Online House Hunting

Short Sales and Bank Owned? Are they Shady Deals?

I dont get it. I had an offer on a home 20,000.00 more than the listed price. Three weeks later the house was in pending offer. Niether I nor my reator were informed my offer was rejected and was told it was sold in house.I finally got a rejection letter 2 weeks later. Upset but still going house hunting. I put in an offer for a short sale and went into escrow. It was interesting to see the Bank only wanted to pay up to 3% closing when I offered 13,000.00 more than the listed price. I think home buying in Las Vegas is getting really Shady. I dont even think the Reators out here are being honest either. Should I just Give up?

Public Comments

1. Do you have a good Realtor? I know that if you have a crappy Realtor that does not have your best interest in mind then you can get screwed. You really need to trust your Realtor and make sure that they are not afraid to hound another Realtor for real answers. We moved here 4 years ago and our builder would have screwed us if we did not have a great Realtor. I'm shocked that your offers were refused! There are 4 houses on my street alone that are short sale's or bank owned that have been sitting for at least 5 months.
2. Short sales are not shady at all. It is when the bank accepts less than is owed on the house and if saves the current owner/seller's credit. They're not easy, because about 2 in 10 deals get accepted and closed. I just completed a short sale purchase and it was a great experience and we got a house that was well below market value. Keep trying with short sales, but also look at normal listings while you're waiting to hear back on the short sale. It took us about 4 weeks to hear a yes and then the bank wanted to close escrow right away. It would be best if you had an agent experienced in short sale deals. Any agent won't do, because it's totally different and they could mess up the deal and you lose the house. Short sales are pretty common and you'll want an experienced agent and that should also help your odds greatly. Best of Luck.
3. AVOID SHORT SALES The big problem is that the banks are not preapproving the list price. You can offer to pay it, but the bank is under no obligation to accept it. If you are bargain basement shopping for a house you will have much better luck going REO, homes where the foreclosure has finished, it is not in process.