Short Sales and Foreclosures Are Your Competition

Something that has become clear to me about the current state of the Minnesota Real Estate market is that if you are a regular seller who is not in a distress sale situation like a short sale or a bank owned foreclosure that does not mean you are not in competition with those types of properties to sell.

The reason Short Sales and Foreclosures are a traditional seller competition in most cases is that the buyers looking for house now are looking for deals, and good values. There are foreclosures and short sales that are in fairly good shape and really good prices. Thus, when they see the traditional sellers home at $20-$30k more then the foreclosure in good shape, which one do you think buyers choose?

They choose the better value which is the foreclosure (bank owned) or short sale. Yes, you will occasionally have someone who does not want to deal with a short sale or bank owned foreclosure. But these people are becoming fewer as the prices have dropped to such lows that the values are hard to pass up.

Right now the separation in the Minnesota Townhome market is so great you rarely see a traditional seller able to compete vs the bank owned and short sale sellers. There are more sellers in better positions on the sale of a regular single family home, but many of these sellers have the notion that they are not in direct competition with the foreclosure homes.

Its not true anymore. When selling your Minnesota home you have to take note of the prices, quantity and quality of the short sale and foreclosure listings. Note what they are selling for and how fast they are selling. Perhaps even go preview a few of them with your agent.

Remember the buyers out there are looking for deals so you can't price your home too much higher then the short sales and bank owned listings if you want your home to be on buyers radars!