All Forum Posts by: Brenda Sacchetto

Yes Jake-wow you're good!!
It was 20 Reston way....

hahaha.... Jake Kucheck you're right!
It's incredibly expensive to live here, but for a young family there's no place like it!
Everything needed is here and within walking distance (mostly) and for California, that is a huge deal. So no pesky freeways needed.
We rarely ever leave "the ranch".
You get ocean and mountain views, it's California at it's finest!

I did give her full asking price!!
The most recent comp in the neighborhood was was around 630,000.00 (hasn't closed yet) when I first knocked on her door she was asking me for 750,000.00 it wasn't til I went home and worked the numbers that I realized our bottom line on this property was 550,000.00

When I told her our bottom line, it was as a courtesy, she had asked me to let her know if I wanted the house right away. Then proceeded to talk me into as she said, "doing this thing" and go home, start the process and she would prepare her short sale package.
She, or the guy that is buying the house, listed the house on the MLS for 550,000.00, with no information on the house, a ridiculous picture, and listed it in neighboring, less popular city, so there would be no competition. You should see this listing-it was pending before the bank was even open and accepting offers!!!

My agent notified me that the investor offered them 10% less-all cash...less!!! AND she told me her friend investor was working something out with her, so it's not really speculation, although I have no physical evidence....

ughhhh...maybe you're all right...and I am a little madder than I thought!!!

ok-thanks everybody for talking me down off the ledge, and I guess I'll just move on to the next thing.

No, Mary. I was a little surprised about the way it happened. I'm not an investor at all. We are looking for a home to live in and I do plan to move on to the next deal.

The thing that bothers me the most about all of this is the insider stuff. She told me she had planned to walk away from the house, because they had already purchased another. In our area it is virtually impossible to get a house like the one I'm referring to at a reasonable price. They are sold in bulk to investors, then flipped for way more than what they are really worth. The way this deal went down just seems unethical to me, bump out the little guy so they can all make a killing on this house that is short selling.... and I thought homeowners cannot financially benefit from the short sales at all?!

Hi experts!
I had a recent situation occur that I'm thinking to file a complaint about but I'd like your input to see if this is viable.

I am not an agent but have been following listings of potential foreclosures in my area-we are looking to buy a home. I noticed a house where the for sale sign had gone up and down a few times, it was currently off the market bit was listed as a pre-foreclosure. I decided to knock on the door of the home to ask the homeowner if her house was for sale or what we going on. She invited me in, showed me around and said if I was interested in buying it she'd give it to me for XXX (which was above market value) but I needed to decide right away, because she needed to make a few decisions (not admitting that the home was in pre-foreclosure status) oh! and by the way she was also a real estate agent.
I went home, returned the next day notifying her that it was way over our budget and gave her a number that was our bottom line. She then said for us, she would do a short sale submitting only our offer to the bank but we needed to get approved through her lender, not our own. I agreed to call him and went home excited about this house. We called her lender, who seemed a little "snakey" went through all the questions and he was supposed to send us loan information but never did.
Anyway, the next day I went to pull up the listing to show the pictures of the home to my girls and I saw that it was listed to the public as a short sale, for our agreed upon price. I called the homeowner/ agent right away who said that she had decided to give the house to an investor friend in her office and sorry but better luck next time. I called my agent (not connected to these folks) anyway, he came over New years day and put the offer through first thing this morning. Guaranteed it was the first offer received. He called me to say that we are the back up offer and that the listing agent who is also the investor of the company that she is connected with is the one putting forth the cash offer on their agents house, and I'm confident she is getting money from them for the listing. Aside from the fact that it was a bummer it ended up this way, is this ethical??? Seems like an inside kinda trading situation and a bit criminal! I want to complain to the Ca. board of Realtors regarding Homeowner , listing agent, and broker. Any thoughts?

@Will Barnard no offense taken and a learning experience it is :)

I knew it was aggressive, but it is empty, owned by someone who lives out of state and has no emotional attachment to it. I used the sellers agent to submit the offer and the most time she spent with me was the 30 minutes she walked me around the property (but was seriously trying to re-direct my interest to other listings she had in the area for triple the price) and emailing me the doc-u-sign agreement.
So really-really, where does she have the right to be disgusted with any offer?? The offer may not be "appropriate" by industry standards but as of today it's 450,000.00 dollars more than the investor has seen in the year that he's owned it...right?

@Account Closed the offer was 450,000. with a pre-approved loan of 10% (I didn't want to tie up all our cash) AS-IS with a 14 day escrow.

There is no way they're going to accept it-but it's out there :)

Man, you guys are amazing!
@Will Barnard Thanks so much for the excellent advice. We sent in the offer of 450,000. this afternoon and the agent was disgusted; but then I thought of @Shawn Holsapple 's comment, " As with all offers, if it doesn't embarrass you a little bit then it's too high!" and I immediately felt better....lol.

Can you really obtain an REO direct from the bank at 20-40% below the reduced price? If so I'm moving to the cornfields of Indiana-wish we could do that here in Ca.

Hi Will!

You're right! This was an isolated situation in a gated upscale area of the OC.
I got a better scoop today from the agent who is representing the investor. The home was built on a custom lot at 570,000.00 back in 2001. The owner foreclosed last Nov. and then squatters came in and turned it into a marijuana bar. It does need a lot of work, the contractor estimated 500,000.00 and the house is 6,000 sq. ft., it sits on a hill but backs to a main street which is kind of noisy. We weren't going to flip, it would be a personal residence.
The investor paid 1.5 million from the bank and the comps in the area range from 950-1.1 for smaller homes (4500 sq ft.) and other homes on the street listed for 2.5 M have been sitting for a year. We were confused at where to start this offer at, considering the history of the house etc.

Thanks for your help :)

Thanks guys! I will do all of that-I really appreciate your expertise.

Sorry @Wade Sikkink I am new to this forum and to real estate in general. I was just posting questions when I had them and soaking in the advice. I am grateful for the assistance.