Now is the time to move on North Orange County houses (especially bank owned foreclosures).

I've been working with a lot of first time buyers recently who suddenly feel that now may be a good time to buy their first house. The surprising thing is how aggressive we have had to be when making an offer. There are some short sale listings that are priced below market value but I've noticed that the listing agent hasn't even contacted the lender yet to see if that would be an acceptable price. These properties are probably not worth pursuing.

The standard sales and the bank owned foreclosure REO's are selling like hotcakes. Now is not the time to wait for prices to go down. My clients have all noticed the difference in just the last few weeks. If you are not prepared to make an offer at above the listing price within the first couple of days of hitting the market, you will not even get a chance for your offer to be accepted.

For more info: www.homerealtymanual.com