Should you buy a short-sale, forclosure or……

I get this question a lot. There is no one word answer. Lets start with short-sales. In the Tampa Bay area, (usually holds true of other areas also), unless a property is already short-sale approved you can expect to wait 3-4 months to find out whether or not you got the sale. That’s right you may wait that long only to find out you did not get the property. The upside is for the next buyer of that property. Now that property has gone through the lengthy approval process and is now “short-sale approved”. Their sale can take place in 3-4 weeks (less if you are dealing cash). As you might expect you had better either have stellar credit or cash.

Now lets look at foreclosures. That is where the bank has already taken possession of the property. Banks don’t want to be in the real estate business so they will usually try to get rid of that property ASAP. However that doesn’t always mean you will get a steal of a deal.

My latest buyer said to heck with all that. We found a builder in the Plant City area near where he works and close to his family that was making one heck of a deal on a new home. He couldn’t pass this one up. He is getting a home where and how he wants it for roughly the same price. It even sits on a small body of water that is out his back door. Can’t beat that.