As I have been talking with sellers lately, I’ve noticed a trend that I haven’t seen a lot in my area. Two things stand out; motivated sellers that are just tired of riding out the market and tell you upfront how much of a loss they are willing to take, and sellers who are a little more savvy that will say “I’ll accept your offer if the bank will agree to a short sale for part of the loss”. Often they have decided just how much money they are willing to bring to closing before there is even an offer on the table.
Now I’m not talking about people that are in foreclosure, that have lost their job, or have some other major event happening in their life. These are folks that are just sick and tired of this real estate market.
Some of them are absentee owners, and some are settling estates; just regular folks. Others are real estate investors that are just tired of real estate investing itself. I have talked to a couple of landlords recently that want to cash out. They are not in any financial trouble, but they are just tired of riding out this market.
It used to be that real estate investors in particular, wanted to at least walk away without owing any money at closing. More and more of them are willing to take a loss just to be rid of the property and the uncertainty.
I have been talking with an absentee owner who is also a real estate investor that has several properties in my city. She has a couple of them listed at this time. When I first spoke with this particular absentee owner a few months back, she wasn’t budging on her asking prices. As I always do, I have kept her on my mailing list since the first time we spoke.
I called her recently to check in with her, and I made her an offer on one of her properties that was vacant. She told me without hesitation that my offer was less than she owed on the property, but she was willing to take a loss of a certain amount if the bank would also do a short sale for part of the amount. This real estate investor has completely done a turnaround in just a few short months, and she is willing to do all of the work with the bank to get rid of the property.
Is she willing to do the same thing with her other properties? Not yet. We’ll just have to wait and see what the next few months bring.