Corie Seymour Salt Lake Real Estate

Salt Lake Foreclosures In Sandy UT-How Much To Offer?

Our blog on how much to offer on Salt Lake Foreclosures received a lot of comments last week.

A lot of potential home buyers asked if we would comment on individual areas or Zip codes in Salt Lake City.

Sandy Utah was most often mentioned, so we will start with Foreclosures in Sandy UT.

There is a lot of confusion out there about how much to offer the bank or corporation that has taken back homes thru foreclosure and is now listing these homes on the MLS.

Folks have heard that you can buy these Homes or Condominiums for pennies on the dollar. Ads on Radio, TV, and in newspapers make unbelievable claims about instant wealth available to investors that invest in Salt Lake Foreclosed Homes.

Heres the truth.

Rather than disprove these claims, we are going to take a more direct approach, and simply list for you the listed price vs the actual sales price of Salt Lake foreclosure homes that have closed in the last thirty days.

In addition, so that you can make your own analysis of the SLC housing market we will include other information such as days on market, length of time from offer to closing, neighborhood, zip codes, etc:

Overview Of Salt Lake Foreclosures In Sandy UT-10/14/09

There are 35 Foreclosed homes/condominiums listed for sale in Sandy Utah.

10 of those houses/condos were listed in the last 30 days.

11 homes were put under contract since 9/14/02 in Sandy UT.

In the last 30 days, 4 Sandy Foreclosures have been sold.

Total listed price of Foreclosed homes sold w/in last 30 days was $766,000.

The homes ranged in price between $168,000 & $239,000.

Average price of Sandy UT Foreclosures sold in the last 30 days was $191,500 dollars.

Average sq. ft. of Sandy Foreclosures was 1841 Square Feet.

That is a foreclosed listed price of $104 dollars a ft. in Sandy Utah.

The price of the homes sold in the last 30 days was $713,000.

Sales Price per Sq. Ft. on foreclosures in Sandy UT was $96.88.

Salt Lake Zip codes for sales were 84070, and 84093.

Days on market were less than 20 days.

Banks discounted Foreclosures in Sandy Utah, 6.9%.on sales from 9/14/09 to 10/14/09.

Now you have an accurate understanding of what has actually happened with those Sandy UT homes that banks have taken back into their own ownership through the foreclosure process. (REOs).

For an accurate list of all of the Salt Lake Bank Owned Homes and Foreclosures in Salt Lake you can go directly to SLC FORECLOSURES and see almost all of the REO homes that are listed for sale on the MLS.

If you would like more information on how to buy Utah foreclosures, browse the SLC Blog for articles and tips on buying that home or condominium.

To see reports on other Salt Lake Cities IE: West Jordan, South Jordan, Draper UT, Riverton UT, Murray UT, and Downtown Salt Lake, check back here often as we will cover each city every 30 days so that you will be on top of the Real Estate market in Salt Lake City.

Or you can just call us @ 801-567-0946. We love to talk about Salt Lake Real Estate, and Salt Lake Foreclosures In Sandy Utah and how much you should offer on that foreclosed home.

Q&A On Salt Lake Foreclosures In Draper UT !

I get a lot of questions about how much to offer banks for their Salt Lake Foreclosures (REOs). That is a tough question to answer, and depends on a lot of different factors. IE: location.

Homes in South Jordan usually sell faster than say homes in Taylorsville.

Price range; generally speaking a more expensive home, with fewer potential buyers would demand a greater discount.

Lending institution; a lender with a lot of properties in foreclosure or pre-foreclosure in an area say like Herriman UT, might elect to discount further than normal, to avoid competing with themselves.

In other words each home requires individual research, and information to arrive at an adequate offer that can be packaged so that the bank will give it consideration.

With that in mind I am submitting to you an e-mail I received from a site visitor last week about the experience they were having with creating a Real Estate portfolio.

And of course our response.

Dear Ms. Seymour

Do you think that the bank will accept an offer that is 80% below market value? If not tell me what they will accept. I have a Proof of Fund letter and would like to make an offer on some properties. I have talked to some Real Estate agents and they are either unwilling to present my offer or there is something going on that I don't know about. Can you tell me?

