Getting the best housing deals around Nashville... (Dickson: bank owned, short sales)

[12buttons]

Real estate agents are not really amenable these days to doing a lot of short sales and bank owned - the process is long and labor intensive...is there a way to deal directly with the bank? Or is there an agency that handles nothing but foreclosures or bank owned? I am looking at several properties - one house the owner is so underwater. the asking price is a joke - overpriced by about 35%.....I am getting a lot of "third party" type deals too - any ideas?

If you were buying a house now - what would you do? Wait til the bottom hits? (
Call the banks directly?

Anyone do any biz with auctioneers with great results?

I am looking Davidson, Williamson, and Dickson...thanks!

[rossc]

Auctions can be a good deal as long as no one with big wallet and dreams of becoming a real estate mogul show up. HUD can have some good deals but the process is a PITA. The problem is that EVERYONE is upside down right now. Those who aren't are not selling. They are overpriced because that's what they owe.

You could call around to the banks and mortgage companies and ask if they have anything they are trying to short. A more effective approach is to find a seller who is days away from foreclosure, go to the bank with them and convince the bank they are better off selling short to you rather than taking the property to foreclosure. It's a win-win. The bank is out from under the property and the owner avoids foreclosure.

[Big TR]

We just bought a short sale that took 3 months of work to finally get through the bank. I think you're wrong about the agents, you just have to find one that's motivated. There's no way we could have completed the deal without our agent and mortgage broker. Any agent with half a brain knows that a ton of deals getting done today either involve foreclosure or a short sale.

The original list price on the house was $639k, we bought it for $405k (64% of original asking). I worked with our agent to construct a reasonable price based on comps in the neighborhood. Once we finally got through to the owner's heads that they were truly underwater and the only way to avoid a foreclosure was to accept our offer, the bank approved it within a reasonable time.

It appears that those underwater just list the home for whatever price they need to break even. Their agents have no spine and won't tell them that's the case, so the house rots on the market. The bank will be the least of your problems in that scenario.

As or waiting for the bottom: nobody knows when the bottom will be hit. Maybe it hit yesterday and you already missed out. Maybe it won't be until 2012.

If you want a reference for an agent, I can PM my agent's name to you.

[denawilliams]

I don't think it's that agents don't want to work on short sales or foreclosures. They are just like everything else out there. Sometimes, you can get amazing deals like it sounds Big TR got. Then again, sometimes, banks know what the home should be worth and aren't as easy to work with in negotiations...I've seen that first hand too.

It is really varied out there. I've helped clients buy bank-owned property, and it worked out fabulously. However, I've also seen short-sales or bank owned properties that were overpriced and/or in really bad shape for the price. If the previous owner did not take care of it, which happens some in foreclosures, you have to weigh the costs of bringing it back up to speed in your purchase price in hopes to still be under the rest of the market in that area. The numbers don't always work out in your favor. So sometimes, you can get a better deal from a really motivated regular seller. You just never know until you're really seriously looking and investigating. There have been a few short-sales, I've seen some come up at times that I wish I had a buyer for because they were such great deals. So, you have to look at everything and keep an open mind about it all, even the people not about to lose their home.

You need an agent who likes to and is good at negotiation, but if you want the best deal, you'll want to be flexible in your home selection and open to all of the options that meet your criteria.

As for waiting for the bottom, no one knows when that is so if someone times it perfectly, it will be accident and pure luck. Rates have NEVER been lower than they are right now. Home prices are down considerably. For first time home buyers, you have the $8000 tax credit until 12/1/09. Could rates and prices go down more, absolutely. However, there's more room to go up than down. You'd probably do quite well to buy now. You'd probably do fine to wait a few more months too. Because it is a good time, your timing really depends on you and your particular needs and situation.