Steerpike

I've been in the Bay Area for 25 years, and bought several properties and refinanced many times - so I'm comfortable with the general idea of property buying and financing.

But now my new job is requiring me to spend 50%+ of my time in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area, and would like to consider buying a condo rather than staying in hotels. There are decent condos to be had for $150k in the upscale parts of town (almost a 50% drop from 2 yrs ago, apparently), and the monthly payments on such a loan would be easily achievable.

But I hear that you can buy some of these same condos for $70k from the bank, if you know what you are doing. I have a 'line of credit' that would allow me to pay cash for such a purchase, if needed. So I have the funds available, but I don't know where to start. There are so many realtors out there hungry for work that they will all tell you they know the process, and I don't know enough to challenge them. Do I need to approach banks directly? Can I still view the property, get inspections, etc, or do I have to buy 'as is' and 'sight unseen'? I presume that in order to get that big price difference, you have to do without some of the normal aspects of the process.

fatbrit

$70k for a nice condo close in to Snottsdale is a tad optimistic IMO. You'd have to wander into northwest Mesa or east Tempe to find a bargain like that. But then you'd be forever stuck in the parking lot that is the 101.

Tarkak9

PM me.

Cape Blue

why not put it on the forum so anyone else interested can see?

DMDA

It may differ from state to state but in Florida where I'm currently considering buying a short sale you do have to go through an agent.

The property is sold "as is" however, after your offer has been accepted by the bank you would still be able to have an inspection to identify any issues - if there was too much work you could still walk away from the deal (I imagine the bank would set a time period but not 100% sure on that).

Also, be prepared that it may be several months between you submitting your offer and the sale going through.

As I said, that's Florida - not sure about other states.

made of kent

I saw the most amazing property in CT on short sale it was $499,000 it was built but not finished inside, on lake front, huge, I looked into it and found that you have to pay all the debts on the property, and with the finishing work which I estimated would be about $200,000, I watched it along time and eventually it sold for a $1, me thinks this could have been a good deal but, what where the debts of the builder ect with interest? and back taxes, still I think who ever brought it got a good deal

Bob

I wonder in a case like that if you could set up a business LLC to buy the property and then rent it to yourself? Could always bankrupt the business if the back taxes/debts were really high.

Speaking of though, we saw a lovely place in Maine, 5 beds and a bit of land for $49K...down the road, a 16 acre lot over looking the ocean was $32K...around the bar harbor area so a really nice place too...kind of depressing...

Cape Blue

It must be a pretty depressing kind of place if people can only get $49k for a 5 bed and some land?

Bob

It's a beautiful area, massive tourism, but unless your running a eatery, BB or other tourist type place, there's really no work out there, most folks are run lobster boats but they've been hit hard.

It's a great spot for people to set up holiday homes and the like....and also these are small places, the rockafellers have a 60 odd room house in the neighbourhood along with martha stewart and the like...

One thing I will say though, Sommeville, which is neighbouring, don't speed there, aunt got clocked doing 27 in a 25mph zone as the town makes nearly all it's money from clocking speeders.

made of kent

isn't it funny how so many places in America are poor I mean really poor, I thought in the UK we had poor areas but nothing compared to this, when surrounded by richness! such a huge country!

Steerpike

I agree it's a bit optimistic; my main hope is, if I'm willing to pay cash, that I could get a better deal than the 'typical going rate' by approaching the banks directly. I could use a line-of-credit to make the purchase 'outright', then take my time refinancing the property after the fact.

Steerpike

Well, yesterday I made an offer on a short-sale condo, and today it was accepted! So the fun begins ...

The Condo is in a beautiful, established development and the unit sold 2 years ago for about $300k. They were asking $160k short-sale price, 'as is' etc. I offered $150k cash and was accepted over two other buyers who offered similar amounts; my 'cash' offer was the thing that made it go my way. My offer is contingent on inspections. 'Regular sales' in the development are sporting asking prices in the $180-$220 range ... though I have not seen any closings for private sales in months.

So now I get to experience the months of wait and - as I saw in the contract - the possibility of being beaten out by a higher bidder later in the process - unique to short-sale transactions, apparently - "nothing shall limit a seller from accepting subsequent offers from subsequent buyers and submitting the backup contracts to seller's creditors for consideration. ... Sellers creditors may may elect to allow the seller to sell the Premises only to the holder of the Contract with terms and conditions most acceptable to creditor" (Short Sale Addendum). Haven't fully digested that one yet, but - it is what it is. Let's see how it goes ...

dunroving

Good luck - hope there are no last-minute surprises. I continue to be dumbfounded at the fact that most house sales in the UK allow the seller (or buyer) to drop out, sell to another bidder, etc., at almost any phase of the process.

Jerseygirl

We've looked at a couple of short sale/foreclosure properties in the last couple of weeks...I'll be interested to know how you go on with the purchase.

Tarkak9

Basically contingent upon approval of the bank... and often likely for the terms of the short sale approval to be acceptable to the seller too (ie to be released of the remainder of the balance etc). Until you have the sign off from the bank, yes, someone else can come along and present an offer which may be better than yours... which I am dealing with at the mo for my peeps, knocking another offer out of the way. Bottom line, banks just look at their net amount and minimal loss.

Just be damn sure its not one of these "3rd parties" negotiators/investor/llc are involved. If there has been a recent title change or a deed suddenly recorded, be very suspicious of it.

The waiting is the pain in the @rse... submitted 3 mo ago to the bank and still haven't heard a thing. Some banks are faster than others but its a pain in the rear none the less...