Understanding the Difference Between a Bank Owned Home and Short Sale

Lots of qualified buyers have decided this is a greatActually, buying another property as they qualify for
time to buy a home as prices are a fraction of whatboth and letting the bank take the higher priced one
they were a few years ago. This is a very good timeaway. Thus, making the first home now a Bank
to consider the possibilities of finding the perfect homeOwned Property and selling for a fraction of what is
for a great price.really owed and the bank taking the hit.
If you are looking into buying and it seems that theA Short Sale is a homeowner that is either upside
best deals out there are Bank Owned and Short Saledown on their home (owing more than it is currently
homes you are not alone. These homes are the drivingworth) and unable for whatever reason to continue to
force in bringing sellers prices down to even get anymake the payments. Much of this was caused by the
traffic much less an offer. It is a "buyers market"andhigh interest ARMS and balloons that lenders gave to
sellers are feeling the pain.buyers a few years ago, especially buyers who really
A Bank Owned home is exactly what it sounds like.should never have qualified for this large of amount in
The owners defaulted on their loan and missed sothe first place buy our lending rules were far too lax.
many payments and the bank foreclosed on them,This borrower is working with the bank to get the
vacated them and now owns the home as collateralhome sold for say 70-80% of what is owed and NOT
to the loan that was not paid off. What happened islet it go into foreclosure. This is someone who is
the owner borrowed a certain amount of money tolegitimately trying to work with the lender in it not
purchase the home and then was unable for anybecoming a foreclosure.
number of reasons to continue the payments andUnfortunately, because there are so many of these
basically were either forced or walked from the homeloans and it takes an offer before the bank can even
and their loan.consider taking a portion of what is owed to them a
We are seeing too much of this in today's market andshort sale actually should be called a "long sale" as
unfortunately, homeowners think this is an answer tothey take weeks and even months to get an
the fact that they may have paid more for the homeagreement to an offer from the lender. This is driving
than the guy next door paid. This is NOT an answerbuyers absolutely crazy and many end up moving on
and our laws do not have a penalty on taxes or anyand either buying from a homeowner or a bank
other financial obligation for homeowners that simplyowned. If you are looking into a short sale possibility
buy another home and walk from their current one.you MUST be patient, there is nothing that either your
This is hurting the market even more than the peoplereal estate agent or the sellers agent can do to speed
really hurting and unable to continue their payments.up the process except by constantly staying on top of
We should be ashamed of ourselves if we eventhe bank and this usually gets them nowhere. If you
consider this to be an answer and too many peopleneed to be in a home in a reasonable amount of time
who are well qualified are doing just that.you may not want to consider a short sale.