Short Sale (bank owned, short sales, real estate market)

[topdog352]

Been looking at a lot of listings and hope to buy and relocate to SW Fla in May/Jun of next year. Seeing a lot of "short sale" listings. Have no idea what this means. Anyone care to give some information? Good thing? Bad thing? Thanks in advance.

[Big House]

Originally Posted by topdog352

Been looking at a lot of listings and hope to buy and relocate to SW Fla in May/Jun of next year. Seeing a lot of "short sale" listings. Have no idea what this means. Anyone care to give some information? Good thing? Bad thing? Thanks in advance.

Short sales is a real process. Banks hire agents to put a very low, un-realistic price on a house, just as bait. Then a lengthing bidding process begins. It is extremely frustrating and most people fall out without the success they hope for. The foreclosure sale process is a much faster process, and the banks and the asset managers make decisions and things close much faster. The homes almost never sell for anything anywhere near the short sale bait/listing price.

If you want to learn more check out this thread.

//www.city-data.com/forum/saras...ction-com.html

[mr&mrssunshine]

a foreclosure can be a real bargain as we just found out (as also has BH).

we would heartily recommend using the services of Soflgal - she will find you exactly what you want with none of the usual BS.

I belive Big House would second my recommendation

[FLBob]

The true definition of a short sale is when the market price of the property is below the amount owed to creditors, and the creditors have agreed to accept less than what is owed at closing.
If the seller can bring the difference to closing then it is not a short sale. Prior to agreeing to a short sale the creditor will check the financial resources of the seller.

The thing that makes the short sales problematic is that not all short sale listed properties have worked out a reduced payout without deficiency judgment with the bank prior to listing the property. It is important to learn as much as possible about where the seller/lender are in the process prior to making an offer.

Many short sale listed properties are in foreclosure.

As the real estate market has evolved many brokerages and title companies have developed teams that handle dealing with the loss mitigation departments of most of the lenders. Working with experienced professionals can make the process much more tolerable.

As Big House stated looking at bank owned properties (foreclosed properties) is much more straight forward.

In either case it is important for the buyer to be pre-approved for a loan amount, and to have verifiable funds for escrow deposit and down-payment.

[Big House]

Originally Posted by mr&mrssunshine

a foreclosure can be a real bargain as we just found out (as also has BH).

we would heartily recommend using the services of Soflgal - she will find you exactly what you want with none of the usual BS.

I belive Big House would second my recommendation

Hi Mr & Mrs.
I am sure that a lot of people will give a shout out for SoFLGal!
I'm heading back down in two weeks for an extended weekend - can't wait! When I stop in at Cracker Joe's I'll lift my glass and make a toast to you guys. I think that foreclosures have the potential to be a great deal, but you need a good inspector like Jeff, to insure that everything is checked so you know exactly what you're getting. Without the help of SoFLGal, the process for me would have been almost impossible. She helped with so many things that someone from out of state would have had such a hard time with - not knowing who to go to . . . etc..... I'm sure you agree, especially from coming a bit further away.

Oh, by the way, here are a couple pictures of lighting bugs.

[mr&mrssunshine]

BH-agreed , jeff did a first class job for us. as did the insurance agent SFG recommended. Enjoy Joe Crackers -wish we were joining you.

[SoFLGal]

As many people have mentioned short sales usually take a long time to hear back from the bank and they aren't always the best deals.

Here's how the process works with a short sale. The homeowner falls behind on their mortgage payments and needs to sell the home but can't because they are upside down on their mortgage. The bank tells the homeowner that they must list their home with a Realtor to start the short sale process. The Realtor then determines market value for the home and lists the home. The bank does not want to be contacted until the Realtor has a contract on the home. Once a contract is written it is submitted to the bank. Often the bank will take 90+ days to respond and in many cases it takes well over six months to hear back from the bank. Also keep in mind that the Realtor sets the price on the home so often times the bank will come back with a counter offer that is way ABOVE the list price. So the process can be long and drawn out and you don't necessarily get the best deals. Just so you know another term for short sales are pre-foreclosures or it might say in the listing that the sale is contingent on lender approval.

Now, if you are looking at foreclosures it's a whole different ball game. Whatever the list price is the home will sell for, unless there are multiple offers. The wait time is usually about the same as if you were offering on an owner occupied home. Most banks can and want to close in 30 days. The banks don't want to keep these homes on their "books" and usually are pretty eager to make a deal.

As FLBob stated to submit an offer on a short sale or foreclosure you must have a pre-approval letter or the bank will not review the offer.

Good luck with your house hunting