As much as the real estate game has changed for Sellers (as I had explored in my last post), the game has certainly changed for Buyers as well.  The question is with some types of property, do they, or rather should they want to play?

Over the last year I have had my share of horror-show -closings with short sales that were never approved and REO properties that were not properly inspected prior to closing leaving the Buyer with expensive, unexpected repairs. In Buying property 2.0, the basic principles of buying property are the same, but the risks have changed.  With short sales and bank owned properties Buyers have three  major risks:

1 Will the property close in time for Buyer's use, or within Buyer's rate lock period?

2. Will there be expenses that Buyer will lose if the property does not close due to Seller or Seller's Lender?

3. Must Buyer forego some due dilligence in order to make the deal happen and at what cost?

These risks may be obvious, but I have a lot of Realtors dragging first time home buyers through these types of transactions.  Often, said Realtors do not fully relate all of these risks as same may apply and they end up calling my office a thousand times as the deadlines pass, asking me why we are not closing on time and "so what happens now?"

I think if we properly prepare our clients with cautionary advice and give them options, we can succeed with these 2.0 Buyers - they just need to be prepared to wait and they must be willing to gamble a little if they want to purchase a discounted bank owned or short sale property!

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