I wrote an article yesterday about the Upside to Buying a Short Sale. Yeah, there is a benefit, a secret benefit. In this article I disclosed part of the reason I am so successful at selling short sales Sacramento. If you have eagle eyes and will take a moment to think about what I have to say about a BPO, you will understand how to use my recipe for success. As a buyer, you may find that it works very well for you.
Part of this recipe involves figuring out how to do a BPO like a BPO agent will. I wrote, in part: "The first thing you will do is avoid looking at location or taking amenities / upgrades into consideration. You will compare a home on a busy street the same as you would a home on a quiet street. You might use comparable sales for zero-lot lines or homes that back to the freeway as a measuring tool for homes with acreage. You will not distinguish between fixers or remodeled homes."
Because for me, when a home is a fixer, for example, the most difficult part of a short sale is coming up with a price that the bank will accept. That's because banks tend to ignore condition. BPO agents either ignore condition or don't know how to account for it. Then, throw into the mix the fact that buyers submit lowball offers on fixers, regardless of pricing. Sometimes the reason a home becomes a candidate for a short sale is deferred maintenance. Such is the case with my new listing. The seller simply ran out of money to continue fixing up the home she bought as a foreclosure, and then prices plummeted:
This is yet another Elk Grove short sale. It is located in Laguna off Bond and Laguna Blvd. It is a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, and it probably will not qualify for an FHA loan. I always get asked about a Streamlined 203K, but those typically take too long to close, and they are too complicated for most bank negotiators to understand. We prefer cash or a conventional buyer. The price does not change for a cash buyer because, believe it or not, cash is not as king-like as you may suspect. I play no Game of Thrones.
You will find no carpeting in this home. All the flooring has been replaced, according to the seller. Most of the floors are an upper-end laminate imitation wood. They look pretty good for a laminate. The kitchen and entry are slate. But it's a polished slate, and the same tile is used around the family room fireplace.
There is an empty spot in the kitchen cabinets that used to house a dishwasher. The cabinets are also missing a small drawer. They are oak and, if it were me, I would replace them. The refrigerator stays.
The HVAC is broken or at least the AC doesn't work. This is probably the original unit as the home was built in 1994. But you might be able to squeeze another 5 years or so out of the unit. The seller had already started remodeling the baths by installing Italian free-standing vanities, but they still need paint and probably new flooring as well.
All of the repairs were taken into consideration when pricing this home. It was once flooded from a backed-up sewer, the seller said. The back yard is very pretty. It features a covered patio (on top of which is a balcony for the master suite), and a pond with a waterfall.
9522 Village Tree Drive, Elk Grove, CA 95758 is offered exclusively by Lyon Real Estate as a short sale at $162,000. For more information, call your Elk Grove short sale agent, Elizabeth Weintraub, at 916 233 6759. For a private showing, call Linda Swanson at 916 607 0111.
Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub
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Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.
Lyon Real Estate is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.
Photo: Unless otherwise noted in this blog, the photo is copyrighted by Big Stock Photo and used with permission.
The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.
Disclaimer: If this post contains a listing, information is deemed reliable as of the date it was written. After that date, the listing may be sold, listed by another brokerage, canceled, pending or taken temporarily off the market, and the price could change without notice. It could blow up, explode or vanish. To find out the present status of any listing, please go to elizabethweintraub.com.
Like your interesting article Upside to Buying a Short Sale and focus there on how to do buyer side BPO using similar criteria to that of seller side and banks, not that of location and condition of the property.
Add a defunct condo association and the other competing listing agents beating up your complex because of it and the other listings to get an offer on there unit instead.
Hello Harrison: The thing is I don't care if the home is listed at market value. I care if the bank will take the offer and, since banks rely on BPOs, so do I.
Hello Barb: I try to steer clear of condos if I can. There are just too many problems with those. If I do a condo, it's probably a referral to me.
Hi Elizabeth - I have done a few BPOs, but it can be frustrating. Most banks want to pay you $50-75 to do only a drive-by. They don't particularly want you to even go inside. Since I know that short sale agents (like you and I) are usually stuck with the BPO as a sale price unless the buyer wants to pay for a full appraisal, I felt uncomfortable doing them in such a haphazard way. Some homes that look lovely on the outside are stripped inside. You can't tell that with a drive by.