[tugandregina]

my husband's company wants us to move to vegas and we are figuring we will do so around feb of 2011 (though we technically have until may of 2011 per company request). i have been looking through the forums and have heard (read) some horror stories of buying. does anyone know how long it typically takes for the process if we go the short sale/reo route (we have owned before but they were easy, new construction bought from home builder who my husband worked for at the time). we have been looking online but when should we start the true process, talk with a realtor, get pre-approved, etc.
also, i think i saw in one forum that you couldnt buy reo/short sale etc with a VA loan, but found elsewhere that you could. any one know the true answer?
finally, it looks like there are a lot of deals to be had but (again somewhere in the forums) i saw that many things are actually getting multiple bids and are selling for way above asking price. true?

thanks for any and all infor!
r

[mjjudd]

Just bought my house in Aug last year. I basically bought my house 'online', as I am stationed overseas and did not have much opportunity/time to visit. Here is a breakdown of my timeframe:

- Dec 2008: Started 'casually' looking through the realtor.com listings
- Feb 2009: Applied for loan (approved in 2-3 weeks, but could have been quicker due to that I am stationed overseas and had to send everything snail-mail)
- Mar 2009: Started 'seriously' looking through the listings on realtor.com
- Mar 2009: Made my first inquiries online, one of which paired me with the realtor I ended up using, and she was great. All future offers were done through my realtor.
- Mar 2009: Put bid in for short sale (was a pretty good deal)
- May 2009: Made first trip to Vegas to look at 15 properties, put offers in for 8 of them

- May 2009: All offers I bid on either had counter-offers, were cash sales, or otherwise taken off the table.

Up to this point, I was basing my offers on asking price listed online (all which were much lower than selling prices), so I requested a list of houses recently sold in the area that contains how much $$/sq ft they were sold at, and all my future offers were based on this as a guide (highly suggest you start with this tactic, as most if not all my offers using this method were accepted if there were no other contingent or cash offers).

- June 2009: Cancelled short sale due to uncertainty of how long the process would take and interest in other houses
- June 2009: Put in about 20 other offers
- July 2009: 3 offers were accepted
- Aug 2009: Flew to Vegas again to close on house I currently have (which is a REO).

So, total process for me took about 9 months and maybe 30 offers. Would recommend against short sale due to length of process (the house I originally wanted as short sale was still 'contingent' AFTER I had closed in Aug). My realtor was great and did walk-throughs of all the properties I put offers in for and sent me pictures with narrative (ie, needs some work, house may have previously had pets, etc).

Also, I am pretty comfortable buying things online. Was a bit apprehensive at first buying a house 'online', but due to my location did not have many options. The houses I ended up with is beautiful and I have no regrets. I would recommend going with the highest loan you are qualified for, as I originally applied for 100k, and ended up increasing it 4 different times to 200k, though did not use 200k, it was nice to have a buffer for counter-offers just in case (was originally looking at the super-cheap houses available at the start of the market crash).

Good luck and happy hunting!

[WestieJeff]

I definitely think you could buy a REO or short with a VA, but just the same as if it was a conventional seller, VA loan offers are going to be at the bottom of the offer pile if there are other offers. You will either need to be the only offer or a better dollar amount (which will be hard to pull off due to appraisal requirements).

If you need to be in a place by a particular time then definitely don't mess with a short sale. I'm in the middle of trying to buy a short sale, we started early June and the realtor just told us we may hear something from the banks by the end of Sept. Realistically, if we close, it will likely be around six months from offer to close. I will say that other homes we looked at initially which were short sales, but we did not make an offer on, I've been watching all of them and about half have already closed in < 4-5 months.

If you need to be certain about buying a house then you can buy a conventional sale or an REO. The REO sale works just the same as a conventional sale in terms of timeline.

[olecapt]

The short game is fine if you have the time. Can take a month to six and you can lose any one deal right at the end. The correct technique is generally to have multiple offers working and make a final decision when you have a hard counter in hand.

Using VA is fine as long as you look at places that will not be troublesome. Basically you can't do fixers on VA or FHA...well it is possible but far too complex for normal use.

There is actually another class you can consider...the dollup. These are homes that have been bought as trustee sale fixers and then updated. You can have appraisal problems but it will often work OK.

