Foreclosure and neighborhood question

[SusanBAnthony]

We are looking at a foreclosure on Friday.  It will be the first foreclosure or short sale we have looked at.  The house already has four offers, and they are supposedly making a decision on Sunday.  The list price seems like a good deal so if we like the house we may offer list.  (I say seems like based on neighborhood comps, we don't know the condition yet).   Does this seem like a typical foreclosure scenario? If there are four offers already should we just skip it?

Question two: the neighborhood it is in.  The town is a super rich outer suburb (new albany for anyone in the columbus area) and this neighborhood is the cheapest single family homes in the school district.  The subdivision was built in the early to mid 2000's.  it has had quite a few foreclosures and short sales.  I attribute this to the fact that people were getting their (possibly unaffordable, likely arm) mortgages right at the peak of the housing boom.  The neighborhood still looks very nice, and my thought is that since it is the cheapest housing to get into an excellent school district, it will hold value fine.  But I don't want to be naive.  

[tarheels]

You may have to go above list in a multiple offer situation. I don't know what that means for your budget.

If the rest of the area is very well-to-do and well-kept, then I think you'd be fine in the neighborhood. It's likely to be full of more people like you trying to get to the best school district.

[sailorgray]

Jan 23, 2013 22:28:06 GMT -5 tarheels said:

You may have to go above list in a multiple offer situation. I don't know what that means for your budget.

This is what I am thinking, too. We looked at a foreclosure back when we were house hunting. Our REA learned that there were already 4 offers on the house and that even though the house was listed at $240k, the bank wasn't accepting anything under $260k. It went for $265k.

Best of luck to you!!

[minniebee]

I'm house hunting in that area too ... New Albany, Gahanna, Westerville, etc.

We have looked at a couple of short sales, they were all in really bad shape and looked way worse in person than in online photos. When we considered the work needed to fix them up, the low list prices no longer seemed like a good deal. Maybe you found a diamond in the rough though. If I remember correctly from other house listings you've posted here, you are looking in a different price range than us, so maybe the inventory is different for what you're looking for. And, since there are already other offers on the table, clearly people think it's worth it.

I would trust your realtor to do tons of research on comps in the area to tell you what it's really worth. Offer what you believe it's worth, regardless of list price. Bid higher if you think its worth it, but if you don't think the house is worth more, don't bid high just because you know there are other offers. You want to feel that you paid a fair price for the house, don't worry about what the other bids might be.

Out of curiosity, which subdivision is it in?

[kaylie]

That sounds like a typical foreclosure situation in a good school district - they get snapped up around here pretty quickly and often with multiple offers. I agree with TH that you may have to go above list. There was one around here that listed for $400K and ended up going for $450K. It was a gorgeous house.

I think you're right about it holding its value. There will always be a market for a lower priced house in a good school district.

[lys]

Give your best offer and hope as you will not get a second chance. Then hope you get it.

[SusanBAnthony]

Merida, my post may come off that way, but honestly I think it is an extremely long shot, and I am more wondering if we should even bother. I am movies about it because we have to make an offer quickly if we want to be considered. But, I trust our realtor on the comps, so nothing else to do but make our best offer (if we like it).

Minniebee, it is the Preserve or Preserve North or something like that. I would love to compare notes with you, I will PM you.

[minniebee]

SBA - you have a PM.

[stephm0188]

Preserve will be fine. My friend sold her home there last summer for full asking price the day it went on the market.