As more and more people have come back into the marketplace in search of good deals on foreclosures (REO’S) the lenders find themselves in an interesting position…one in which they now have leverage since they’re experiencing the impact of multiple offers. Here’s a few things you can count on when buying a foreclosure:
* The lender usually has little or no knowledge of the property, thus they don’t have to complete a transfer disclosure statement. On all of their addendum’s they will make really clear that 1) they don’t know anything and 2) you’re buying the place in “As Is” condition.
* The lender can take their sweet time in responding to your offer…and in the meantime consider and accept other offers.
* The lender can, and will, give you a verbal acceptance of your offer…but they aren’t binding. You really are not in contract until the paperwork is returned to you and that could take 2 or 3 days.
* The lender will give you a long addendum, before they send you the signed contract, that their lawyers have drafted and it leans heavily on protecting them. It’s not uncommon for a lender to impose a per diem charge for delays in closing. If you buy a house for $530,000 your per diem is $530.00 per day for every day you are late.
* Many lenders refuse to pay all or many of the expenses of escrow and closing that are typically paid by sellers.
* In some cases the lender will receive a 1% rebate from the commissions that they themselves are paying to sell the place…now that’s leverage!
It’s a brave new world, huh? The more buyers come back into the marketplace in search of bargains on homes, the more leverage these lenders will have. It pays to be conscious of these issues should you be ready to jump into this segment of the market.
They all got multiple offers in the last few weeks. I’m not talking about 1 or 2 offers…I’m talking about at least 5 of them! These homes are all in the price range under $600,000. The lower the price…the more offers you get. The truth is that I’m leaving out several listings too. There’s alot of houses that have been on the market up there 100 days or more that are selling right now too. The house above at 414 Cavanaugh in San Mateo got 15 offers listed at $399,000…and it’s a short sale! A couple of months ago agents were treating short sales like the plague!
Back in December I wrote a post titled Invest O Mania where I highlighted a Daly City REO that was on the market for $382,500. It got 1 offer at asking and it was on the market for weeks. Those days are over! The same houses in the same neighborhood are at least $100,000 more right now. There isn’t any question in my mind right now that a bottom has been hit in these areas, and in fact it was hit a few months ago!
Even in slightly higher price ranges I’m seeing a difference. My listing at 1044 Fiesta in San Mateo had a really large amount of activity…and it sold close to the asking price in 13 days. No feeding frenzy like these lower ranges but sold activity.
I want to be clear here…we are not talking about the range over $1,000,000 and we’re also not talking about condos/townhouses. They’re still slow and who knows when that’ll come around. If you’ve been out there fence sitting and you’re qualified for something around $550,000 or so…nows the time. I’m serious.
I really, really thought that this one was going be be hard and obscure! You guys are all terrific! Friday’s pic was of the covered chess table in Ketch Park. Some of you did a Google search and discovered “Fetch” park on their map…Google’s mistake. Nice effort though! This weeks winner is Alex Wei who wins the $30.00 gift card to Starbucks. Great job Alex! Alex beat Ryan Chin by about 30 seconds too, close Ryan…sorry! Thanks also to Priya, Brenda, JMo, Alex O, Guru, Erika, Dana, Taylor, Bill, Deepa and Cora. Great knowledge folks! Thanks for playing…see you this Friday!
I’m thinking this is kind of obscure this week. This public feature will certainly test your knowledge of Foster City and it’s confines. I’m rooting for you! Tell me where this is. This weeks winner will receive a $30.00 gift card to Starbucks, wherever you are. The winner and all other correct answers will not be published until Monday morning. All the rules of the road are available to see on the bar above and on the left hand margin. Any and all silly jokes, semi obnoxious quips and all wrong answers will be published immediately. Have a great weekend!
