...so what's the real story? (Temecula, Murrieta: short sales, real estate, how much)

[CCaptain Jack]

We are flying in from Florida tomorrow for house hunting in Murrieta/Menifee .... All the horror stories I'm hearing is that most, if not all, of the available homes are short sales and that the banks are dragging their feet in getting them sold, sometimes a few months. Now I read in the Menifee thread that homes are going very quickly in that one neighborhood! How quickly is quickly? ... Are those homes regular sales? ... short sales? ... Is the trend changing and banks are taking deals to rid themselves of inventory?

We are bringing cash offers, hopefully that will help persuade the seller, probably a bank, to go with a quick transaction ..... I'll hand them a cashiers check if I have to, whatever it takes to get a fast escrow ...

Thanks for any info ..

Have a Great Day!

[bhcompy]

Cash offers definitely get far faster responses(and preference), and the best houses are usually gone within a few days of listing, but since many are shortsales, if the bank hasnt approved of it it could be 6 months before the bank approves of any deal. If you want a quick transaction, have your realtor avoid any with unapproved shortsales. Most of the time in my experience, the realtor representing the property will know exactly how much the shortsale was approved for, or will find out if you lowball them.

[CCaptain Jack]

... thanks bhcompy, - avoid unapproved short sales! - I will let him know that, I'm sure he is aware but it doesn't hurt to remind him ...

One thing we are finding is that when they list these short sales they list for a ridiculously low price .... they do so to get the bidding wars going ... we are finding that a list of $180,000 really means $210,000 or even more! ... now granted, that could be the seller's realtor telling us that the offers are such-and-such in hopes we outbid and drive up the price - but who knows! ... I guess we'll find out when we hit the ground running - and I hope waving a check at them gets a quick response ..

Thanks again for your reply,

Have a Great Day!

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by CCaptain Jack

We are flying in from Florida tomorrow for house hunting in Murrieta/Menifee .... All the horror stories I'm hearing is that most, if not all, of the available homes are short sales and that the banks are dragging their feet in getting them sold, sometimes a few months. Now I read in the Menifee thread that homes are going very quickly in that one neighborhood! How quickly is quickly? ... Are those homes regular sales? ... short sales? ... Is the trend changing and banks are taking deals to rid themselves of inventory?

We are bringing cash offers, hopefully that will help persuade the seller, probably a bank, to go with a quick transaction ..... I'll hand them a cashiers check if I have to, whatever it takes to get a fast escrow ...

Thanks for any info ..

Have a Great Day!

all cash or not, forget short sales, they will not go speedily like you seem to want.

Nita

[CCaptain Jack]

Thanks Nita, I would love to find something that is a regular sale! makes the entire process so much easier! ... there's just not a lot of people selling right now who aren't forced to. If you know of anything that is a "regular" sale, 1500 to 1600 SQ FT, with a pool - specifically in Murrieta that is less than $250,000 let me know ...

Thanks again,

Have a Great Day!

[jtsigma]

Originally Posted by CCaptain Jack

Thanks Nita, I would love to find something that is a regular sale! makes the entire process so much easier! ... there's just not a lot of people selling right now who aren't forced to. If you know of anything that is a "regular" sale, 1500 to 1600 SQ FT, with a pool - specifically in Murrieta that is less than $250,000 let me know ...

Thanks again,

Have a Great Day!

It's close to Murrieta and far lower than your price plus has pool and everything you're looking for (someone dropped out of escrow so listing agent looking for immediate candidate):

Are you looking for a Menifee Pool Home???? - Inland Empire - Redfin Real Estate Forums

[CCaptain Jack]

Originally Posted by jtsigma

It's close to Murrieta and far lower than your price plus has pool and everything you're looking for (someone dropped out of escrow so listing agent looking for immediate candidate):

Are you looking for a Menifee Pool Home???? - Inland Empire - Redfin Real Estate Forums

Thanks jtsigma .... I'll look into it!

[CCaptain Jack]

Well, thanks to all who responded, I have found this forum to be quite helpful in our move and will continue to peruse the boards and help where I can ... that being said, we made the trip out last weekend and searched and searched! We hit Murrieta, we hit Temecula and we hit Menifee! And we ran into quite a few roadblocks! Sure the prices looked good and we quickly found out, as was mentioned earlier, that short sales are a nightmare if you want something quick. And just because someone lists their house at a certain price doesn't mean that you will get it for that, even with a cashiers check in hand! Our first day was a lot of SS and one or two regular sales. We found the regular sales had already achieved offers substantially higher than their asking prices! We put in 3 offers! Day two was more research and beer drinking (did I mention that house hunting is exhausting, we needed a break) and day three we only looked at REOs and regular sales. We offered on 9 houses! One we liked best is an REO in Menifee Lakes golf course area.... list was $201,600 so we offered full price... not good enough! Multiple offers so it is a blind bid now. We went to $208,000 and haven't heard back yet. One we offered full price on went up $22,000 the same day and sold! Another was listed at $169,000 so we offered $160,000 ..... Investor owned so they countered at $180,000 ... so we took it!! And with a 15 day escrow like I wanted, we will be living in Menifee in a couple weeks!
It's a nice house, 2000 sq/ft on a 8000 sq/ft lot ... 4 bed/3bath right off of Newport Rd. We have to put in our own pool and spa but that's fine, at least I get to design it myself!

...so, we're in and looking forward to leaving the sweat zone of Florida and getting back to SoCal!!

Thanks again to those of you who answered my questions! See ya at the sports bar!!

[bhcompy]

congrats, hope everything works out for you

[Fontucky]

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