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1.) What is the big deal with agents not wanting to show/deal with short-sales, foreclosures or HUD homes?
2.) Is the website realtor dot com a holding place for houses that no one wants or no one can sell? IOW, am I looking in the wrong place?
1. I'll sell someone any of these homes, but all that you have listed, IMO, come with a greater understanding on the buyers part in regards to timeframes, condition, and general expectations of the process itself. some agents are lazy or have negative connotations to these types of transactions, either from what they have heard or from previous experiences.
2. realtor.com, along with zillow, homes, trulia, etc etc etc are all marketing sites firstmost, so take the property status with a grain of salt. agents are typically not bound to update the status/info on these sites within a timely manner (all most of those sites syndicate from a local MLS if available).
align yourself with a local agent that you mesh well with.. they should be able to provide you with daily/hourly updates of any new homes. keep in mind, a list of available homes from that agent will undoubtedly be smaller than realtor/zillow/trulia/etc, but that is due to the agents list not including under contract homes.
You really have to know the current inventory backward and forward. A local realtor will add you to thir service so that you receive updates when new properties are added or price changes occur.
In the area I'm relocating to about 30% of the inventory is pending short sales. Some note that, other's do not. Some fall in and out of contract multiple times.
SS mean long waits and complications, and can result in many months in limbo with no positive result.
1.) What is the big deal with agents not wanting to show/deal with short-sales, foreclosures or HUD homes?
2.) Is the website realtor dot com a holding place for houses that no one wants or no one can sell? IOW, am I looking in the wrong place?
1. It takes a lot of time and resources and it is not likely for most to want to work that much for so little. It's easier to sell a house that will close quickly. Realtors I dealt with had no experience with them, nor had the desire to deal with it. I finally found one that was patient and willing but I ended up finding something on the inventory. One thing I did not understand was having to pay a subscription to get access to what was on foreclosure. Really? Sounds like a scam.
2. It lists everything on the market. Status is not always updated. A house can pop up on MLS and sell in a few days before making it to those sites. Other houses are long since sold and don't get taken off the site. It's akin to those realtor/realty mags in the grocery store. They're way out of date.
1. Short sales have changed massively in the past few months due to changes by Fannie Mae. I'm seeing fewer and fewer close here and those that do are take much longer than before. They are no longer good deals in my area so there really is no incentive to put yourself through that.
2. HUD is easy. You have to have a NAID number in order to bid on a HUD home so it might be that the agents you are working with don't have one.
3. Foreclosures aren't a big deal either as long as the buyer understands the process. They also are no longer good deals in my area.
What is your price point in relation to the market? I have to wonder if it isn't these types of sales, but more about the price point you are looking in.
I have heard from almost all my new buyer clients "I'd like to find a shortsale or foreclosure" meaning, they think there are a jillion of them and that they are all a big bargain. Not so. In the first place, the banks make the agent list them at pretty much a market price as if it was not an REO or SS so thinking they're all deeply discounted is wrong.
I concur with the other answers about short sales. They are a royal pain for months and do often fall out due to various reasons. REOs are not so bad but you still have to offer a price pretty darn close to the list price.
If you are getting a mortgage, the lenders are very strict about condition of the dwelling. If it's in poor shape and will need a lot of expensive repairs, they're not likely to want to loan on such a property.
Our agent didn't mind showing us such homes as OP mentioned, however he advised against them. He would do his research and give us the reasoning or update on the house itself and knew that deep in our hearts these homes were never going to meet our criteria enough to warrant dealing with the hassles of buying foreclosures, auctions, etc.
Everything worked to our advantage, we close next week and couldn't be happier. The home checked all of our boxes and picked up a 30yr fixed for a fantastic rate without conditions and actually already gained $5k in equity from the appraisal.
If your agent is not showing them or against it, then they may have their reasons but if you trust your realtor and they know truly what you want then you should be comfortable with their calls.
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