It’s kind of hard to tell what happened. The 2004 sale doesn’t show up in the MLS so there’s no way to know what condition it was in at that time.
Not counting carrying costs a $681k sale price just barely breaks even after the costs of sale. Unless the seller spent money on repairs or upgrades in the interim – which is probably only a 50-50 proposition at most – they probably only lost about $65,000 in the difference between the PITI resulting from their ARMS and the market rents.
$65,000 isn’t much money. Most people can clear that in 6 months. Maybe a little longer.
