The past few years short sales and foreclosures have been very big in real estate. As inventory has decreased, values have increased and equity has increased.
With market values rising, more owners can sell their property as a regular sale.
Foreclosures are becoming harder to find over $250,000 here in South Florida. Short sales are still around, but they take up less and less of available sales for buyers.
What we are finding more of is that some sellers are SO CLOSE to being able to sell, but can’t quite make it.
I had a seller considering short sale two years ago, but waited it out. He lived in Weston, a really nice and desirable area, so his value increased within a year where he was able to list it as a regular sale. Unfortunately, the value wasn’t where he needed to be to sell, bringing no money to the table. During our listing time, a few sales came in a bit low, reducing the value of his home. If he sold it at market or appraised value, he would have to bring about $20,000 to the table. So we decided to take it off the market for about 6 months and let values continue to ride. His home is in the $600k range and there are not as many buyers out there as with the $400k and under range. It didn’t make sense to let it sit there and do nothing.
I had a buyer go for a lovely waterfront home in Cooper City, listed at $399,500. We beat out multiple offers with an offer price of $399,000. Unfortunately, the appraisal came in at $376,800. The sellers said that they would only come down to $394,000, which would be the price they wouldn’t have to bring any money to the table. They had enough activity and interest that they felt that enough buyers would pay what they wanted for it, so they refused to budge off the $394,000.
Some seller are willing to bring some money to the table and others are not. So be aware of this trend when you are shopping or selling real estate.