Thanks

---

Thanks for your post, and your questions about Salt Lake Foreclosures in Draper UT.

I will be as blunt as I can be as I think I can save you a lot of time in your search for distressed property in Salt Lake.

No ! I do not think the Bank will take 80% of market value. Since market value means different things to different people I will assume that you are referring to the last price the home is listed for.

With regards to what They will accept, I don't know, and probably no one else does either.

A good indicator Bill is what kind of discounts are being shown on actual REO homes that have closed in the recent past.

You asked about Draper foreclosures, I pulled up all of the homes sold (closed) in the last 90 days to get an idea of what price buyers were paying versus what Banks were asking.

Of the 29 Draper foreclosed homes that have closed in the last 90 days the average discount was less than 3%. ( $12,500,000 in listings, $12,200,000 in sales). That is factoring in concessions paid by the Banks.

Since the asking prices ranged from between $173,000 and $1,600,000 dollars an investor would be more specific regarding price range.

It is also revealing that among these sales, days on market (DOM)is less than you might think. While homes that have been listed "short" may have been on the market for months, Bank Owned Homes on this list rarely were 45 days on market.

Bill, I think perhaps agents are reluctant to present your offers because based on this exercise they would do a lot of work with no reasonable chance for success. Normal CMAs do not get the job done in today's volatile market. To just develop these numbers took more than one hour. To represent you properly would take research by price, by location, by age, Etc:

If an experienced agent tells you that the property will sell for between $220,000 and $240,000 and you insist on offering 80% of that, or even 50% of that, and want to do a lot of them, then I suggest you offer to pay an agent for their time, and knowledge and experience. They probably wont be compensated for having done a lot of work on your behalf.

As far as "something going on that I'm not aware of", I doubt it.

The fact is, in most areas of Utah the foreclosure market is not anywhere near what newspapers, radio ads, and investment seminars make it out to be, and perhaps what you were told. No way this is a way to replenish your 401K in 6 months as I have heard advertised.

Where are the good deals? Right here. Right now. In most areas around Salt Lake you will find a good inventory of Bank Owned Foreclosures from which to choose. Some of these homes sold for 50% of what they were purchased for and much less than they could be built for today.

I hope this answered your questions Bill.

P.S. My advice would be, if you are serious, find an experienced agent, agree on an investment strategy that is realistic, sign a buyers agency agreement, put them to work, and be patient.

To search for foreclosed homes in Salt Lake & surrounding towns, and information about buying Salt Lake Foreclosed Homes or Pre-foreclosures, stop by Salt Lake Real Estate and you can access thousands of houses listed for sale, and tips on how to buy them.

Or you can call us @ 801-567-0946 and we'll talk about Salt Lake Foreclosures in Draper UT, or any other surrounding Utah Town.

Real Estate In Salt Lake City -Homes For Sale, Sept/09.

Real Estate in Salt Lake City UT, particularly Homes for Sale had an interesting September.

If you are searching the Internet looking for homes for sale in Salt Lake City, you need some of the following information about what happened over the last 30 days in some real important categories along the Wasatch front.

All of this Real Estate related information was pulled from the Wasatch Front Regional Multiple Listing Service (MLS). It includes information about homes and Condominiums listed for sale by Realtors in Utah, and will include activity over the last 30 days.

Many of the Homes for Sale by Owner (FSBOs) will not be included, as not all people selling their own home will have access to the MLS.

Likewise, New Homes For Sale & Condominiums offered by the builder (new construction) probably wont be included in these numbers unless they are Salt Lake Foreclosures or Pre-Foreclosed homes in SLC that the bank or other lien holder is requiring a listing.

Homes For Sale In Salt Lake City Metro Area:

There are 7,402 homes/Condos for sale in SLC.
5,857 are single family homes.
That's 79.2% of available Salt Lake City Homes for Sale.
1545 of these homes are Condominiums or Town Homes.
Condominiums for sale in Salt Lake are 20.8% of available housing.
There are 1,482 short sales (pre foreclosures) in Salt Lake.
Salt Lake Short Sales are a little more than 20% of the housing inventory.
Almost 7% of homes listed for sale in Salt Lake are Foreclosures.(Bank Owned, REOs, HUD Homes).
That represents 507 Foreclosed homes in the Salt Lake City Metro area.

