1st off, get a new realtor, you don’t have faith in them and can do their job for them so switch to a foreclosure/short expert as others have mentioned. 2nd, it’s not the fault of the listing realtor that they guessed at the price, that is how it is done. The listing agent ultimately has to prve to the bank that the price they decided on is what the market value is, taking into account the previous price with no offers, comps, etc. The bank doesn’t issue a “short price” it has to be developed through trial and error and the bank has to agree. After one offer rejection, the realtor can guage what the bank will take but until offers come in, there is no telling if the bank will accept it. The bank will only give feedback after a valid offer comes in, not just hypotheticals by a realtor. If the bank balks at 280, then they raise to 290, and so on. Buying shorts can be frustrating but can pay off.
lastly, the bank will certainly take 290 from you on a 425 debt, they have to weigh their options of losing 30-40k in lost interest and legal fees to get it back and then the market to sell it in six months will be worse than today, they are trying to decide if losing 40k over the next year only to get a 250k sale down the road vs, taking 290 today. 135k loss is actually fantastic on the part of the bank, most repos are losing well over 200k.
The real question is, should you save them now, or make them sell it to you for 200k next year? It’s hard to ignore nice houses for less than 300k, especially if you can afford it. If you make 100k a year, have no debt, a down payment and want to buy a house you can stay in that costs less than 300k, it actually makes sense and I won’t try to talk you out of it. I am waiting at least another 6 months but I’m a greedy bastard.
