Lately, most of the calls we receive from Buyers involve Short Sales and Bank Owned Properties.  Sure, good deals are possible, even probable, but do you have the temperment, patience or time to complete the sale?

Most distressed properties involving banks take many weeks or months to complete.  Unlike a typical sale involving one or two private Sellers, where emotions can come into play, the decision making process within a bank requires the approval of many employees or departments within the financial institution, and is based strictly on numbers, facts and figures.  Each bank is different and each have different methods and timelines of arriving at a decision.  Short Sale offers that are no more than $5000 or $10,000 below market value should receive a faster bank response, simply because it requires fewer approvals within the bank.

Many families who are transferring into the area simply don't have the time to play the waiting game before school starts and the new job begins.

Distressed properties are best suited to investors who don't need financing and simply don't care if they get the property or not, because they are making offers on numerous properties.  Often, we have made "all cash", "as is" offers, to banks on behalf of our investor-clients for full listing price, only to lose out to a financed, contingency-ridden offer that was $2000 dollars higher.  Five weeks later, the same bank will call us to see if we're still interested because the contract fell though.  Go figure?  Buy that time, the investor is already involved in another project.

When repair costs are factored into distressed properties, the real bargains may still reside with "turnkey" properties strongly negotiated with Homebuilders or private Sellers.  You decide.