Thirty Day Activity on Salt Lake City Homes For Sale : (Metro Area)

In the last 30 days, 1,739 homes were listed in SLC.
329 of these were Condos or Town Homes in Salt Lake.
Less than 20% of the new September listings for sale were condominiums.
1,094 Salt Lake Homes for sale were put under contract w/in the last 30 days.
198 contracts were written on Condos for Sale in SLC.
132 of the homes under contract last month were Salt Lake Metro Foreclosures.
Of the 795 homes sold last month, 159 were condominiums.

We hope that this information on Homes for Sale in Salt Lake will provide you with insight as it pertains to selling or buying a Salt Lake Home or Condo.

For additional help with Real Estate in Salt Lake, stop by our site @ Salt Lake Real Estate. you will find tips, suggestions and a variety of Real Estate Blogs to answer questions and provide direction.

To search the 7,402 Homes listed for sale in Salt Lake stop by our search site. You can see photos of homes and condos, directions, prices of houses for sale and the specifics of the houses you are looking at.

Or, you can just call us at 801-567-0946, we'd be happy to talk to you about Real Estate In Salt Lake City and homes For Sale.

Need Financing For Your Salt Lake Fixer Upper?

Do you need financing for that Salt Lake Fixer Upper you found in Sugar House or West Jordan?

Like to make an offer on the pre owned home you found on-line in Cottonwood heights but realize that after closing costs and down payment there wont be any cash left to finish that fourth bedroom ?

This is not a new dilemma.

Many home buyers, wanting to buy a house in an older community are faced with the cost of fixing it up to make it more comfortable for the family.

With no cash left to get the jobs done without taking out a hard money loan, upgrades and remodel plans are ignored.

That's why when Doug Walker our friend and one of our most trusted home lending sources sent this e-mail about an FHA home mortgage program he is offering I couldn't wait to tell you about it.This FHA program will make it possible for buyers of Utah homes to include in the original loan the cost of fixing the house up to be better for your family.

Here's Dougs e-mail. See what you think.

Cheap Fixer Upper Financing

In this age of stimulus bills and bail outs you would expect a really cool mortgage loan program to help home buyers. Well, there is one, but it's actually been around for years. There is a little known FHA loan program called the 203(k) that allows you to purchase a home and fix it up with the same loan. It's not very well known because most lenders either can't do them or just don't want to do them. They are more work than the average loan officer wants to do and most companies don't have underwriters that are familiar enough with them to confidently issue an approval that FHA will accept. At Republic Mortgage we feel the benefit to the client is so big that we have made the commitment to offer this program. We have loan officers who have been certified on this program (of course, that includes me) and the staff to get them done.

Here is an overview of the program:

1. It can be used in any area or county up to the FHA loan limits of that county.

A. Salt lake, Summit and Tooele counties -$729,750

B. Wasatch county - $431,250

C. Davis county - $397,500

D. Utah county - $323,750

E. Most other counties - $271,050

2. Determine what work you would like to do to the home. (The appraiser may require some items to be completed to qualify for FHA financing.)

3. Get bids on labor and materials. You may provide the labor on much of the work without a contractor.

4. If the cost of repairs is under $31,000, there are no inspections needed. You get half of the money when you close on the home and half upon completion of the work. If the cost of repairs is over $31,000, there is a construction consultant conducts inspections to authorize the disbursement of funds monthly.

5. You get a credit for energy efficient items like windows, heating and air conditioning units, and insulation.

6. We finance 96.5% of the total cost (purchase price + remodel). Your down payment is just 3.5% of the total cost.

7. You have up to 6 months to complete the work.

8. Your rate is locked upfront on a 30 year fixed rate. The rate is only about .25% higher than the normal FHA rate at that time.

This is the very best way to finance a "fixer-upper". It takes a little more time and effort to put a loan like this together, but it is definitely worth it. The days of easy home improvement loans and zero equity lines of credit are over. If the house you find needs some work to make it your dream home, use the 203(k) program to make it happen. Call me anytime and I will walk you through the details.

