How would YOU approach this deal? Or would you?

[Katrina P.]

An agent that I'm working with, told me he has a short sale listed that is a "good deal". Here are some of the specs:

*On the market 91 days
*3 bdrm/2 baths townhome
*Price was reduced from $199k to $175k to $169k
*Agent has not sent me comps yet, but on redfin.com, I'm seeing Nearby similar sales in last six months ranging from $114-$259k (one was sold for $114k, one for $160k and one for $170k; all others were > $200k, which were 7). I'm also seeing currently active similar sales ranging from $214-250k. Without having sent me the comps yet, the Agent "said" that the comps are around $220-$230 in the area. So if he's correct and truthful, there's a profit margin there.
*Property is in move-in condition
*Property is vacant (which is weird, right? Why wouldn't the owner stay rent-free while he figures out what's going to happen w/the property?)

Here are my thoughts:

*Even though I'm inexperienced, I'd like to jump in and get my feet wet, and this may possibly be a good deal.
*I'd like to use transactional funding to flip the property for a small profit - not looking to make a killing, obviously.

So my questions are:

*How should I pursue this property, if at all?
*The Listing Agent said that he sends the offer into the bank and does the negotiations. Although, I've read on here that isn't good. Can anyone tell me why I shouldn't let him do the negotiations?
*Should I just submit an offer through the Agent (since I have no experience under my belt), or tell him I'd like to work this transaction on my own (ensuring him he will still make his commission, of course), dealing directly with the owner, and allowing my negotiator to deal directly with the bank? Of course my issue with this approach is how do I develop the "trust" from him to "hand over" his client to me to work the short sale?

Obviously I need a lot of help and asked a lot of questions. However, please just provide any help possible.

Thanks in advance!
Katrina

[Jon Holdman]

You CANNOT use average prices.

You MUST look at ALL the comps. As the agent for ALL sold properties in the area as well as ALL the current listings.

As others have mentioned, your best comp for a townhome is another townhome in the same project with an identical floor plan and location. Anything from another project is not as good a comp.

Let me say this again and you MUST listen. The value of this property is ABSOLUTE NOT $200K like you seem to think. I don't care how many comps you have or what they sold for. This one is on the MLS at $169K. Its value is absolutely less than $169K. End of story. You don't need any comps to tell you otherwise.

Ninety days is not actually that long to be on the market in many locations.

I think you're going to try to turn around and quickly re-sell this property. Because this is a short sale, the bank is going to try to prevent that. They do not want you to make a profit, since they're taking a loss.

You need to figure out how it is you will generate a buyer, especially at a price higher than $169K. The thing is already on the MLS at that price. That's the number one place for generating buyers. There are no takers at $169K. So, and this is a totally serious question, how are you going to find a buyer who will pay more? I don't think you can, frankly.

I think you're trying to wholesale. Wholesalers generally sell to investors. They have a list of investors, and when they get a property, they blast it out to that list. If its a deal, someone grabs it quickly. Further, wholesalers will have an idea of what they're buyer's want, and will find properties that fit those specs. I don't see any indication you have such a list.

If you try to sell this to a end buyer, you're going to run into a couple of issues. One is that conventional lenders don't like creative deals. They will see you just bought the house and are trying to resell it. They won't like that. They may use the value you paid as the value, which means you buyer has to come up with the extra money in cash. You will also have a valuation problem. You buy it, do nothing, and resell it. You will have trouble justifying the higher price. If you rehab a junky place, its possible, though not easy, to justify a higher price. But you say its move in ready. That's not good.

Because this is a short sale, you're going to need your own financing. Maybe pure transactional funding, maybe longer term. That's not free. And you have to do two closings. That's not free, either. Wholesalers don't make huge fees in any case, and those costs will eat significantly into those small fees.

I think the best you could do would be to sell this to someone for $160K. That's almost certainly an end buyer, becuase no investor is going to pay $160K for this property. $110-$120K is the most an investor would pay. Even then, as Rich points out, townhomes, condos, and anything with an HOA is intrinsically flawed in many investors eyes.

You're going to pay a couple of grand for each of the closes. With an end buyer, its possible you will need to hold it for 90 days before they can close. So, money to hold is going to cost you maybe 12 grand for that time period. Say you would like to make $5000 on this deal. That means you need to pay $21K ($2K + $2K + $12K + $5K) less than the $160K selling price. That's $139K max. If you really want to try to sell to an investor, you seriously need to be down around $90K.

Trouble is those comps work against you. The bank who's considering the short will look at those and laugh at your offer. Now I could care less about insulting a bank (or any other seller, for that matter), but its unlikely a low ball offer will be accepted.

First, figure out what you want to do. Wholesale? Fix and Flip? Buy and Hold? Then start researching that type of investing. Read here, read books, etc. Then start looking for an area. Different types of investing work in different areas. Then, learn that area inside and out. Look, inside and out, at 100 houses in that area. Totally serious. Track sales for a few months. Spend some time and learn values to the point where you can drive down a street in your farm area and say "4/2, $150K; 4/1, $125K, brick two story 5/3, $225K" etc.