Showing Sad Houses - Short Sales and Foreclosures in Tucson

I spent some time this weekend with a Buyer who really wants a deal.  For him, it isn’t about finding the perfect house, it’s solely about the right numbers at the right time.

Good deals, we can find.  A quick CMA for each of the ten biggest subdivisions on the side of town with the highest months of inventory, and voila.  There are homes listed for $10-20 less per square foot than the recent solds.  What’s wrong with them that they haven’t already sold?

They’re short sales and foreclosures. 

Time out for definitions:

A short sale is where the owner can’t sell the house at a high enough price to cover all the loans on the house.  The lenders will come up “short.”  The Seller walks away from the sale without a penny and usually with a big hit to his credit rating, and the lender gets shorted on repayment of his loans.  Some people are forced into short sales because they can no longer afford the payments, are moving, or must otherwise get rid of the house.  Short sales are often a precursor to…

Foreclosure.  This is when the bank takes back the house and auctions it off at a Trustee sale.  The owner looses his home, his credit scores go kaput, and the lender stands a good chance of not getting all of their money back at the Trustee sale.

Short sale and Foreclosed houses are side effects, the product of someone’s misfortune, terribly sad places to visit.  Because the owner won’t make a penny, they tend to neglect the house, or otherwise leave it in poor condition.  The owner has no incentive to clean or fix the house in any way.

Often, other than being left unclean, there is stuff in the house: remnants of the owner’s old life, kid’s toys, clothing, items strewn about.  Did the bank take the house and change the locks before the owner could move everything out?

And then there are the houses where things are missing.  Things like, oh, the kitchen sink.  The range and the oven hood.  Ceiling fans and light fixtures.  The dishwasher, the garage door opener.  Carpet.  Blinds.  Sometimes an owner in foreclosure will take whatever isn’t nailed down (and some stuff that is) in order to salvage what they can from the old house.

Showing these homes is incredibly sad.  The owner’s story is laid bare in the condition of the house that they leave behind.  Yeah, I can find you deal, but you better have the stomach to visit these houses one after the other.  My last buyer didn’t.  We’re on to new construction.

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Equal Housing Opportunity Realtor
Applied Real Estate Technology