The last time I did this, on February 10, there were 37 active condos/townhouses on the market in Foster City. Today there are 58. Quite a difference. Amazingly, there are 4 units for sale at Promontory Point where the association dues are now $835.00 a month! There really is alot of inventory right now, although there are 15 pending sales whereas there were only 3 in February. That’s real improvement for sure, but just like for single family, there’s some real improvement. Here’s some nice new listings that may be worth looking at:
857 Canis in Isle Cove listed for $300,000 as an auction. This is the place I mentioned on Saturday. Can’t wait to see how this turns out!
664 Cygnus listed by Stephanie Russell of Re/Max Today for $578,888. Nice place at Edgewater Townhomes that sure seems cute to me. I sold the same floor plan last year, and not as nice as this one for $615,000. Seems like a good buy to me.
800 Spruance listed by Joan Wachter of Coldwell Banker for $729,888. Nice one level unit at Harborside, plus it’s an end unit which sort of makes it feel like a small house. Nice place.
There’s good news and bad news. There’s more listings, 41 as of today…but there’s also significantly more sales than we’ve been used to in 2009. As of today there’s 10 pending sales. We also have our 3rd house priced over $1,200,000 that’s sold…350 Sea Horse Ct. Like I’ve said before we’ve got a long way to go and it sure is interesting to see the number of homes for sale under $900,000. So far so good! Here’s a couple of interesting listings:
1338 Halibut listed for $1,029,338 by Sue Walsh of Cashin. I like this house, it’s not real big but it feels unique. All remodeled and done up nice. Worth a look for sure.
341Spinnaker listed for $835,000 by David Howarth of Bay Capital. This sure seems like a good price on a 4 bedroom home, it was recently reduced from $924,000. Great neighborhood too.
Naturally, I’d like to think that things are improving. Real improvement won’t really be measured until a large part of this existing inventory sells. Whether or not that can happen with the current prices is quite a different thing. We’ll see…
It’s the ever busy Chipotle over at Marlin Cove. Plenty of new faces this week too…thanks for playing folks! This weeks winner was Archana Pujar, who wins a $30.00 gift card to Noah’s Bagels. Great job Archana! Also answering correctly were Ryan Chin, Dana Ferri, Robert, Steve Toler, Becky Doney, Guru, JMo, Janette, and Matt Walsh. Congrats to you all! Thanks again for playing folks! See you again this Friday!
…and now for something completely different, we have the new listing at 857 Canis Ln at Isle Cove in Foster City. This place was listed twice before, both in 2008 & 2009, for as high as $739,000. The current sellers bought it in 2004 for $620,000. It didn’t sell even after several price reductions and it was relisted yesterday by an online auction company for $300,000. According to the auctioneers it is not a short sale or an REO. The sellers still own it. The process of auctioning this place is different, they only allow showings on specified days and during specific hours. Buyers will be able to place a bid online during the 30 day auction period. The fine print in the listing says that “starting bid/final bid/sale amount subject to seller reserve”. It’s going to be VERY interesting to see what that reserve is…considering the sellers paid $620,000 for the place. What happens if the high bid is $500,000? Can they cover that without it ending up a short sale? This is the first auction that I’ve seen in Foster City and I think it’ll be very educational. Stay tuned for some updates. By the way, the pics of this place linked above are from Phyllis McArthur of McGuire Real Estate’s old listing. For what it’s worth…this unit is not a waterfront in spite of that pic.
Looks like one of those old Alexander Calder mobiles, huh? Anyway, it’s a pretty cool looking interior design idea at any rate. The question is…where is it? This weeks winner will receive a $30.00 gift card to Noah’s Bagels. All the rules of the road are available to view on the bar above as well as on the left hand margin. The winner as well as all other correct answers will be published on Monday morning. Any and all silly jokes, semi obnoxious barbs and all wrong answers will be published ASAP. Thanks again folks! have a great weekend!
Lottie Kendall 
Jim Minkey 
Anurag 
kavita 
Colin 
Shrikant 
SteveTinFC 
