As we all know and have seen in our respective markets.  There are quite a few Bank Owned properties as well as Short Sales on the market today.

The problem that I have seen in my market is that very few banks have yet to show the need to sell these homes and get them off of the market.  Most of the dilapidated properties that I see on the MLS that the banks own are priced at or over market value.

In the past few months I myself have written offers for different clients on over 10 bank owned properties and or short sales.  Now these clients are not investors but people looking to buy a home for themselves.  They have seen the comps, called contractors and done their due diligence in order to put together a respectable offer.  They in turn have been met with little to no response from the asset managers and when they do we are finding that they are just not willing to budge on the prices. 

In one such case my clients wrote an offer on a home priced at $495k.  The home needed around $35k or more in work and had been on the market as a bank owned for over 5 months.  The home next door had just closed at $500k, had a pool and was in move in condition.  We submitted the offer at $450k which I felt was a very fair opening offer considering the condition of the home and the comps.

After 3 weeks of waiting(which I know is normal and the clients expected) we got a counter offer from the bank at $490K.  Only $5k below full asking price.  I called the listing agent and he explained to me that the bank was not willing to budge on the price and would obviously do no repairs to the home(again to be expected).

Many of my other offers have been met with a similar fate.  So my question here is when will they get the picture and be willing to actually negotiate on these homes?  Do they want to get them off the books or not?  These are clients who have been waiting for the market to shift and are now serious about buying, solid financing and good money down.