Archive for May, 2010
May 26th, 2010 - Foreclosure ramblings
Today I had a long conversation with a buyer who is trying to buy a house. It can be a brutal process because you have no idea who you are dealing with when you are buying a short sale or a foreclosure. But there is one re-occuring theme that runs through out the process every time ~ the person who is making the decision has no where to go, has no sense of urgency and pretty much could care less if the buyer gets the house or not…
This isn’t the good old days when the buyer made and offer to a seller, the seller got mad, made a counter offer and then the buyer and seller reached a meeting of the minds. Nope, not anymore! There is some random person talking to another random person, taking their sweet time while they make the buyer wait for days, weeks, months and even in one case a year before the poor old buyer got a response…
So what do you do when you want to buy a house but the people who are responsible (I use that term loosely) for making the decision on the purchase price could care less about the buyer (and let’s don’t even get started with what they think about real estate agents). Well.. #1. you could send a message to your congressman or congress woman and tell them that the banks are stupid.. and it is time that they do something about them… #2. You could go to the nearest window and stick your head out and scream: I am not going to take it anymore! #3. You could fire your real estate agent, #4. You could go buy a house from someone who actually cares about the fact that you want to buy their house, that they have actually taken care of.
Think about this: Foreclosures and short sales may not be the smartest move you could make anyway…. Do you really think that someone who is losing their house has actually taken care of that house before losing it? Most of the time the seller takes the appliances, light fixtures and anything else they can put in the trunk of their cars… so why would they change the filter in the HVAC? I would think twice about that… sure inspections are a must… but what can you really tell about a house that has been abused… “just a thought”..