You’ve found the home of your dreams, but it’s a short sale. What are your risks? I’ve listed them below for you. Don’t freak out though. Some (or even most) of these may not apply to your transaction. On the other hand, they may. Try to do as much diligence as you can to find out how serious the seller and his bank really are. 1) The seller’s lender is slow to process the transaction. Wait, let me rephrase that. The seller’s lender is sloooooooooow to process the transaction. This happens a LOT. Do not expect a quick turnaround time. If you need to move quick, a short sale is probably not the way to go. 2) The seller is not diligent in following up with his lender. The seller’s lender will want a lot of paperwork — the seller’s whole financial history, and sometimes even… read more →
Overall, April was a good month for Illinois home sales. Based on data from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), 9,961 homes sold statewide in April. This a 15.7% increase from April 2011. The median sales price was $135,000, an increase of $5,000 from March 2012. The U.S. Census Bureau defines the nine-county Chicago Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (the CPMSA) to include the following counties: Cook, Lake, DuPage, McHenry, Will, Kane, Kendall, DeKalb, and Grundy. In those counties, 6,814 homes were sold in April 2012. That’s nearly a 20% increase from last April. However, the median sales price went down to $160,000, which is a 1.5% decrease from last April. That’s not to say everyone of the counties in the CPMSA saw a price drop. From April 2011, sales prices in DuPage, Kane and Kendall Counties increased around 10%. Sales prices in Chicago also increased close to 10% when compared to April of 2011. Moreover,… read more →
Despite all the short sales that seem to sit around forever while lenders ignore them, short sales are faring surprisingly well overall when compared to the last few years. Are lenders finally figuring out it makes more sense to sell a property short than to foreclose it, worry about it, deal with it, and end up selling it for less than they would have gotten in a short sale situation? Possibly. According to Realty Trac, short sales outnumbered foreclosure sales nationally for the first time in January 2012. 23.9% of homes sold in January were short sales. Only 19.7% of sales in the same month were foreclosed homes. Overall, short sales increased 33% in the last year. The greatest increase in short sales was in the western part of the country, with California leading the pack. In fact, nearly 30% of homes sold in California in January 2012 were short… read more →
You have no idea how many people ask me this question. And of course, there is no right answer. The reality is, no one is forcing you to buy either a foreclosure or a short sale. There are houses on the market that are neither foreclosures nor short sales. One of those just might be the right home for you. But regardless, many people have it in their heads that in order to get a great deal, the property must be foreclosed or selling short. If you have absolutely decided that you must buy a foreclosure or a short sale, that brings us back to the title of this post. Which should you buy? While there’s no right answer, foreclosures are typically much faster to process. They are often cheaper than short sales, and while you can’t expect much help or any information from the bank, if you need to close quickly, it’s… read more →