Homepath Homes Messing with Comps!

[Kristine Eickman]

So I am trying to buy a home in a particular developement that has pretty equal amounts of regular sales and REO's and short sales. The regular homes are selling for $168,000-$177,000. These are vacation homes so they are sold fully furnished.

The short sales and bank owned have been selling for $140,000-155,000. Most completely stripped and some don't even have appliances. Here comes the issue.....there were two REO's that were Homepath Homes and both were listed at $189,000. Both sold but had not closed so I was not sure what they sold at. Well, the first one just came online and it sold for $180,000! Over the regular home sales! So now I am trying to put a "fair" offer in on a regular sale at $170,000 and my latest comp is a bank owned at $180,000. This is going to push prices even higher than they already are.

Any thoughts on this? Do they normally use REO's as comps on regular sales? Even if they don't - those who are looking to buy a SS or REO are screwed because their prices just jumped $25,000 overnight because of this stupid homepath house.