As an aspiring first-time home buyer, Jay Nielsen hoped to find a cheap, bank-held foreclosure in Vallejo that he could finance with a Federal Housing Administration mortgage. What he didn’t expect was having to compete with buyers willing to pay in all cash.
“Since January, I’ve put in 10 bids (on foreclosed homes); some were up to $80,000 over asking price and were still turned down,” said Nielsen, 41, a medical assistant. Each time, the banks selected offers from investors with all-cash offers – even when those offers were lower than his, Nielsen said.
