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Selling a Probate Fixer Home in Sacramento
Not every fixer home in Sacramento much less a probate fixer home is priced in line with the amount a flipper investor wants to pay. Especially not my short sales, for example, because I want them to close. But in any perceived distressed situation, whether it’s a foreclosure, short sale, probate fixers, preforeclosure, what-have-you, investors crawl out of the woodwork looking for a “good deal.” Because it’s all about the spreadsheets to them, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with working with investors who are fueled by the greed of money unless they get in your face about it.
It can be trying at times to maintain composure as a listing agent when investors are swearing, in the literal sense, on the phone that they can buy a home for less in the same damn neighborhood, to which my reply is go ahead then and quit torturing me. Particularly when I am confident there are no other homes for sale at that price. They’ll use whatever tactics they can because it’s their business to buy low and sell high. I get it.
That doesn’t exactly fit well with my business of representing the seller to the best of my ability who wants to obtain the highest price. Therein lies the sticky wicket. I just closed a probate fixer last week that was that kind of sale that generated a ton of calls from investors, all demanding that we slash the price. First, it’s not my call. Second, the seller understands there are two basic types of pricing: that which attracts homeowner occupants who will pay market and that which will attract the flippers.
Perhaps this home is not priced for a flipper investor? But that does not occur to them.
People in general are under the impression that banks give away homes because they ran out of toasters, but it doesn’t work that way. Banks want market value just like regular sellers with equity want market value. It’s a tough market for a flipper. But they are better off finding their own homes to buy than trying to squeeze the integrity out of a Sacramento listing agent.
That probate fixer sale sold at list price. Just like the seller, the executor of the estate, expected. As Is condition, no repairs and all cash.
No Short Sale After Buying New Home
Some agents never met a listing they didn’t like. Even though there might not be a chance in hell or high water that a listing will ever sell, there are real estate agents in Sacramento who will list those kinds of homes. That’s because agents can get residual value from those types of listings. Not to mention, some agents are ignorant. Some are overly optimistic. There are all kinds of reasons why an agent would take a listing that will never sell, but the most hopeless kind of listing is that which is a short sale when the seller has just bought a new home. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.
Listing a home as a short sale when the seller has bought a new home is pointless. I will never, as a successful Sacramento short sale agent, knowingly take a listing like that. Been there, done that. Because I’ve learned the hard way over the past 7 years of selling short sales that it’s idiotic to do it. There are ways you can do a short sale and then buy another home but you cannot, read my lips, buy a home and then do a short sale. Not in your own name. You can buy a home in somebody else’s name and then short sale your former home, but you can’t buy a home in your name and then short sale.
If you don’t believe me, call your bank and ask. Be upfront. Say, hey, I just bought a new home. Will you do a short sale for me? Don’t get mad at me if they think it’s a prank call and hang up. I don’t write the short sale rules. Banks have a word for it. It’s called Buy and Bail. Goodbye short sale, hello foreclosure.
There are too many short sale sellers who are genuinely hurting and struggling with underwater homes. Banks know if a seller has bought another home that the seller can afford to own two homes. They don’t grant short sales for people who can afford to own both homes. A seller either deliberately goes to foreclosure, works out a deed-in-lieu arrangement (which is pretty much just as bad) or hires a lawyer to sue the short sale bank for some kind of fraudulent past mistake. But you don’t short sale. Sorry. There is no short after buying new home.
