No really, I am moving out of the Midwest to Florida (I thought about lots of other locations but chose Florida for work and family reasons). I have my house in the market one day and already have had two people see it. There is little inventory in my home’s price range so our agent is certain we’re going to sell fast.
Every home we have wanted to purchase in Florida in the last month has gone under contract. For the first three weeks we were shopping around, getting to understand the market, and once we settled on our top list they all started to go under contract. Our RE agent kept warning us that stuff was moving fast, but we did not believe her. Now every good deal that is under contract has at least one back up offer, if not two. Honestly, I don’t care what the statistics show on a country wide basis, real estate buying is hot right now. Hot enough to the point where we have seriously considered putting offers on properties sight unseen to only be too late.
First, I would never put an offer on a house sight unseen. But we for a moment we seriously considered. We know the area we want, we know the price, and we have a relative that we trust that can physically inspect so that if we really really wanted to not wait, we could write a contract on. There are some seriously freaking amazing deals, and for some of the ones that are gone, I would/should have written a contract on based on our relatives review.
I am not taking out a teaser loan. Straight 30 year with 20% down.
But being in the market right now, I can tell you that in my humble opinion, it is at rock bottom. Now is the time.
“Hey uncle fuckstick, this is Yahey, I’m busy in the LR, so can you go look at that split level 4 bedroom for me, yeah, the one with the pool, thanks, I’m going to buy it, make sure there is no asbestos, ok.”
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“Hey uncle fuckstick, this is Yahey, I’m busy in the LR, so can you go look at that split level 4 bedroom for me, yeah, the one with the pool, thanks, I’m going to buy it, make sure there is no asbestos, ok.”
Chainpin is Yahey’s uncle. Man, that explains so much.
So you’re happy that Obama has driven prices down so low?
Yeah, because the causes of that happened after 1/21/2009.
So you would argue that Obama and his pals views on who should get loans and forcing banks to do as they say ( the heart of community organizing. Look up ESOP to see how it works in Ohio and who supports it. It shouldnt surprise you to find that the governemnt official that supported it now works for Obama in one of his new untouchable Czar positions) had nothing to do with the housing bubble or its bursting?
President Obama’s nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that Warren designed. Cordray has long supported ESOP, formerly known as the East Side Organizing Project, an Ohio housing advocacy group that has distinguished itself by storming into banks and launching plastic “shark attacks” on the lawns of private homes. ESOP’s leaders brag about what they call their “organized hits” on banks and other targets, which have included the home of the late Congressman and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp. As Ohio treasurer and attorney general, Cordray lobbied for state and federal funding for ESOP and publicly praised funders of the group as “the real heroes.” And in a highly unusual move for a nominee awaiting confirmation, Cordray returned to Ohio in October to be the keynote speaker at the group’s gala dinner.
First off, did you catch the revision of NAR’s numbers a couple of weeks ago? They admitted their forecasts were off back to 2007. I’m not sure how long it will be before I trust their statistics again, but a long time.
If they are ‘healthy’ properties, ie not short sales then there is a high likelihood they will close. Of course I’m sure you know a home under contract is miles from closing. I partially own 3 rental properties with 2 other guys here in Tampa and Ft. Myers and it’s not hard to keep them full with renters, rental business is booming. We have had 3 straight short sales drop out inches from the finish line since last summer. The reason we are after short sales is b/c there is little to no healthy product around. We see daily what everyone else in the media won’t report: the shadow inventory is ready to smash another tsunami of foreclosures. The HOA’s of developments are hitting people with assessments b/c owners can’t pay the dues to keep the reserves adequate. Homes with grass grown up everywhere b/c people left the home in a Cash for Keys program. It’s starting to look a little bit more like 2007ish every day down here.
If you enter into a short sale make sure you get a real estate attorney b/c there is one rule of short sales: there are no rules. It’s the wild west of dirty dealings. Good luck is all I can say b/c the Florida you are talking about is unknown to me.
Seriously, make sure you do some serious research on this b/f diving in. It doesn’t cost an agent with a vested interest anything to tell you ‘it’s hot down here jump in’. Get on MLS and study it for a time and you won’t have to guess.
I went into the FL market wanting to buy new construction. However, there are so many foreclosures and short sales around that it’s impossible to buy new when down the street is almost new for way less. And the prices of the good healthy properties have to compete with the low prices of distressed properties, so that makes for a huge wide market of great deakls. You are right, short sales, unless they are bank approved, can be extremely long and painful. Fortunately, I have the luxury of being able to wait and no contingencies (other than inspection), and banks are becoming more pragmatic in approving a “reasonable” offer. Based on the market right now, I would only buy a financed distressed home - why pay more than I have to.
Sales are brisk in most area in the affordable sector, whatever that means to your market. Here in CenCal it is $150-200k. Prices are still trending down.
Fortunately, I have the luxury of being able to wait and no contingencies (other than inspection), and banks are becoming more pragmatic in approving a “reasonable” offer. Based on the market right now, I would only buy a financed distressed home - why pay more than I have to.
All this inventory will clear up.
This ‘huge wide market of great deals’ you speak of. Where are you finding all these non distressed properties? I watch this state like a hawk to hopefully find a trend of people selling homes that are not in an unmitigated disaster control situation…have yet to find it. Just curious how you are able to find all these ‘great deals’. You can’t possibly be talking about short sales when you say great deals b/c less than 20% of short sales closed in Florida for 2011.
I think you are going to be unpleasantly shocked at how not pragmatic the banks are with ‘reasonable’ offers. The chasm b/t what you and the bank think is reasonable will be large most likely. If you can get an agent who has priced their short sale responsibly it has a slightly better chance, but beware of the ‘buts’. Most of the short sales are going from 90 to 120 day approval windows so you better be REAL sure when you make an offer that it’s solid or they will dump you on your face at 120 days. Banks will let you sit it out for 4 months with no indication of anything and then say ‘sorry’. Have you sat down with a broker and looked over a set of short sale docs? It’s north of 100 pages and I bet you he/she can’t tell you half of what it means. Banks can’t tell you what it all means, but it’s basically a myriad of ‘gotcha’ clauses and verbiage that gives them the leeway to do whatever they want at the last minute. It’s ridiculous.
In short: banks have everyone by the short and curlys
We are finding here in CenCal that the lenders and government are quite a bit more organized than just two years ago. When the get a property back, they go in and clean it up, take care of the yards etc. Response times to offers on short sale and REO’s are better. Their market intel is better. For all these reasons, the screaming deals and properties getting dumped are less frequent.
Haha. Ok, let me get this - the bank could screw me (like they have you), there are no deals to be had (cause you can’t find any), and don’t over pay on my purchase - got it!
In the biggest inventory, lowest priced, most willing to negotiate, real estate market EVER, and you can’t make money - and you’re in the business?