Offer is moving along nicely in the process, wouldn’t want to jinx the thing by saying more 🙂
If I don’t get that one, there’s no shortage of interesting things going to REO (not trustee, they’re already bank-owned) auction locally (we’re either at the bottom in NY/NJ or maybe just past it), so no big deal.
Two non-auction examples:
(1) Estate-sale duplex listed at $130k, taxes+water+sewer+trash $500/mo, rents for $900-950 each unit. Decent shape, no critical work needed. In a “less-nice” area on the border of a very toney town. Put in an offer at $120k — executor is apparently away but will respond in a few weeks.
(2) Duplex listed at $300k, bank will accept $250k, decent mixed white and blue-collar town (actually the one where I grew up – 35 min from NYC by train and at the border of a rather nice state park). Taxes $600/mo, rents $1600/mo per unit, needs probably $50k of updates. Separate furnaces for both units.
I’m actually physically in NJ this month, since it’s a lot easier to take the electric train into the city for client appointments/work, than to leave the city at odd hours to chase often-unpunctual brokers. (The people with a lot of REOs seem to be bottom of the heap for some reason!)