Usually when I begin working with a new buyer and we have the discussion about short sales, the first question/statement from the buyer is something like this: “How much lower than asking price can I offer on a short sale? Aren’t the banks willing to take whatever they’re offered?”

So I thought it would be interesting to use the available statistics from the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service to find out just how low offers are being accepted. Since short sales make up a large part of the properties that are sold, I narrowed the list to listings with Meridian addresses during the month of February 2010. Here’s the surprising answers:

Northeast Meridian
Six homes sold during February at an average of 95.5% of asking price
The largest reduction in this area was about 15% off list price
Three homes sold at list price

Northwest Meridian
Nine homes sold during February at an average of 96.7% of asking price
The largest reduction in this area was about 6.6% off list price
Two homes sold at list price
One home sold about 5.5% over list price (maybe closing costs that were added in or multiple offers)
Southeast Meridian

Five homes sold during February at an average of 98.2% of asking price
The largest reduction in this area was about 7.9% off list price
One home sold at list price
Two homes sold about 1.1% over list price
Southwest Meridian

Two homes sold during February at an average of 99.8% of asking price
One home sold for 2.3% off list price
One home sold for 1.3% over list price

My recent experience with short sales is that thinking you’ll be able to “lowball” the bank and get approval on your offer isn’t a possibility. In fact, I’m seeing more multiple offers on homes that are in good condition, in a good location and priced appropriately for the market. However, typically, short sale homes are priced below market value due to the length of time it takes to get approval from banks.

Note to short sale lenders: Maybe if you’d streamline the short sale approval process, you could take advantage of some of that money you’re leaving on the table.

Posted In Blogroll, Real Estate Info

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Blogroll, Real Estate Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.