Six Tips For Buying a Short Sale

Once again, my husband helped me with this article because he has more experience in buying and selling homes than I do. We are currently renting an apartment here in the island but we bought two houses in the Midwest a few years ago where it is so much cheaper. Houses here in Honolulu are crazy expensive so we thought about investing somewhere else.

1. Whether you are looking to buy a short sale in Las Vegas or another part of the country you need to be patient. There are an abundance of short sales on the market due to the collapse of the real estate market in many parts of the country. The banks take longer to approve a short sale, so you can’t be in a hurry.

2. Have cash available for as much of the sale price as possible. As they say, cash is king. Those with cash have a better chance of being approved than those who require a mortgage loan. Banks are leery about making mortgage loans these days because of the huge amounts of foreclosures they are being stuck with. They have to unload them, but they would prefer to do a short sale because it keeps someone in the home who probably isn’t gutting it.

3. Make sure your have good credit. If you need to take out a mortgage, the credit score requirements are much higher now than they were a few years ago. To even have a chance now, some banks require that you should have at least a 720 credit score, without any bankruptcies or foreclosures on your record for the past 10 years.

4. Be prepared to make multiple offers before you’re successful in getting a signed contract. In Las Vegas and other depressed markets, there is competition on some homes. You may have to raise your offer and you might get into a bidding war on a place that is appealing to someone else.

5. Once you take possession, be prepared to spend money on repairs and upgrades to make the home livable or ready to rent out. You should expect to spend about 20% of the sale price on needed work after the sale.

6. Don’t expect to flip the house and make a quick profit, those days are long gone. You may realize a profit after doing all the repairs and upgrades, but be ready for it to sit on the market because the competition is fierce with all the foreclosures and short sales. You’ll need patience to prosper in the current real estate market.

Additional tip:  These tips are my personal opinion.  Real estate professionals and attorneys can provide specific guidelines for purchasing short sales because laws vary by state and location. You may visit schwartzlawyers.com if you need  help with a short sale.

We attended an open house yesterday and I am sharing some photos with you. The pictures were taken at the yard of a house that is worth over half a million dollars. I'll have to be content living in an apartment for now.

I am participating in a blogger campaign by Bucks2Blog and was compensated. All opinions are purely my own and my husband's.