Real Estate

I’m looking at a $39,000 condo for sale and it says potential short sale. Can anyone tell me what does this mean? Thanks.

It means that the asking price is $39,000 and implies that anything less than that would be a short sale, so it would mean lender approval.

Short sale means a house is selling for less than the outstanding balance with the mortgages. The lender would have to approve the sale price because they would be taking a loss. Hypothetically, if you love the place, offering *more* than the short sale price means there would not be lender approval, and it would go smoother. Of course, your (future) home would have to appraise enough for the loan.

Good luck!

I’m looking for condos in or near the new Baltimore area for sale by owner

For Sale By Owner Properties are overpriced in most cases.

I recommend that you look for properties that are priced at Fair Market Value or less.

I recommend that you avoid the overpriced properties.

It may or may not. Comps are only part of the tools you use to determine a price on your home. Location, certain amenities, age of appliances, upgrades, etc. all can figure into things if they’re expensive enough. Obviously if you don’t know them you can’t consider them but if you do-it may help you win in a bidding war. Then again without knowing them yet still being the best bid around could win you the condo anyway. Just remember that all these prices are virtually meaningless at the end of the day because a place is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

nearby properties of similar description are also used, especially when there are few recent sales within the target complex. adjustments for size and difference in features are generally made.

MLS.com has all properties for sale in the US which has an MLS number (which is every home and condo being sold by a Realtor). It plots them all on a map so you can easily narrow down by geographical area – and see all those listed in a single building.

What is a good website or resource to find townhouses and condos for sale. We really like the social community and low maintenance of townhomes/condos. (not highrises)

You need to contact townhomecondoliving@yahoo.com they helped us find our townhome. The team has extensive listing updated daily

I have been put the offer in the short sale condo since February and got the counter offer back from the bank in 1 week. So, I put the counter offer back to the back the amount that they asked for.
I have been waiting for 3 weeks now and just curious that how long the processing will be and how long for bank to make a decision.

Thanks

It depends on many different factors such as who the lender is, the investor, cooperation from the seller, pmi, etc…

It can easily be a couple of weeks to several more weeks, if not a couple of months. The only one that would have the best idea is the person who is processing the short sale on behalf of the seller.

Good Luck!

I noticed on craigslist.com there are numerous cities across America with listings for condos around $20,000-$30,000. Im interested in moving to Phoenix and would love to own a condo for $20,0000. Are these listings scams or is it really possible to get a condo that cheap?

Yes, in some places in the US you can buy a house or condo that cheap (and even less that $20,000, actually)

You do have to take into consideration the location of such a dwelling. The condo could be in a out-of-the-way location, be above a nightclub, be downwind of a slaughter house or be in a less-than-desirable neighborhood.

You also have to careful of scammers attempting to steal your money by offering cheap housing. Scammers will send stolen pictures of someone else’s condo and demand you pay in cash via Western Union or moneygram.

Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don’t bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn’t worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.

Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.

I was looking at buying a home but there are tons of condos for sale cheap. Why so many condos for sale? Do condos have horrible resale? Am I better off to buy a house instead to build equity?

Almost all condos are poor investments. The resale value, adjusted for inflation usually turns out to be less than what you paid. Example, my grandmother bought one in 1984 for 50k and 20 years later she sold it for 135k during the height of the real estate bubble. Considering the interest, property tax, and assesments she paid, she lost a lot of money. I purchase investment property where people can rent from me. You can pay my mortgage and tax and I reap the benefits.

Details:

Condo
Sale price in the mid 600’s
Brookline, MA – Norfolk county

Thank you.
It’s definitely not 6% of the mortgage. You are thinking of the realtor commissions.

It depends on the interest rate you lock into. I would go to zillow.com and submit a loan inquiry. The quotes you receive will give you lender fees for each rate provided…don’t worry, it’s totally anonymous and lenders won’t be calling you. Then you can check out closing.com to get an idea of title fees. Government recording fees are questionable, but you can check the county website and see if they have that listed.