There also may be outstanding liens on the property that have not yet been identified as well so it is a little bit more difficult to identify if it is a deal from that aspect or not. As FSD said, concentrate on whether the house for the price is a good deal, regardless of short sale, preforeclosure etc. This is the very best advice.

As homes fall further into the default process, the less you can expect from the listing agent with regards to service if you are a buyer. For instance, in a normal sale, if you work directly with the listing agent, what little service and support you get becomes miniscule in a short sale. In a foreclosure not only do you get no service, you will be asked to sign off an ANY liability because the lender owns the home and the disclosures are meaningless. In all fairness how can a lender even disclose any information about the house if they never occupied it.

I am not saying foreclosures and short sales are not potential great deals. IMO they are BUT I am disappointed that they have not been priced aggressively yet…Hopefully as time marches on this will change.

SD Realtor

If the owner is selling you the house, they are required by law to disclose all known defects, plus a bunch of other crap like seismic zone, proximity to nuclear reactors and even sometimes the habitat zones of the red-legged frog.

If an agent is reluctant to show the house, it could be by the sellers’ choosing, or it could be that several offers are already on the table and you are coming in as a potential buyer without an agent. This is perceived by the seller/sellers’ agent as low-probability of making a deal/closing. Either way, if someone is reluctant to show me their property I am reluctant to show them my checkbook.

I think for future bargain hunting you are better off with sellers who need to compete with the short sales and REOs rather than the short-sales and REOs themselves. Because you can expect them to meet your demands, such as seller credits, inspection contingencies, etc. rather than them expecting you to jump through some hoops.

Hi Arny –

In the case of a short sale, absolutely the Seller is responsible for full disclosure. The PR will identify all issues regarding title including all liens and your lender would not approve your loan unless all of the liens were cured.

I do not really understand why the listing agent is reluctant to show the house. I have not had that same experience. I have had no problem showing clients short sale homes. If you called that listing agent and asked them to show you the home, and you told them you were not represented, they should be encouraged to show you the home as they can get both sides of the commission. However if you told them you wanted to see the home, but that you have an agent, then more likely that listing agent will ask you to get your own agent to show you the home. If this is not the case then yeah it is a lazy agent.

Regarding the MLS listing you posted about. From the tax roll on 9/2005 there are two recordings, it looks like a first mortgage for 620k and a second for 155k. The home is currently listed at 600k-625k. That is a nice little bath the lender will be taking.

SD Realtor

Buying a short sale now is still too early. There will be much better deals still to come. This is just the beginning. Just wait as long as you can.

I got ya Arny…

Yeah I am hoping that will be the case as well. I guess we will see. For sure it is not the case right now. Even the REO’s and short sales themselves are not what I would call price competitive right now. So yeah what we need is that real bump in the quantity of REO’s. Then we need them to sit on the market. Then we need them to start price adjusting and affecting overall sales… Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

SD Realtor