So the standard clean deal on a classic is a month...presuming you are pre-approved and all that. Can be done a week quicker but may also take a week longer. I would add a week or two for a REO. The lenders tend to be sloppy in their paperwork. Dollups are generally the same as a classic.

Shorts take a month to three or four and sometimes longer. We have had a short all done but the final approval paper from the bank for over 90 days. So we have held at the final day for three months.

[lasto]

My wife and I will have been awaiting approval for our short sale (with our VA loan) 90 days on friday. It's been a nightmare. If you do go with a SS i'd recommend getting an apartment with a 3 month lease and give your 60 day move out notice one month after move-in then after your three months you can go month to month with rent for however long is needed. But still...a pain.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by olecapt

...

There is actually another class you can consider...the dollup. These are homes that have been bought as trustee sale fixers and then updated. You can have appraisal problems but it will often work OK.
...

How does one search for a dollup?

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

How does one search for a dollup?

Actually look for a lead that screams "NOT A REO - NOT A SHORT SALE".

There are easy to tell but difficult to search. Can't tell them from a classic.

To differentiate you look for a Trustee sale on the tax records in the last six months. That is generally combined with new carpet and paint. Mostly you know as soon as you read the blurb...

[WestieJeff]

When we went looking at houses it was very easy to pick out a dollup. It will almost have new neutral tone paint, new granite counters (that may or may not go with the rest of the kitchen), possibly new bathroom surrounds and fixtures, and new flooring.

Most of them I saw looked a little "off", like the house had been cherry picked for certain upgrades. Certain parts of the house were nice and upgraded and other parts old and original.

And looking a little closer, everything is done as cheaply as possible (it's an investor trying to flip it remember). One house had carpet laid over tile in the master bathroom. You could easily feel the indentations and grout lines under the carpet.

I wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole.

Originally Posted by olecapt

To differentiate you look for a Trustee sale on the tax records in the last six months. That is generally combined with new carpet and paint. Mostly you know as soon as you read the blurb...

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by WestieJeff

When we went looking at houses it was very easy to pick out a dollup. It will almost have new neutral tone paint, new granite counters (that may or may not go with the rest of the kitchen), possibly new bathroom surrounds and fixtures, and new flooring.

Most of them I saw looked a little "off", like the house had been cherry picked for certain upgrades. Certain parts of the house were nice and upgraded and other parts old and original.

And looking a little closer, everything is done as cheaply as possible (it's an investor trying to flip it remember). One house had carpet laid over tile in the master bathroom. You could easily feel the indentations and grout lines under the carpet.

I wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole.

It varies. I have sold a couple in recent years that were reasonable buys. One was a nice two story in NLV. Done quite nicely. Not top of the line appliances but not junk either. We complained about the pool heater and the seller replaced it.

Another on the east side that was old and beat up and needed more work than had been done...client however was quite satisfied at the price agreed to and bought planning on a further major upgrade.

Note that these guys get very flexible on pricing after it sits for a couple of months.

So maybe a five foot pole...

[tugandregina]

i guess i dont truly understand the process. . . how can you have multiple offers going? i thought if you made an offer then you were somewhat stuck--i know they can counter offer which you can decline but if you have 8 offers in and all 8 offers were accepted as is (pretend this is dream land, i know that isnt likely but i am saying technically) wouldnt you be on the hook for all 8 homes?

also, i saw somewhere something about contingencies but i didnt quite get it. i know typical contingent offers (ie i buy your house contingent on me selling mine) but a lot of SS i've seen listed online show as contingent. does the fact that it is a short sale in and of itself (ie the bank has to approve) make it contingent or does that mean there is an offer on the house already?

i also saw another status as pending-show, anyone know what that means (i know pending, had never heard of pending-show).

we currently live in WA and have until 5/2011 to move. our lease here is up in feb 2011 so we were figuring just going then, but i suppose there is no hard move date since we could always rent to start there (though moving once and only once would be ideal). our ideal is 2700+ sq ft, built 2000 or newer for 220k or less in one of olecapt's green zip codes (thanks for that map btw, it is GREAT). seemed possible with short sales, but might be harder than we originally thought, especially if they are going for above asking price.
thanks again for all the input!
r