Undefeckable

Ok, I kept rolling the dice, and found a lender (WF) prepared to pre-approve me. (L1, in country 8 months, almost no credit foorprint). It was some relocation deal they have as I work for a division of one of the big US corps.

Soooo... been trawling the real estate websites looking for something that fits the bill.

Short sales are all over the listings. look like a great deal, although I hear they are an administrative nightmare if you decide to buy one.

I had a chat with a realtor about these and he's warning me off buying one.

Anyone here have any experience of trying to buy a short sale or a foreclosure here in the US?

dunroving

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ght=short+sale

Undefeckable

ok, looks like it worked out okay for Steerpike.

Anyone in Florida had any experience, positive or negative?

fatbrit

Why is he warning you off?

Undefeckable

Saying it's a minefield, that the banks are taking 10-15 weeks to make up their mind etc.

fatbrit

= it's 10 to 15 weeks for him/her to get their commission check.

Cancel the current contract and find a new realtor. Scream at his/her broker if they refuse to cancel it.

Undefeckable

No contract.... only an initial telephone call.

I have a meeting with him tommorrow - he wants to show us property we've expressed interest in.

He may just be trying to build obligation, usual sales tactics etc.

If I smell that distinctive bovine odour tomorrow, then its game over.

I'll keep you posted.

fatbrit

If you're okay with 12 or 15 weeks, then he should be okay with it too. He works for you and shouldn't forget it. Don't sign a contract for him to represent you unless you're completely sure.

Macca67

The terminology is misleading. Short does not refer to the length of time it takes to close the deal, it basically means that any sales proceeds will fall 'short' of the balance owed on the mortgage.

10 -15 weeks is on the lower-ish end of the scale to close a deal and could take up to 6 - 8 months in some cases following the bollocks-up in the financial markets. A lot of the delay can relate to the number of lenders or additional parties engaged in the process who hold a piece of the mortgage and it's the time it can take for all parties to reach agreement that can extend the delay.

Commissions are usually smaller on short sales and take some time to land as FB states, hence why some Realtors shy away from them.

avanutria

We thought about a couple of short sales here in Eugene but decided against them in the end due to the time they would take to finish.

Bear in mind that the advertised price for a short sale property doesn't necessarily reflect the amount that the bank(s) will be happy with, so some ones that appear cheap are not quite so cheap.

We were told to expect 4-8 months for a short sale, and we didn't need a mortgage so that cut out any messing about with financing on our end. Our realtor was happy to do it if it was what we wanted, and if yours isn't, you need a different realtor.

mayhemuk

We bought a short sale here in Marin and it was not particularly draw out. around 12-14 weeks I think.
No worse than some UK transactions I've been involved in.

I think you have to be quite clear with people what your offer is and what you may or may not be willing to move on. There was much toing and froing and we lost out initially to an apparently higher offer which fell through and then they came back to us.
Obviously they tried to have us up some more but we stuck to our guns and got the deal we wanted. (We also got our closing costs taken care of)

If you're a well qualified buyer then you can be quite bullish and drive the bargain.

Perhaps the realtor you've spoken with is not experienced with these and is not willing to learn?

I would not shy away from one again.

farmerwife

Here's a link to a recent article on short sales -

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/i...ebuyers_s.html.

It seems if there is more than one lender involved, or the shortfall is quite large it can be a lot more complicated.

Undefeckable

I checked out a number of properties on Sunday - of the ones that were short sales, they were vacant properties.

The Florida climate is not kind to empty properties.... I saw some of the biggest cockroaches ever, I think. One had a frog in the bathtub.

Some short sales here have been on the market, and empty, for over a year...

Think i'm going to try and keep it simple, unless the 'perfect home' happens to be a short sale, i'm staying clear.

Gingerert

We bought a foreclosed home last March and it took us less than eight weeks from viewing the house to moving in.

It had been on the market for over a year by the time we got to it, but for the life of us we still can't work out why nobody snapped it up. Sure, the kitchen and bathrooms were vile (and I mean VILE), but because there was no interest we got it for $40,000 less than the asking price. Which we spent on doing up the kitchen and bathrooms!

Even the inspector couldn't fault it. I'm still baffled. It did help though that we weren't selling, were at the end of our lease and I was heavily pregnant enough to give them the willies ("You WILL get me that house, or I'm going to give birth on your office carpet RIGHT NOW!")

So yeah, foreclosures are not scary at all. We're thrilled to bits with ours.

Undefeckable

Some of the places we saw had a lot of mould too... couldn't see the lawn for the mouldy citrus that had been falling from the trees in the yard.

I guess one valid point for foreclosures and short sales - if they couldn't afford to pay the mortgage - to the point where they were evicted, or abandoned the property - regular maintainance costs would have been sacrificed long before that.

Peculiarly, one place I saw had all the interior doors removed, and just placed in the closets... weird.