A Sign in the Yard Doesn’t Mean the Owner is Desperate to Sell!

 

It is a sign o’ the times; distressed properties are for sale!   Today the market is flooded with more foreclosures and Short Sales than I have ever seen in my near decade of practicing real estate and it’s forecasted to  get worse before it get’s better.

 You’ve heard those sayings: “If it sounds too good to be true, it is” &  “You get what you pay for”.  That holds true [pretty much] in the real estate world too!  Bank owned, or short sale properties seem like a great deal at first glance but are typically priced in line with what an “AS IS” price would be for a property in its condition.  Buyer’s need to beware of the cost of repairs exceeding the true market value once completed after the sale.

As I see it,  foreclosure listings are not grotesquely reducing their asking price as a way to undercut the rest of us or so a Buyer can  get a steal-of-a-deal;  they’re pricing their properties based on one or more suggested list price of a professional BPO (Broker Price Opinion). Banks  are not in the business of giving houses away and those BPO’s are conducted by local real estate agents advising them on how to get TOP DOLLAR in as short amount of time possible! I cannot imagine any Realtor who would be suggesting prices below anything but top dollar as that negatively effects their own hometown economics! 

While it is true that foreclosure sales have negatively affected the value in some neighborhoods,  A savvy agent will consult a traditional seller to price their property inline with recent sales as well as current competition (just like an appraiser will do).  I’d like to consider myself a “savvy agent” and I do tell my clients to price their property respective to current market conditions but even still I constantly see ridiculously low offers.  I’m sure there are plenty of stories of Buyer’s getting a deal but my rant today is merely to say I’m looking forward to the day when the mentality out there isn’t that if there is a sign in your yard, you must be desperate to sell and buyer’s stop making crazy low offers on homes that are clearly not over-priced. 

(quick disclaimer: Every city is like a snowflake with their own unique set of market conditions affecting their communities so I can only speak for what I see through my eyes here in Fort Worth, Texas.)