Ocala Real Estate Talk

Posts Tagged ‘Ocala Foreclosures’

This is an update to my very popular Highest and Best Offer post.

I found a really nice house for buyers I was working with for several weeks. After making our offer the seller came back and asked for the highest and best offer. I gave my buyers recent sold comps that showed the asking price was very aggressive. That combined with the fact that this foreclosed home had never been lived in led the buyers to make an offer $10,000- above the asking price. The listing agent came back the next day to say that the bank had accepted a cash offer.

The actual sale price of a house can’t be determined until closing. Agents never reveal the pending price. That would place the seller at a possible disadvantage with the next buyer should the deal fall apart.

I will publish an update to this little story in a few weeks. The moral to this story is that cash talks. A cash sale has no finance contingency and can close faster than financing. Banks like a sure thing.

Yes that’s right, Ocala foreclosures are getting multiple offers, even in our extreme buyers market. There are lessons here for both buyers and sellers of Ocala real estate.

Buyers need to understand that really prime or unusual properties can get bid up beyond the asking price. It’s supply and demand. There seems to be a never ending supply of foreclosed homes in The Shores and Marion Oaks but houses on large lots and mini farms are much harder to come by. Foreclosed homes that were never occupied might also fit into this category of especially desirable foreclosures.

When ever a bank gets more than one offer they ask the buyers to submit their “Highest and Best Offer”. Foreclosures that get bid up above the asking price are usually still a bargain. It’s all about comparable sales in the last 60 days and the lowest priced active listings. That is how to value property. Your Realtor should provide a CMA to find the foreclosed homes value and the buyer should base his offer on this data.

Sellers can learn that despite the doom and gloom you see on the news, really well priced houses are selling every day. Traditional sales can compete with foreclosures by offering a better location, exceptionally good condition as well as a very aggressive asking price.

People contact me about Ocala foreclosures on a regular basis. Now this is not unusual because I write about them all the time and I can be found all over the Internet. The problem is that you have to be some what flexible when looking for foreclosures here in Ocala. For example there are very few to be found in the 55+ communities. You will find a few farm properties but once again not too many. There are a lot of newer homes that were lost by investors but many if not most of these need work even if they were never lived in. Most of these investor homes were never landscaped and many never had the builder go through a final punch list fixing all those things that sub contractors didn’t get quite right. A buyer has to be flexible about location and condition when looking at foreclosed homes in the Ocala area.

In Ocala foreclosures the term, Highest and Best Offer, seems to be coming up more and more. Foreclosures here in Ocala are very hot. Banks are now trying to get buyers to bid against each other.

Here’s how it goes. You find yourself a nice foreclosure and make an offer. A few days later the listing agent sends your buyers agent a form or email asking you to submit your Highest and Best Offer. The reason being that there are multiple buyers interested in the same house.

Not all foreclosures are created equal. Some are just a lot more desirable than others. Banks can’t get away with this on every property.

There was a time a few months ago when this practice was rare but it is becoming more common as more and more buyers are looking for a great buy on a foreclosure here in Ocala Florida

A very hot subject in Florida real estate is Chinese drywall. Chinese drywall is actually a German company Knauf, who manufactured drywall in a plant in China. Apparently the housing boom of 2003-2008 combined with the destruction of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma caused a shortage of drywall. To make up for this shortage drywall was imported. There are materials present in the Chinese drywall that are not used in the manufacture of American drywall. These compounds cause copper pipes and wires to corrode.

I never new anything about Chinese drywall until a few weeks ago and now it’s all over the news.

Is there Chinese drywall in Ocala Florida? According to a map on the Florida Department of Health web site there have been cases reported in Ocala. As of the writing of this post there have only been a few cases. Most of the problem seems to be in south Florida.

How do you know if your house has Chinese drywall? This link is to a self assessment guide from the Florida Department of Health.

There are a lot of people out there looking for a foreclosed house here in Ocala Florida. The problem is t hey have a hard time finding them. I’ve had people call me, email me and I even read a letter to the editor about not being able to find a nice foreclosure here in the Ocala area. Now this is just plain crazy seeing there are over 200 of them listed on the MLS at any given time.
I’m a die hard do it yourselfer but I also know when I just don’t have the right tools for the job. Yes this is where I suggest that you contact your friendly Ocala Realtor, preferably me of course.
I can search on a lot more things than you can on the MLS. As a matter of fact it’s as simple for me as checking a box on my search that basically says “foreclosures only”.
So when you’re ready to get serious about your foreclosure search let me know. If you want to make it easy you can go to my Ocala Dream Home Finder and fill out the form and write Foreclosures in the special wants area. It’s just that easy.

Foreclosure listings on the Ocala MLS seldom have a lot of images. As a matter of fact most foreclosure listings only have one image which is the minimum required by our board of realtors. Buyers are used to a dozen images or even a virtual tour when looking at traditional real estate listings online. Foreclosures are usually presented with the bare minimum of information. Foreclosures are sold by a few listing agents who specialize in these types of distressed properties. Their marketing strategy is simple, price the foreclosed home cheap and it will sell quickly. To tell you the truth it works. I realize that is little consolation to buyers expecting more info. And it’s especially frustrating for out of the area buyers.
For more info on buying a foreclosed home in Ocala see my Ocala Foreclosure Guide.

Foreclosures in Ocala and just about every where else are sold “AS IS”. That’s really AS IS with the right to an inspection within a specified period of time. The buyer has the option of withdrawing their offer should the inspection reveal a large issue with the home.

In Ocala there are a lot of foreclosures that are only a couple of years old and some have never been lived in. However these same houses have also sat vacant with no AC in the hot humid Florida summers. Many houses that were never occupied might never have had the builder do a final punch list. That’s all those things that were either over looked or just screwed up by sub contractors and should have been repaired by the builder but were not.

It’s very important to have a home inspection no matter how much you know about home repairs.

Most important of all is to realize that AS IS means just that. No one is going to fix anything ever. That’s one reason the price is so low.

For even more about foreclosed homes in Ocala