Short Sale Drama - Virginia Beach Neighborhoods

I had another discouraging experience with a short sale yesterday. It highlights the reasons that I shy away from them.

John and Jane (names changed) wanted to move because their closets started exploding. This tends to happens when you have kids. It has happened to me, too. While you could hire a closet organizing expert, the closets will explode again soon after she leaves. The best solution is to move into a bigger house.

They had been keeping an eye on the market and watching the prices drop. While I’m sure they could afford much more, they had decided to be conservative and wanted to keep their mortgage around $350,000. As is often the case, their wants and needs were about fifty to seventy five thousand dollars higher than this.

Then they found it. A big beautiful waterfront home in great condition listed for $350,000! The closets were huge, the rooms spacious, it had granite countertops and wonderful waterfront views. It was everything they wanted in a home and had the price to match.

But it was a short sale.

In the end, the price tag meant very little. The owner and listing agent conjured up the list price but it is the bank who decides on the sale price. The price tag was simply the flashing neon sign designed to get buyers to notice. The listing agent told me that $425,000 was probably about as low as the bank would go. My market research supported this number.

I don’t like this. It borders on unethical. Imagine picking up an item at the grocery store because it was on sale only to find a higher price at the register. “Bait and switch” comes to mind.

Buying a home is always an emotional process. The ups and downs can wear you out. The highs of finding the perfect house at the right price can be replaced by the lows of being dragged through a short sale disappointment.  I try to keep everyone happy. I like happy people. They are more fun to work with.

Short sales aren’t all bad. But they aren’t all good deals either. You usually get what you pay for. At the end of the day it’s about finding the right house. While it could be a short sale, my experience tells me that it usually is not.

How did this all turn out? Visit Short Sale Drama, Part II