203696 Resource 178435 178982 178982 1210431118652 1210431118652 Controlled Many Want to Buy a Foreclosed Home in Flagstaff

Here's an overall stategy to make the most of this real estate market

Here is a quick overview of buying a buying a foreclosed home in Flagstaff: Arizona law requires buyers at the foreclosure sale (also known as a trustee sale) to pay cash on the barrelhead. Since there is no time to go through the mortgage process after identifying the property, most foreclosure sales end with the bank whose lien is the largest being the buyer on the courthouse steps – their competitor in the bidding will be the bank with the second biggest lien. The second owner may be wiped out of this home investment if the first bank bids higher.   The new bank-owner then hires a Flagstaff real estate agent to sell it (there are two-three agents in Flagstaff who carry those listings). These properties get listed on the <a title="Search the Northern Arizona MLS" href="http://www.bestflagstaffhomes.com/bin/web/real_estate/AR49005/ACTIVATE_FRAMES/SEARCH_MLS/Flagstaff/1209652599.html" target="_blank">Northern Arizona MLS</a> like other homes and any <a href="public/blog/187603">buyers’ agent</a> will be paid by the bank to sell them. We can represent the buyer at either stage. At the foreclosure sale itself, the buyer takes the house as is and it's often in rotten shape. If the property is bank-owned, the bank may have done repairs to make all systems at least functional so that the property can compete on the market. A better strategy in this market is to find a seller who is still living in the house but has a strong motivation to move -- that seller is competing against the banks' ability to push prices down but has a house in better condition. These sellers must sell because they have to move for job, family or health reasons. It doesn’t matter what the reason is, the question is:  Are they motivated? Some of these “motivated” sellers will be in “short-sale” condition – meaning they have no equity in the home after the anticipated payoff of the mortgage. In these situations, buyers will need to be patient with the closing process because, unless the seller has cash to pay for the deficiency owed the mortgage holders, those entities will need to be involved in approving the transaction. The sellers’ motivation to go this route rather than simply abandoning the property to foreclosure is to salvage some of their credit standing. In other words, it doesn't much matter who owns the house -- it's all about price and condition. There are not enough foreclosures in Flagstaff to have a significant impact on the market. The impact we're getting is from the foreclosure effect in Phoenix. Because the values there are down, no one from there is buying a second home. So, the second home market (a substantial portion of our typical sales volume in Flagstaff) is practically dead. Also, there are fewer buyers because of the mortgage crunch. All of this has brought prices down.For a buying strategy that works best for you, consult with <a title="Get Serious About Flagstaff Real Estate!" href="http://bestflagstaffhomes.com/" target="_blank">Team Heitland at RE/MAX Peak Properties.</a> 10 application/xml false Flagstaff foreclosures Flagstaff homes Flagstaff real estate agents Flagstaff real estate market Flagstaff short sales Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 aheitland 12.216.125.63 false true false false true 178975 false false true false false false true 178435 blog blogsite/BestFlagstaffHomes/web