Girls who bought short sales?

When you put an offer on the short sale - how low did you go below their asking price?

And also - did you have to leave an 'Earnest Money Deposit'? If so, how much?

The house we were looking at in Massapequa fell through and we are looking at a short sale tomorrow night - just wondering what it entailed.

Thanks!!

you mean the deposit that you give with the offer? I usually ask clients to do about $500- but you can go lower, see what the agent will accept.

As for the offer- GO LOW! you can go up- and the bank is not in the business of owning houses, so a lot of times they will take a hit.

You can also look at other similar houses and see what they are selliing for

eta- good luck & if you have questions feel free to fm

I thought I read on here somewhere that you had to give your downpayment upfront and I found that so ODD. If its only $500 or a couple of thousand dollars, I'm relieved.

Are you in the mortgage business MB? How low is low LOL - like - is 10% below their asking price 'low' or is that too much or is that not enough? I'm so confused haha.

my coworker put in an offer on a short sale that was listed at $429 for $405. they ended up settling on $420 since the house was so underpriced. however, she never made it further than that - the house had extensive termite damage - so she never left any money down.

sorry about the house in massapequa

Those termites, they'll get you every time!!!

Would we be allowed to get an inspector in their before giving the down payment? My understanding was that the home was sold 'as-is' and that we were committed once putting in an offer.

eta - massapequa had termites

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Posted by MrsHtobe

I thought I read on here somewhere that you had to give your downpayment upfront and I found that so ODD. If its only $500 or a couple of thousand dollars, I'm relieved.

Are you in the mortgage business MB? How low is low LOL - like - is 10% below their asking price 'low' or is that too much or is that not enough? I'm so confused haha.

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no am a part-time agent. low is what you think its worth- look at houses that are comparable in the same area and see what they have sold for. take as much off as you feel you will need for repairs, etc. too - but make sure you also get a home inspector- will be the best $500 you spend!

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Posted by futuremrsfab

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Posted by MrsHtobe

I thought I read on here somewhere that you had to give your downpayment upfront and I found that so ODD. If its only $500 or a couple of thousand dollars, I'm relieved.

Are you in the mortgage business MB? How low is low LOL - like - is 10% below their asking price 'low' or is that too much or is that not enough? I'm so confused haha.

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no am a part-time agent. low is what you think its worth- look at houses that are comparable in the same area and see what they have sold for. take as much off as you feel you will need for repairs, etc. too - but make sure you also get a home inspector- will be the best $500 you spend!

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So in a short sale, you would get the inspector in there BEFORE you put in an offer - correct? Or am I screwing this all up

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Posted by MrsHtobe

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Posted by futuremrsfab

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Posted by MrsHtobe

I thought I read on here somewhere that you had to give your downpayment upfront and I found that so ODD. If its only $500 or a couple of thousand dollars, I'm relieved.

Are you in the mortgage business MB? How low is low LOL - like - is 10% below their asking price 'low' or is that too much or is that not enough? I'm so confused haha.

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no am a part-time agent. low is what you think its worth- look at houses that are comparable in the same area and see what they have sold for. take as much off as you feel you will need for repairs, etc. too - but make sure you also get a home inspector- will be the best $500 you spend!

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So in a short sale, you would get the inspector in their BEFORE you put in an offer - correct? Or am I screwing this all up

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I havent had a short sale yet, so not sure on this- in typical sales, you just put it in your contract

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Posted by futuremrsfab

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Posted by MrsHtobe

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Posted by futuremrsfab

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Posted by MrsHtobe

I thought I read on here somewhere that you had to give your downpayment upfront and I found that so ODD. If its only $500 or a couple of thousand dollars, I'm relieved.

Are you in the mortgage business MB? How low is low LOL - like - is 10% below their asking price 'low' or is that too much or is that not enough? I'm so confused haha.

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no am a part-time agent. low is what you think its worth- look at houses that are comparable in the same area and see what they have sold for. take as much off as you feel you will need for repairs, etc. too - but make sure you also get a home inspector- will be the best $500 you spend!

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So in a short sale, you would get the inspector in their BEFORE you put in an offer - correct? Or am I screwing this all up

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I havent had a short sale yet, so not sure on this- in typical sales, you just put it in your contract

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Thank you!!!!

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Posted by CD516

Im in the mortgage business. Alot of banks are turning down offers on short sales because people come in too low. My advice is to offer what you believe the house is worth. A short sale is not the same as a foreclosure- the bank does not own the property. They want to get current market value for the house - its only fair. THey will usually do there own internal appraisal before they accept an offer. They are losing out in the end- so why would they want to take less than market? Sometimes it takes months to get a response on a short sale offer becuase they are very backed up with them. Just becuase the people owe more money than the home is worth, does not mean the bank is going to take a bigger loss than they should. Thats been my take on how things are going and have been my experiences lately with short sales. Good luck in finding a house!

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Well - heres the thing.

The asking price on the house is $450k. . .but all of the houses in the area around it are valued in the mid-500s on zillow.com. So its obviously already below market - but they wouldn't list it at EXACTLY what they want, right? They would have to leave some wiggle room?

Just wanted to answer a few of your questions, as we did purchase a short sale back in July...

As for the inspector, we actually had them come to the house they day we were putting the offer in - which was 3 months before we heard that it had been accepted. But, the house is sold 'as is', as you mentioned...and with our house, no one had been living in it so it was winterized, so unfortunately we just had to put faith in a lot of things, and if they weren't working right, we would have had to pay / deal with all of that...

When we put the offer in, we gave 10% of our offer (which was no small chunck of change...)

HTH...if you have any other questions I can try real hard to remember what we did

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Posted by MsPotterhead

I'm confused. I thought you didn't put anything down until your offer was accepted?

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I went through it and I'm still confused

We had to put money down the day we signed the contracts and sent them to the bank. It then took months for the bank to say that they approved our offer (since they have to decide how much of a loss they are willing to take.)

So, long story short, with a short sale, you have to put money up the day you sign the contracts -which doesn't necessarily mean that the house will be yours. (Confusing, and annoying!!!)

I am so glad that all this is posted!! I haven't begun this process at all, but DH and i are looking into Condo's.

We need a home buying class!!!! Ron, Kim, Liz!! Hop to it!! I think that should be the next site.. LIHousing!

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Posted by Kimbalina

I am so glad that all this is posted!! I haven't begun this process at all, but DH and i are looking into Condo's.

We need a home buying class!!!! Ron, Kim, Liz!! Hop to it!! I think that should be the next site.. LIHousing!

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SUCH a good idea!!! My DH had bought places before, so he knew what was going on, but I was (and really, still am) a little clueless on it! I think also cause our process was so different, I was really in the dark!!!

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Posted by jillyb97

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Posted by Kimbalina

I am so glad that all this is posted!! I haven't begun this process at all, but DH and i are looking into Condo's.

We need a home buying class!!!! Ron, Kim, Liz!! Hop to it!! I think that should be the next site.. LIHousing!

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SUCH a good idea!!! My DH had bought places before, so he knew what was going on, but I was (and really, still am) a little clueless on it! I think also cause our process was so different, I was really in the dark!!!

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I find it to be a scary process! I am glad I am not the only one.

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Posted by Kimbalina

I am so glad that all this is posted!! I haven't begun this process at all, but DH and i are looking into Condo's.

We need a home buying class!!!! Ron, Kim, Liz!! Hop to it!! I think that should be the next site.. LIHousing!

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FYI

http://www.lifamilies.com/chat/forum-5-1.html

http://www.lifamilies.com/realestate/