Doug Walker

REPUBLIC MORTGAGE

11602 S. Redwood Rd. #B101

South Jordan, UT 84095

801-302-7220 Office

801-244-7620 Mobile

888-878-5403 Fax

If you don't have that fixer upper in mind, and don't have an agent, let me invite you to search our site @ Salt Lake Homes and view over 8,000 houses and Condominiums in and around Salt Lake City right from your computer. You'll see photos, maps of streets, home prices, locations and descriptions of every home listed on the MLS in the Salt Lake Valley.

You can find a home or condo that can use this program.

To find out more information about Real Estate in Salt Lake City, tips on buying or selling homes or articles from experts in the field, stop by SLC Real Estate. We update daily so you can stop by often.

Or give us a call if you want to talk about Real Estate or to discuss whether you need financing for your Salt Lake Fixer Upper.

Published Saturday, September 26, 2009 4:09 AM by Corie Seymour

Put In Pictures For Those Sandy UT Homes For Sale !

I got an eye opening e-mail yesterday that said " I'm amazed that you don't have any pictures for this Sandy UT Homes for sale".

Frankly, I was too.

This beautiful Sandy UT Foreclosure was listed at over $500,000.

There was over 6500 sq.ft. of finished living space, and real seclusion on almost an acre of well landscaped ground.

But you couldn't tell it from the photos, THERE WERE NONE!

Now before you ask me "why not"? Let me explain that this beautiful home in the heart of Sandy UT, surrounded by horse property and small Ranchettes, is not my listing.

We don't list many houses or Condos.

We're buyers agents. We help those agents that list property on the MLS find Home Buyers. So we know what helps us help you sell your home.

If your Realtor has listed your Salt Lake Home or Condo on the MLS and does not have a good photo tour, then call them and insist that they get one.

Believe me, those Realtors that list homes in the Salt Lake area and fail to provide photos, make it very hard for us to help them get your home sold.

Every day we get 250 to 300 people visiting our web site looking for a home to buy in Salt Lake City Utah.

Initially these buyers are just viewing homes on line;.Selecting homes that look like they are worth taking the time to visit.

On any given day our home buyers can search almost 9,000 homes for sale in Salt Lake City and find thousand that have pictures and descriptions attractive enough to make us want to schedule a visit to evaluate the house or Condo further.

Few without photos get scheduled.

Look at some stats that every Realtor should know & you should know when you ask some one to list your house.

Realtor.Com says that homes listed with multiple photos are viewed 299% more than homes without pictures.

Showcased listings of homes for sale get between 72 and 91% more showings.

Among Internet home buyers, 83% told the National Association of Realtors, (NAR) that additional photos were the #1 most valuable asset to a listing.

So if all this is true, you would think that the Sandy Utah home W/O pictures we are talking about would be an exception. NOT!

I did a quick survey on my own about that. I pulled up all the homes listed In the Salt Lake City area for just one day to see how well agents were marketing their listed Houses and Condos.

Heres what I found.

Total SLC home listings. (one day) 134

Number of homes listed with NO PHOTOS, = 54 (40%).

Homes/Condos listed with 1 PHOTO = 22 (16%).

Over 66 % of the Salt Lake City Homes For Sale listed on The MLS are NOT entered in a way to capture the interest or cause further examination of those homes.

In other words, the Real Estate Agents representing those listings are doing a poor job of providing the best selling tools to their clients.

You can make them stop! And you can increase the chance that Utah home buyers will select your home as one of the houses they want to take the time to see.

Insist that the listing of your Utah home includes at least 6 photos that show the most marketable and attractive features of your home.

To see over 9,000 Utah homes/condos listed for sale in the Salt Lake Valley, stop by SLC Homes for Sale and see what homes are available in your price range, in the community you'd like to live. You'll get photos of ramblers for sale in West Jordan, Horse property in Draper, New Homes or Condos @ Daybreak in South Jordan,or foreclosures in Draper or Herriman. Whatever your housing needs in Salt Lake City you can find them in SLC Real Estate.

Or just call us @ 801-567-0946 and ask us why you should have your agent put in pictures for those Sandy UT homes for Sale.

Published Saturday, September 26, 2009 6:47 AM by Corie Seymour