Gainesville Life

Three Tips for Successfully Buying a Short Sale Property in Gainesville, Florida

A short sale happens when a homeowner ends up owing more on the home than it is currently worth in today's marketplace, and the lender is willing to take less than what the homeowner owes.

There are currently 197 single-family homes listed as short sales in Alachua County, ranging in price from $40,000 for a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1100 square foot home in Southeast Gainesville to $595,000 for a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 2116 square foot home in Melrose.

The rules about buying short sales always seem to be changing....however, there are 3 rules that remain constant:

1) Find a Realtor who has the education and experience to handle short sales

2) Get pre-approved

3) Submit your highest and best offer the first time around

Full details on how you can increase your odds of successfully purchasing a short sale in Gainesville Florida can be found here.

As of today (June 12, 2009) there are 144 short sales available in the Gainesville area market.  They range in price from $69,000 for a 2 bedroom/1 bathroom home in Southeast Gainesville all the way up to $649,900 for a 5 bedroom/4 bathroom executive pool home in Southwest Gainesville.

How do I find short sales?  The best way is to work with a local realtor who has training in handling short sales or has experience successfully closing short sale transactions.  Any realtor can give you access to short sale MLS listings .... but if they are not trained in the intricacies of short sales, either through education programs or the school of hard knocks, your chances of getting one of these Gainesville short sale bargains for your very own is greatly diminished.

How do I go about buying a short sale?

1) Get preapproved!  The preapproval process generally takes less than 30 minutes, and can be done over the phone.  Make sure you work with a local lender - today's wild & wooly finance environment means that you greatly increase your chances of closing a deal if you use a local lender with a good reputation  and not, say, Fred's Bank.  All short sale offers must be submitted with a preapproval letter, or with a proof of funds letter in the case of a cash transaction.

2) Make sure your offer is the only one being submitted to the lender!  The seller may entertain multiple offers for their home, but it is up to the seller and the seller's agent to only submit the highest and best offer to the lender.  It's difficult and time-consuming enough trying to get lenders to process one offer on a property.....submitting multiple offers on the same property at the same time mucks up the process and pretty much guarantees a deal will not go through.  When submitting an offer on a short sale, ensure that the seller & seller's agent are only submitting the highest and best offer to the lender, and keeping the rest as backup offers in case the first offer does not go through.  If your offer is chosen by the seller to be the only one submitted to the lender, congratulations!  You are now on the road to maybe.....perhaps.....possibly.....getting this house as your own!  If your offer is not chosen, and is instead placed in a back-up position, at least at that point you will know whether to keep looking around for the home of your dreams, or sit back and wait for an answer from the lender.

3) Submit your highest and best offer the first time around!  Lenders generally do not counteroffer....they will either say "Yes" or "No".  So if you are going to go through the process of waiting 60 days (occasionally, sometimes longer) to hear back from the lender, you will greatly increase your chances of hearing that "Yes!" if you submit a good, solid offer with no contingencies.

There are many other ins and outs to the short sale process.  To learn more, or to make an appointment to discuss your homebuying needs and tour Gainesville homes for sale, please feel free to call me at 352-359-2797 or email me at cdegroff@mmparrish.com

Currently there are 142 homes listed as short sales in the Gainesville Florida area.  They range in price from $69,000 all the way up to $649,900 for a 4500+ square foot executive pool home.

What is a short sale, and why should I care?

A short sale happens when a homeowner ends up owing more on the home than it is currently worth in today's marketplace, and the lender is willing to take less than what the homeowner owes.

Why would a lender want to do that?  Because they will be able to collect more money than if the homeowner ends up going into foreclosure and/or bankruptcy.

Why is a short sale a "good" thing for sellers?  "Good" here is a relative term, because being in a "short sale" position is not a situation that would give any seller the warm fuzzies.  Knowing you can no longer afford your house, and knowing you will have to make other plans for your family while not knowing for sure what those plans will be is a stressful position for anybody to find themselves in.  But a "short sale" is "good news" for sellers, because if they are able to sell their home before the bank reposesses it, their credit is dinged for 2-3 years, as opposed to 7+ years in a foreclosure situation.

Why is a short sale a "good" thing for buyers?  Buyers generally get a lot more house for their money in a short sale situation, because these properties are usually very competitively priced in order for the sellers  to unload them before they end up in foreclosure.  Although there are a lot less short sale properties available in the Gainesville Florida market than in other parts of the country, there still are plenty to choose from.

How do I buy a short sale?

1 - Find a Realtor who has experience working with short sales.  As a Certified Distressed Property Expert, I am well-versed in what it takes to buy and sell short sales in today's Gainesville, Florida real estate market.

2 - Get pre-approved.  No short sale offer will be considered without a pre-approval or a proof of funds letter.  If you have not yet been preapproved by a local lender and are not sure who to call, please feel free to contact me and I will provide you with the names of some lenders that I deal with regularly in our area.

3.  Be patient!  Once you submit an offer that is approved by the seller, the seller has to then submit your offer to their lender to see if the lender will accept the offer as well....remember, in a short sale situation the lender is agreeing to accept less than what the homeowner owes on the mortgage.....and the lender is going to do whatever they can to minimize the amount of that loss to their bottom line.  Parting with their profits is not something that comes easy to lenders.....so it takes awhile to find out if they are willing to take the level of financial beating that is inherent in the amount you are offering.  Sometimes the wait can be up to 60 days....sometimes more (though this is becoming less prevalent).  Look at the frustrating wait time as the price you pay for getting the chance to get a home you might not otherwise be able to afford.

Cool! What am I waiting for?  The heck if I know!  Give me a buzz at 352-359-2797 to find out more about short sales in Gainesville and to arrange a tour of the properties that will work for you.