Jacksonville Florida Short Sales, Pre-Foreclosures and Foreclosures

Short Sales in Jacksonville Real Estate Market Update 9-26-08

In the past 30 days, roughly 27% of single family homes and townhomes sold in the Jacksonville real estate market were short sales or foreclosures.  While the pending to active ratio for Jacksonville homes overall is 15.3%, the pending to active ratio for Jacksonville short sales and foreclosures is almost 30%.  While only 20% of the active listings are short sales and foreclosures, approximately 39% of homes with contracts pending are short sales and foreclosures.

The statistics show that Jacksonville short sales and Jacksonville foreclosures are selling at a much better rate than normal resales!  It is definitely not because short sales and foreclosures are easier.  The key is in the pricing.  Foreclosures and short sales should always be, and are usually, priced at fair market value.  Many times regular resale homes are not.

It is understandably still hard for average sellers to face reality many times.  If fair market value is $300,000, a seller has to come to terms with the fact that they can't try to sell their home for $400,000 just because their neighbor is trying to.  A home that is not under contract is not justification for a listing price higher than what the market comps indicate. 

We are short sale specialists.  We can help you buy one of the short sales or foreclosures on the market.  We can also help you sell your home, even if you owe more than what the home is now worth.  Give us a call at 904.371.9654 when you are ready.

09-16-2008 Jacksonville Real Estate Market Short Sale Update

As of this morning 19.5% of all active listings in the MLS are short sale or foreclosures.  Of the homes under contract, 38.31% are short sales and foreclosures.  While the Jacksonville real estate market overall has a pending to active ratio of 16.2%, the short sale pending to active ratio is almost 32%.

What does this mean?  Well the short sales and foreclosures are the best priced homes on the market, in general.  As a result they are moving at a better rate than the overall real estate market.

One thing to keep in mind is that usually short sales and foreclosures already have your "discount" built in to the pricing.  If you want to buy a Jacksonville foreclosure or short sale, you should look at the deal as a whole.  Don't just assume you should get more money off of the listed price.  Check the comps, and see what fair market value is, then go from there.  Make sure you have a real estate professional that knows how to work a short sale, and knows how an offer should be priced.  The offer has to be a better deal for the bank than taking the home back in foreclosure.  If the offer is too far below fair market value as determined by a BPO, the bank will reject it.

You can call us at 904.371.9654 for help with short sales and foreclosures all over the Jacksonville and St. Augustine real estate market.

09-09-08 Jacksonville short sales and bank owned homes statistics

As of right now, in the Jacksonville metro area overall 19.41% of the homes for sale in the MLS are short sales or foreclosures.  This is a remarkable number!  In the past 30 days 26% of the Jacksonville real estate closings have been on short sales and foreclosures.  Even more remarkable is that of the pending sales, 38% of those are short sales and foreclosures.  That means that the bank owned and short sale homes are selling better than regular homes.   The key is in the pricing.  Homes must be priced right.  Today's buyers view homes as a commodity, they are going for value.

Myth: You can put a crazy low price on it just to get rid of it

If only it were that easy!  I have frequently seen short sales listed for well below market value.  This is due to lack of knowledge.  If I have a home with a fair market value of around, say, $500,000 and I put it in the MLS for $300,000...I am wasting everyone's time.  The bank will have either a BPO or appraisal done at the time an offer is presented on the property.  The bank CARES what fair market value is.  Then bank knows that if they foreclose there will be extra expenses.  Because of this they are usually willing to sell the the home for a little bit below fair market value.  They will not go for a price that is crazy.  The danger of this is that they will take weeks to tell you no and the seller will have lost valuable time and the buyer will have developed false hope.

If you are a seller thinking about shortselling your Jacksonville home, or a buyer who would like to pick up a short sale property make sure it's done correctly.

Structuring offers on Jacksonville short sale properties

An offer on a Jacksonville short sale needs to be structured differently than a normal offer to a normal seller.  In a normal offer situation in a buyer's market you pretty much try to get anything and everything you can.  You ask for closing costs, repairs, and a low price and can usually get all of the above.

There are more and more short sales in Jacksonville.  Sometimes when we go out to look for a buyer we find that half or more of the properties on the market are short sales.  If you do not structure the offer correctly you are wasting everyone's time...something the seller can not afford to do since they are facing the reality of losing their house.

The bank will not let you steal the property.  At the same time, they really don't want it back.  If it is more advantageous for them to foreclose, they will.  Your offer has to be within a certain percentage of fair market value and the offer has to be clean.  If you want to successfully purchase a short sale, make sure the offer is written up correctly.  If you don't make it an offer they can't refuse, they will.