Foreclosures and Short Sales. These have been the bulk of my business this year. Many people in troubled waters...
I met a buyer 2 weeks ago. We looked at several condos and he decided to write on a foreclosure property.
We submitted an offer to the listing side with a great deal of information to give to the bank.
I drafted a cover letter with the reasons the buyer was writing an offer at the price shown.
In the details I explained that although the price had been reduced to well below any recent sales, that is a state of the market at this time. With high condo fees of $235 monthly, many condos out there are much lower at $140- $150, this significantly reduces the borrowers buying power. Couple that with taxes of over $3000 per year, the price of the condo is the only factor that can be adjusted to make this condo affordable. Nearby communities have taxes of $2,000 per year. My buyer has $10,000 to put down, which is also highly unusual in these times. He would prefer this home - but will take another in a nearby area to make his payment work.
We put in a low offer and told the bank that this is what the buyer can afford. He can close quickly, has a pre-approval letter and a sizable earnest money deposit. I also advised that we are in a very quiet time, that if this sale doesn't happen the bank may be sitting on this property, paying taxes, association fees and utilities until spring. Please consider the offer and get this one off the books now.
Several days later we receive a counter offer from the bank. They would like to close in January - this one surprised me.... usually they want a 30 day close. No problem, the buyer can do that. The price was still to high.
The listing agent and I talked, the buyer came back a little higher and asked for a closing cost credit. The bank tried another counter offer back, but eventually accepted the offer we gave.
This all took 5 days, not too bad compared to others I have worked on.
In the end, the buyer is more than happy, the bank seems pleased too.
It's all in the packaging.
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You can find great local Milwaukee Wisconsin area real estateinformation on Localism.com April Hayden-Munson Realtor, Southeastern Wisconsin is a proud member of the ActiveRain Real Estate Network, a free online community to help real estate professionals grow their business.
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