As a normal buyer its becoming more and more frustrating. I am working with a knowledgable and experienced Buyer’s Agent. But after such experiences I have now decided to not engage him with any potential short sales (knowing the risks involved).
In my target zip (92011), its really very competitive for anything decent that comes up as a reasonably priced regular sale. In 700-900k range, it seems there are multiple motivated buyers who are watching like hawks with “Laser Like Focus”. In Dec-Jan (low season) and with 24×7 Negative news about Real Estate, anything decent went pending at the asking price in a blink (e.g. Barberry, Cassins, Sitio Sago).
My Conclusion for my price range and in my target zip: Those nicer Ocean View dream homes (with pool, yard and swaying palms) … the ones that we all want … well those are not going to be impacted any significntly by this down turn no matter how many DoubleDips we have. There are honestly no Deals/Steals on those in a regular sale or even in a straight REO/short sale (check 6647 Thrasher, 6636 surf crest). For each one of those there are multiple potential buyers who are ready for blood bath.
Only way you can get some discount on those is by risking it … either buy those at the courthouse steps all-cash or by joining some manipulative deal, being executed in the name of “Foreclosure Crisis”. Otherwise simply change your criteria and look elsewhere. After all there is a big “Opportunity Cost” in terms of time, energy and peace-of-mind that gets spent in doing all this research.
