Why Buying Foreclosures is like eBay These Days.
Anyone trying to buy a home in San Jose, roughly around the
$200-230K price range, knows this and knows it well.
The word “foreclosure” on a listing almost guarantees
double-digit multiple offers. And not
low-value double digit numbers like 10 or 11. Pfft! Child's play!
In the last week, while pursuing homes for some of my buyer clients, I have
seen the following:
- 31 offers
- 70 offers
- 21 offers (and the winning offer was lower than my client’s
offer, but was all cash) - 60 offers (12 being all cash)
Of course I have yet to see anything "beat" the one that had 89 offers. Kudos again to the Bocage Team from Keller Williams for using Twitter as a good method of communicating to buyers' agents the updates on their listings.
It’s like having the word “Foreclosure” on a home for sale
is now a competitive advantage. Got a
foreclosed listing in San Jose? Doesn’t matter what kind of shape the house is
in, you’ll probably get more than a few offers.
Simple fact is, the prices for some areas have now become
attainable for first-time home buyers (which is a GOOD thing for our economy,
both on the local level as well as the big picture) as well as real estate
investors with a long term perspective. “Flippers”, those people who made it
look oh-so-easy on HGTV, are a rarity today – thank goodness!
But you gotta set your expectations properly at this price
point in the market. It’s not like the
condition of any of these homes is anything near mediocre. As they say in consumer goods, “your results
may vary”, but for me my verbal reaction when walking into any foreclosure always
ranges from “oh…this is in ‘ok’ condition” to “holy crap how could someone
leave a home in this condition”. Five words that unfortunately I don’t think you’ll hear me say any time soon in a
foreclosure “wow, this is really nice”. Buyer
beware!
Realtor, Marathon Man, "Man of a Thousand Voices".
