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Our family has been renting our 3BR townhouse for 3 years and recently found out that our landlord will be putting the place on the market as a short sale. His agent told us the asking price of 300k (now don't know if the bank pre-approved that price) and offered us "first shot" at buying it. We would love to not have to move (again), so we are interested. Our landlord's agent has prepared offer papers where he would represent our landlord and another agent in his office would represent us -- this just doesn't sit right with me!
We are pre-approved for a loan through FHA.
There are some very necessary replacements that need to happen fairly soon (furnace, AC, water heater), besides some remodeling as nothing has ever been done to the place (built in the late 80s).
Now we find out that "first shot" means our offer will be presented along with any other offers received, assuming our offer is in contention -- not what we pictured when hearing this phrase. We are thinking to offer about 10k less from the asking price due to the above replacements. Many of the other units in our community that are short sales are priced somewhat higher, but some renovations/updates have been done and they also are end units with bigger lots.
We don't want to overpay, but we also do not want some investor to come along and end up offering a higher amount and completely lose out. Any suggestions? Are we on the right track?
You also need to look at sold comps in your development to get a good feel for actual closed deals.
What you are working with now is what is called a dual agency situation. Both listing agent and buyer's agent employed by the same broker. This doesn't bother me as much as a listing agent representing both seller and buyer. That's never a good thing.
Your buyer's agent has the same fidicuary responsibility towards you as would an agent from another agency.
Thank you for the comments/suggestions. Honestly, we are not concerned regarding the inspection as we have been living in this place for 3 years, so we know what is working (or working well enough) and what needs to be replaced (furnace and AC for sure). We recently had the AC serviced and heard that there is a code violation in how the gas line is run to the furnace, which means the entire development should have the same issue.
Your suggestion to look at sold comps in our development has already been done. There are basically 3 models in our development: end unit 3 BR, interior 3 BR, and interior 2 BR. Everything that is currently listed and that has been sold has been 3 BR end units. Different interior layout, larger lot size (both back patio and side area), slightly larger square footage. And all have had some updates -- most common is the kitchen. Our unit has had nothing done to it since it was built except for painting the cabinets (kitchen and bath) and poorly installed bamboo flooring.
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