So I was dealing with a short sale home and I knew for sure it wouldn’t be a short sale for long…
I knew it would only be a matter of time before this property would again be on the market as a bank owned property. I encouraged my eager clients to be patient, and that I would be consistently searching all of the MLS listings until I came across their desired property again. Within a little over a week, my hunch was confirmed when I came across the same cabin, now listed at $130,000 and as a bank owned property. I called my clients within minutes, informing them of the fantastic news, and we wrote an offer for $115,000 cash that day.
The bank came back the next day at $117,000 cash and we snatched it up. Not only that, but the bank repaired some broken pipes under the house that the original owner most likely would not have been able to afford to do. Basically, the bank took a month and a half and did nothing when it was a short sale.
After the bank took ownership of the property, we were able to settle on a fantastic offer, and get a few repairs out of the deal as well. The second time I came across this situation it was very similar to the first. My clients in this situation, made an offer of $340,000 on a property listed as a short sale, and priced at $389,000. Again we played the waiting came for over two months while the bank had the house reappraised and had numerous BPO’s completed.
The end result was the bank declining our offer and allowing the house to go into the foreclosure stage. Again, I patiently watched and search the MLS listings until I came across the house listed as a bank owned property, and priced at 390,000. I agreed with my clients that the house was extremely over priced, and thought we should wait with the hopes of the price dropping. After we waited two weeks and the house still hadn’t been sold, we decided it was the perfect time to make another offer.
We came in at $333,000, and waited for a response from the bank. This time it took one day to get their answer, which was no. After a week of wrangling, we put the home into escrow for $339,000. So, we got a lower price in only a week when it was bank owned. Bank Owned Two, Short Sales Zero.
Article submitter Dan Troy knows all about shopping a house for sale and homes for sale in general. Check out more of his articles on the web.