Looking for a desperate seller that you can work over?
They are hard to find – even the short-sale sellers hold out like they have some bargaining power, when really all they are doing is extending their free rent. Buyers are frustrated enough that many, if not most are paying a premium, just to end the search, and get on with life:
Back when I was looking there was a lot of inventory, just not a lot of great quality out there Jim. That was a 5-7% hit for me on the low end. The comps won’t show it though because the banks are really playing this game like they’ve been counting cards for years. Related, multiple offer situations are inherently expensive.
Only 10% discount ? Well just don’t buy. What is the hurry, there is not even any good tax incentives to mitigate the falling prices.
Stay with that one Jim, your client may well yet get it for 600k or less. There is a good chance the buyer at 660k will walk before it is all over.
Nice house and location. Weird, they bought it just last year for $689k? I wonder why they left already. In this market, if you can’t commit to staying at least 5 years, you should be renting.
It was a #2 from the Motivated Sellers’ Big Three Reasons list:
Death, divorce, or job transfer.
I can think of a another good idea for the full bath/bedroom down, other than the obvious guest bedroom/in-law suite-teenagers. Let’s say you have a family with two kids in the eight to 12 range, and one that is 14 thru 21. A four bedroom, three full bath, with two beds and a jack and jill up plus master suite and one bed and bath down is perfect. The teenager gets his or her own bath and is seperate from the smaller kids. (I didn’t see a hall bath upstairs in that house-is that just a 4/2? That kind of sucks if there’s no hall bathroom upstairs.).
As for great rooms, I’ve seen them in older homes. The house I grew up in was built in 1969 but had a great room-style setup-the kitchen had an eat-in counter with stools beside the family room.
Frustration and desperation always leads to financial loss. In this case, 10%. Patience and contentment will reduce the loss. CA’s almost 11% unemployment rate has to affect the market soon.
Jeeman: an 11% unemployment rate means there’s still 89% employment. I bet a good portion of those unemployed were not potential homebuyers, as well.
Two full baths upstairs. Walking distance to the elementary school, park, and canyon preserve. The seller(s) could have even made money on this home if they had put it on the market before school was back in session.
There are buyers out there! Really! I’m one frustrated buyer with the lack of inventory under $525k that is a value. Put an offer on an REO listed at $525k and supposedly there were multiple offers. Comps and condition dictated $440k to bring it up to habitable-it needed the works! We wouldn’t bite on the ‘bidding war’, let the offer stand, and ‘lost’. Funny though (read: sarcasm), it’s still on the market! Anyone think the bank will reconsider once it sits there for awhile or are they really that arrogant?