Are Bank Owned Home Prices Really What They Seem?
If you're looking on the internet and discover bank owned home prices,
sometimes they can seem too good to be true...well sometimes they are.
Currently in Arizona many banks
are offering homes for sale with very low prices that don't reflect what the
bank actually gets for them. Now what do you do?
So you've found a home on a realtor's website or on a popular real estate
site and you see the home is almost being given away. You start doing
mortgage calculations and see how much more home you can afford with these
incredible foreclosures and bank owned homes. Now you adjust your search
range and start looking at homes that are a little bit more expensive than
before.
Now you contact a realtor to view these homes and to the surprise of you and
many other buyers, the homes are selling for more than what they are listed for
and in fact are getting multiple offers. We are seeing bank owned homes
command as many as 30 offers.
Is it bait and switch? No, not really. What the banks are doing
is in their best interest, creating competition and getting home buyers
interested. Buyers are getting excited and don't want to miss out and an
incredible opportunity and it gets them out from in front of their computers
and out to the bank owned homes. Mission
accomplished for the banks and government agencies that own the homes.
Is it not worth buying if there's so much competition? Of course
it's worth it! The fact is the end sales price is still an
incredible buy compared to the last two decades of home buying. Homes are
still selling for $50 a square foot that at one time sold for $270 a square
foot, accompanied with historically low interest rates. It's a great time
to be a buyer in this market. Don't get hung up on the fact that there
are multiple offers, or that prices are more than what's advertised, focus on
what you're actually getting for the end price.
What should you do if you want to buy or look at bank owned homes?
First contact a reputable, experienced realtor who can put in to perspective
what the homes in specific markets are selling for, compared to what they're
listed for. Armed with that knowledge you can accurately decipher between
a market priced home or a home that a bank is fishing for offers on. Keep
in mind that the condition of the home and the location will effect the price,
however you can still establish a market price for comparable homes to gauge
what the bank is ultimately trying to receive from the sale of the home.
Make sure you are working with a realtor who knows how to "play the
game" with the banks and can get your offer accepted and pushed through
before the other offers are accepted and you can own a home for a fraction of
the price they sold for just a few years ago.