Buying a FNMA owned property

[Jasper H Balibrea]

Hello BiggerPockets!

I have a house that I am looking at from homepath.com. It is FNMA owned. It is in the first 20 days on market where only owner occupants can put in an offer.

I am wanting to purchase this property with a 203K loan. Rehab and build some equity so that I can refinance and resell or rent out in a couple of years or however long the required time to keep it owner occupied.

I have looked at the house and it is in need of much work. One concern I had was listing history of this property.

This house is listed today in poor condition at $239,000. However, last year the homeowners tried to sell this house on a short sale before they were foreclosed on. This house was listed on April 2015 and expired November 2015. No one bought the property. It was listed for $150,000. Should I be concerned by this? Property value should not have appreciated by that much in a year - especially now that it is REO.

Some quick math:

Comps for ARV: $275k

Using 70% rule and $40k rehab I would have to buy around $150k.

Seems like the listing agent only listed the property at the price of what FNMA bought the house for (looking at the tax info).

I am just very confused as to why the listing price increased from $150k to $239k in a year. This neighborhood does not appreciate much but investors do work these neighborhoods. Is it possible that this house can be bought for $150k or should I just look elsewhere? Any thoughts or strategies on how to tackle the issue of getting this house at the right price?

Another note is that I saw that they are giving a bonus to the buyer's agent. So I am guessing that they are motivated to sell during the first 20 days on market.