New investor help

[Redion K.]

Hello everyone. My name is Redion. I currently own a carpet cleaning business in New York City and am currently educating myself about real estate investing. My family currently owns a home and we have build some equity in it, about 100K and the house in now worth about $550K.I have told my real estate agent to send me new listings that come up and a short sale just came up, 2 family for $425K which would be a great house hack for my family. This seems like a dream price for this house in a great neighborhood and my inexperience tells me that it will be scooped up as soon as it's morning. Is it possible to make an offer on this and put up my house for sale right away and use the equity for money down? Would my house have to sell first? How would you make this work. Again I am new to this. Would the bank consider a few offers before they make a decision? I am almost 100% sure that someone will offer well above the asking price of $425K. Houses like this go for $700K-$800K. Why would the bank put it up for so low when I'm sure they know they can get a lot more. I am confused and excited but them again I am super new. Anyone can help?

[Elizabeth Sylvince]

Hi Redion,

I'm from Brooklyn! Short sales are funny, some can take forever and some can be closed within 60-90 days provided a great offer is made and your ready to close. I'm a R/E agent and I know from experience that it can take up to 3 months, or more to sell a property unless you list it well below market value. In this case if you do list it below market value, you risk getting less money. Are you buying the new property as an investment, or for your own personal use? You could get a Home Equity Line Of Credit (HELOC) and use those funds to try and get the property. That's just one idea. The good thing about the HELOC is you only pay for what you use. So, if you borrow $60K and use only $45K you only pay for the $45K you used. You can also try to refi and pull out the cash. Hoped that gave you some ideas to run with.