in dire financial straits. Most put themselves there by racking up huge debt they couldn't afford to carry when times got lean. I don't consider it taking advantage of someone by offering them market price for a house they feel they can walk away from because they overleveraged it.

It is not taking advantage of people when you offer market price for their house.

I do believe sellers should be made aware of buyers who are submitting multiple offers on various properties even after one has been accepted. If I were selling my house and found out that the buyer who had a signed contract with me was still looking and submitting other offers, I would cancel the contract and hopefully find another buyer who was sincere in wanting my property.

That way their Realtor could be looking for backup buyers in case the original buyer pulls out of the contract. Otherwise, the seller has to start from scratch showing and marketing their home again, all the while previously believing that the home was sold.

altus2006

Rick Lee · 09-24-2009, 10:57 AM

But listing agents do take backup offers for just such occasions. We were in second position for a house we really, really wanted, offered $18k more than the offer they had taken AND that other offer had a contingency in it. I can't believe we didn't get it. We could have closed immediately, while their buyer fiddled around trying to sell his own house and line up financing. Banks are not acting rationally. That's how it works with distressed properties.

And with short sales, you never know if or when the bank is going to approve your offer. In our two cases it was months after the sellers had accepted them. We'd have been crazy to stop looking then, especially when one of the banks made some paperwork error and had to start the entire approval process all over again, which is why we're in the spot we're in today. It should have been an easy deal, since the seller's two notes were both with the same bank. Not so. Each one had to go through a totally separate approval process with each loss mitigator totally out of contact with the other.

When I was in the biz, we always said the deal ain't done until the check funds and the deed is recorded. That's truer now than it ever was.