Buying a house in Bend - Offer price under listing?? (sale, real estate market)

[delta07]

We have an offer on a short sale right now. It's been almost 3 months and we haven't really heard much of anything. Unfortunately, you're correct, in that almost everything out there is a short sale. Here's my advice with that. If you found a house you love and know you would be getting a good deal, then put in an offer knowing full well that it may not happen. The good thing is that there are so many homes out there right now, something will happen eventually. It just may take much longer than you expected. As long as you have a rental situation that will allow you to move with a months notice, and you don't have to be out by a certain time, then a short sale can be the way to go. I'm not sure that the process has been any easier in Bend. We are dealing with banks, which are slow because they often don't have anyone that works on short sales exclusively. You just have to prepare yourself that you may not get the house. It's hard at first, but after waiting a couple of months, you become reserved to the fact that the house really isn't yours until you are signing the closing papers. The fact of the matter is that most people do not have their home on the market unless they have to right now. You may be able to find a couple of traditional sales out there, but by and far it seems that short sales and foreclosures are dominating the market right now.

[khunguni]

Thanks for the info. Question: Can you back out of a short sale offer at any time? Can you have this language written into the offer?

Ultimately, can you still look at other houses and if you find one, make an offer and not be "bogged" down in the original short sale offer?

[Nell Plotts]

Prices WILL continue falling, don't be influenced by Realtor(c) claims to the contrary.

The problem with short sales is that the transaction must be approved by a bank who doesn't want to write down the loan. In the past they have been very slow to approve an offer. You are negotiating with a person behind a curtain who has their own agenda. Write up an offer with a very tight acceptance time frame.

Read: Portland Housing Blog: Bend Real Estate

[delta07]

Originally Posted by khunguni

Thanks for the info. Question: Can you back out of a short sale offer at any time? Can you have this language written into the offer?

Ultimately, can you still look at other houses and if you find one, make an offer and not be "bogged" down in the original short sale offer?

These are questions you will have to ask your realtor. We are not able to back out at any time, but we do have dates and deadlines that must be met, or we can. We have been extending these deadlines because we haven't found anything else, so we're not ready to drop the offer. The listing agent wanted us to sign an agreement locking us into our offer for 90 days, but our agent advised us against it. I'm glad we didn't, even though it has been well over 90 days now.

You can continue to look, but most short sales work like any other offer you put on the table. You can't just back out because you found another one. You have to stick to your offer, at least until the deadline is up. If you decide at that point that you don't want to go through with it, then you can let your offer expire unless you want to do an extension. It's a crappy process, but you'll have to decide whether you feel it's worth it or not. I wish I didn't have to go the short sale route, but the house we liked, that we could afford, happened to be a short sale. This seems to be the case overall right now.

[delta07]

Just thought I would update everyone on our short sale (if your curious). The bank accepted our offer!!! So, we just did our inspection and are just waiting on our loan to go through. We are so excited! After almost 4 months we will finally have the house that we have been waiting for.

It's a frustrating and long process, but worth it in the end. We found a real deal.

[khunguni]

Thanks for the update! Congratulations! Glad to hear it all worked out for you. So, if you don't mind sharing, did you offer asking price? Above or below? How much?

We are finding that we are about $25,000 short on the houses we are interested in. Almost all houses in our range seem to be short sales at the moment, and the banks do not appear to be accepting a lot less than the asking price (assumming the asking price is fair.)

[delta07]

We offered about $14K less than the original asking price, although we are only $5K short of the "current" listing price. Our offer is not much less than the price the bank is saying they have to get. Of course, our price is almost $150K less than what the sellers paid just two years ago!

So, yes, I would agree with your assessment. However, I do think that you will find something. Just take your time and watch the market. I still don't think we're at the bottom.

[sidhesadie]

If it's bank owned, I wouldn't count on getting a property in bend for too much under asking. (an individual seller is a whole 'nother ball game).

You have to realize, housing was SOOOO overpriced in this area, that the short sales here are not your usual 20,40 K short. they are 100K, 200K short. bank is already losing a LOT, they are loathe to lose more, and loathe to do any deal that looks like the buyers might be 'stretching'.

You can google Deschutes County DIAL (county assessor) and with a property address you can look up the last sales price of any home. Not the list price, but what the last owners actually paid for it. It's public record.

[Dry Side]

I can't think of any reason to buy in Bend now. Prices still have a long ways to fall..

Real Estate Blog - A 90-day Look Back on the Bend Market

[chaz1953]

Go to the following site Deschutes County Government, Oregon - DIAL Disclaimer. If you have the addresses of the properties you looked at, you can insert them and get a detailed history of the property to include What it Sold For,property taxes,etc. Typically short-sale properties were bought at the height of the boom,people are "buried" in their mortgages,and obviously the houses aren't worth what they last sold for. Just curious, why is this realtor (if you have one) showing you just short sale houses? Is he/she tied in with a local bank or mortgage company? I own two homes in Bend. Live in one and rent the other. IMO I would rent for awhile. Unemployment will be over 10% this month, mortgage rates and more importantly, Home Prices WILL go down more. I'd hate to see anyone make a mistake. Do your homework and good luck...welcome to Bend!