[samsite]

I'm in the market to buy a house in the 80K-160K range in Vegas. I see a lot of good houses online that are foreclosed and short sale. Is there anything I need to look out for (ie. hidden fees, repairs, damage, tax), before I pursue a purchase of one of these houses?

Also, what does it mean when the a house is listed as "active" or "contingient" ?

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by samsite

I'm in the market to buy a house in the 80K-160K range in Vegas. I see a lot of good houses online that are foreclosed and short sale. Is there anything I need to look out for (ie. hidden fees, repairs, damage, tax), before I pursue a purchase of one of these houses?

Also, what does it mean when the a house is listed as "active" or "contingient" ?

Two quite different things. A short sale is a three way dicker of some difficulty. The buyer, The seller, and the lender. So three have to agree rather than two. I think the success ratio on shorts is still less than 50%. And it may well take 4 or 5 months to get told no.

Foreclosed is just buying from the bank. They sell to you just like anyone else except they are generally non cooperative. So you buy it like it is...not how you want it to be. They will fix big items...busted AC or such. But they are not going to deal with a missing faucet or a hole someone punched in a wall.

Get straight what you are dealing with and neither is hard.

[Scott456]

In the case of short sale, I heard people say it usually take a long time (several months) for the bank to decide. My question is, before the bank decide, if I see another property I like, can I cancel my offer?

[plum12345]

Originally Posted by Scott456

In the case of short sale, I heard people say it usually take a long time (several months) for the bank to decide. My question is, before the bank decide, if I see another property I like, can I cancel my offer?

Yes. At one point I think I had 5 offers in on different houses. If you're looking for a short then don't get your heart set on a particular home.

If you're looking for a short sale because you want a deal, then good luck. That's what everyone wants. When I was buying a home (in California) I eventually gave up on short sales because they sometimes took up to a year. Banks are slow to respond because they want to wait for the best deal.

[skugelstadt]

Originally Posted by samsite

I'm in the market to buy a house in the 80K-160K range in Vegas. I see a lot of good houses online that are foreclosed and short sale. Is there anything I need to look out for (ie. hidden fees, repairs, damage, tax), before I pursue a purchase of one of these houses?

Also, what does it mean when the a house is listed as "active" or "contingient" ?

Short sales are a bit of a pain. It took the bank about 8 months to accept our offer then once they decided, everything was very fast paced and communication with the bank takes forever to respond to propose changes. The owners had a lot of items in the house and this hampered our home inspection as the inspector will not move anything. The owners can remove items from the house at the last moment that you would consider "part of the house". Your contract must be very specific indicating what stays. You are basically buying the house as is and you hope the previous owner causes no damage or removes fixtures upon moving out. Remember no one is working for your best interest more than you. You would be wise to have someone with a lot experience looking over your shoulder during the process. Be very dilligent reading your contract, the devil is in the details.

sk

sk

[Isitmeorarethingsnuts?]

Can you make an offer on a short sale that is already contingent?

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by Isitmeorarethingsnuts?

Can you make an offer on a short sale that is already contingent?

The contingent short sale will often take a backup offer to go into play only if the primary buyer quits. It can be a reasonable strategy. A place where your agent should talk to the listing agent...short offers come in many flavors.

[Tires]

Originally Posted by plum12345

Yes. At one point I think I had 5 offers in on different houses. If you're looking for a short then don't get your heart set on a particular home.

.

They don't want you to do that.

Short Sales and Earnest Money - Realtors Marketing Tips, Talk, Webmasters Forum

This is what one realtor from Las Vegas says:

I specialize in short sales here in Las Vegas, which about 70% of the market are short sales. It is common for a buyer here to deposit EMD right after buyer and seller agree on contract, even before lender approval. In fact, I don't even consider an offer on my listings unless the buyer is willing to deposit EMD right away. The reason for this is committment from the buyer. We don't want buyers out writing contracts on many different homes just to cancel all but one later. It's a huge waste of time.

Sounds arrogant on their part.

So, you are supposed to waste your own time instead and tie up earnest money deposit for months before the bank even responds to your offer?

Since banks want "market price" for the short sale, why would anyone want to deal with that hassle of waiting for a possible denial of their offer if in the end they would need to pay the same price as any other similar home? If the bank takes months to respond to your offer, during that time the value could have fallen more and the bank may have an inflated opinion of what the home is really worth. The home might not even appraise for your original bid, much less a higher counter by the bank.

And for this mess, they want you to tie up deposits for months so you are "committed" when the bank has not yet commited to accepting your offer??

Doesn't look like short sales are worth it most of the time.

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by Tires

They don't want you to do that.

Short Sales and Earnest Money - Realtors Marketing Tips, Talk, Webmasters Forum

This is what one realtor from Las Vegas says:



Sounds arrogant on their part.

So, you are supposed to waste your own time instead and tie up earnest money deposit for months before the bank even responds to your offer?

Since banks want "market price" for the short sale, why would anyone want to deal with that hassle of waiting for a possible denial of their offer if in the end they would need to pay the same price as any other similar home? If the bank takes months to respond to your offer, during that time the value could have fallen more and the bank may have an inflated opinion of what the home is really worth. The home might not even appraise for your original bid, much less a higher counter by the bank.

And for this mess, they want you to tie up deposits for months so you are "committed" when the bank has not yet commited to accepting your offer??

Doesn't look like short sales are worth it most of the time.

All that is manageable. On short hunts my clients often have four or five in play simultaneously. The listing agents may not like that but it is always negotiable.

You do shorts because they often yield nicer houses for lesser dollars.

[Tires]

How is a short sale lesser dollars when the banks often want to get full market value and above for short sales? Seems to make more sense to pay full market value if you have an easy purchase not involving a short sale.
I have frequently heard about banks rejecting offers and making counter offers that are above a realistic market value based on recent comps. You can reject their counter and move on to something else at that point, but you have just wasted several months waiting for their response. You can also agree to the higher price if you don't need the selling price to meet a current appraisal, but why would most people want to go through that process and still come out of the tiresome short sale deal without somewhat of a bargain discounted price for their trouble?