Westernskies
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- May 5, 2008
- Messages
- 3,864
We have been watching the RE market, trying to time the bottom, wanting to invest and move up at the same time.. We submitted five offers in two different states on bank-owned homes, explored a couple of short sales, but weren't having much luck finding what we wanted. We were getting burned out looking at homes (online and in person), and generally disgusted by how these properties were being marketed, offers handled and deals being done.
So, we decided to take a break, and decided that we would not look any longer, but if our (new) realtor found anything we would be open to looking… Turned off the computers, went out to dinner, and made plans to go pick out the new puppy we had been putting off getting until after the move. Told our realtor we were taking a break, but if he could find us an incredible deal on a home we could ordinarily never dream of buying in a neighborhood we could ordinarily never dream of living in…. Anyway, the next afternoon he called… in a panic… A new custom home had just come back on the market that morning in a very exclusive community; it had previously been on the market for over a year, the listing expired, it fell through the cracks and the bank wanted it off their books in June. They dumped the price to get it sold quickly; he believed it wouldn’t last a week at the new price.
We went over right away and looked; fell in love with the house and the setting, and made an offer on the spot-and only gave the bank one working day to respond. They grudgingly accepted with the caveat that we could close in 22 days… before their Second Quarter was over. And our 15K earnest money was non-refundable if we failed to close on time.
Getting appraisals, inspections, and a mortgage done in 21 days has been a marathon. It is no wonder why banks are taking such a bath on their RE assets- this was a million- dollar plus home and they refused to turn on the power, water, or gas for our inspections- we had to pay to put them in our name; even though we didn’t legally own the house. (good thing it didn't flood or burn down...)
All the appliances were [-]stolen by the previous owner[/-] missing, along with some of the lights & plumbing fixtures, but overall the house was in great shape. Brand-new, was staged for showing at one time , but never lived in. Our lender wanted to see a working kitchen and bathrooms, so I installed the missing fixtures, brought in old appliances, and sweated through the appraisal. The HOA wouldn’t sign off until the yard was cleaned up, etc, etc, etc. It was touch and go, and a heck of a gamble but we did get the sale closed- a day early.
Here are the details:
We closed Monday; here are a few photos of the home:
So, we decided to take a break, and decided that we would not look any longer, but if our (new) realtor found anything we would be open to looking… Turned off the computers, went out to dinner, and made plans to go pick out the new puppy we had been putting off getting until after the move. Told our realtor we were taking a break, but if he could find us an incredible deal on a home we could ordinarily never dream of buying in a neighborhood we could ordinarily never dream of living in…. Anyway, the next afternoon he called… in a panic… A new custom home had just come back on the market that morning in a very exclusive community; it had previously been on the market for over a year, the listing expired, it fell through the cracks and the bank wanted it off their books in June. They dumped the price to get it sold quickly; he believed it wouldn’t last a week at the new price.
We went over right away and looked; fell in love with the house and the setting, and made an offer on the spot-and only gave the bank one working day to respond. They grudgingly accepted with the caveat that we could close in 22 days… before their Second Quarter was over. And our 15K earnest money was non-refundable if we failed to close on time.
Getting appraisals, inspections, and a mortgage done in 21 days has been a marathon. It is no wonder why banks are taking such a bath on their RE assets- this was a million- dollar plus home and they refused to turn on the power, water, or gas for our inspections- we had to pay to put them in our name; even though we didn’t legally own the house. (good thing it didn't flood or burn down...)
All the appliances were [-]stolen by the previous owner[/-] missing, along with some of the lights & plumbing fixtures, but overall the house was in great shape. Brand-new, was staged for showing at one time , but never lived in. Our lender wanted to see a working kitchen and bathrooms, so I installed the missing fixtures, brought in old appliances, and sweated through the appraisal. The HOA wouldn’t sign off until the yard was cleaned up, etc, etc, etc. It was touch and go, and a heck of a gamble but we did get the sale closed- a day early.
Here are the details:
- 4000ft2/ 4Bd/4.5 baths/ Den/Library/ Guest house/ oversize 3-car garage/ 24-7 guard- gated community with 2 Nicklaus Signature golf courses, clubhouse, 3/4 acre lot, bare-bones landscaping, no pool.
- Lot sold for $300K in June 2005
- Construction loan in late 2006 at market peak was $800K
- Home was completed in late 2007, just as market started to turn; listed by builder in January 2008 at $1.35M
- Lender refused several short sale offers from investors at $850-$900K
- Lender foreclosed in September 2008, re-listed at $1.1M
- Listing expired in March 2009, apparently fell through the cracks when lender was bought out…
- New lender re-listed the first week of June at $650K to try to get it sold in June…
- We were the first offer in; at just over $600K; had only been back on the market one day.
- The listing agent was subsequently swamped with calls inquiring about the “new” listing and from people wanting to submit back-up offers in the event we couldn’t get our sale closed in June. Community consensus was that the bank panicked when they realized they had a dormant listing and drastically under-priced this one.
- There are several similar homes (not bank-owned) listed in the $1.05-$1.25M range, no comparable inventory under $1M
We closed Monday; here are a few photos of the home:
