With the Banks' tightening of the money, there has been a resurgence of Lease to Own Agreements lately. Although these deals are popular with both Buyers and Sellers, they are not to be taken lightly. Here's why these instruments are potentially dangerous:Danger for the Seller: If the Buyers stop making payments under a Lease to Own Agreement, the Seller can not evict them. Instead, the Seller has to institute foreclosure action, which can take many months. In essence, the Owner could potentially have tenants who don't pay rent for a very long time (foreclosure action may take over a year), without the recourse of evicting them.Danger for the Buyer: If the Seller is foreclosed on, the Tenant has very little recourse. Once the Foreclosure is implemented against the Seller, the Tenant is evicted by the Bank. The only recourse the Tenant has is to sue the Seller for the money in civil court. Good luck in recouping it! With Sellers getting 5%-10% of the sales price up front and better than market rent on these types of agreements, the amount lost by the Tenant Buyer is sizable.Land Sales Agreements (Contracts of Sale) present the same dangers. The SCAR (South Carolina Association of Realtors) does not endorse Lease To Own Agreements. What is your experience with Lease To Own Agreements? Please share!Mirela Monte, Your Myrtle Beach Real Estate Connection Proud Optimist
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Posted by MIRELA MONTE on February 28, 2009 at 7:44pm
As a follow up to my earlier blog: "The Ocean Between Buyer and Seller", here is my letter to the bank decision makers, arguing for the acceptance of a price which is $165,000 (34%) lower than the original asking price. This, along with the comps of this neighborhood and the adjoining neighborhoods, pictures and video of other, better priced listings will accompany this presentation tomorrow. Please give me any tips that may help me offer a more compelling argument!Bank A, Neighborhood Z6 Month Analysis:Homes Available for sale: 20Expired Listings: 26Withdrawn Listings: 29On Hold (don't show): 1Pending Sale: 1Sold: 1We have a unique situation in Neighborhood Z. The community is incomplete; only about a third of the lots have been built on with two thirds of them still vacant (raw land). Twenty properties are currently available for sale. Four of these available properties are Bank owned and two of them are short sales. In the past 6 months this community has seen a total of 26 listings expire and 29 listings withdrawn.We could only find one property sold within the last six months. The listing agent of that property claims that he only inserted the transaction in the MLS as a favor for an out of state builder who sold the property to one of his out of state investors. The property shows a sold price which is about twice the amount indicated by any of the current listings. We've tried to reach that builder repeatedly, but as of yet we have not had any success.The only property that has a contract on it and is waiting to close is fairly similar to ours in terms of price and size, although it's somewhat smaller. The current pricing on it is similar to ours and the original price was similar to our original price. We will not know what it sold for until it actually closes, if and when it does.There is another available property, also bank owned, which is 200 sq. ft. larger than ours, but priced for $50,000 less than ours. Most likely that property will sell first, unless we lower our price first. If we used the same price per square foot as that home, our price would be $333,333. The $325,000 offer we received today, although significantly lower than our asking price, is right in line with the market price.When the property was appraised last month for $390,000 (was the appraiser local and familiar with our market, or an out of the area appraiser?), this lower priced competing listing was not yet on the market.This neighborhood is in close proximity to Neighborhood T, U, X and Y, which are all finished neighborhoods of a higher caliber offering homes at similar prices and still garnering a very low level of transactions. Because "Neighborhood Z" is only one third complete and has so many competing properties for sale and virtually no sales activity, my fervent recommendation is to accept, or come close to the Buyer's offer price.Mirela Monte, Your Myrtle Beach Real Estate Connection
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Posted by MIRELA MONTE on February 4, 2009 at 2:15pm
Asking price: $167,432 on a Bank Owned property in an oceanfront building where similar listings are still priced at over $200K. My investor client asked me to put in a bid for $125,000. The bank approved it. SOLD!Asking price on a short sale: $190,000 in an Oceanfront building where similar condos are still listed for up to $300,000. My investor bid $154,000 for it. The bank finally accepted $168,000. We closed last week.I just received a request to bid on a short sale home currently priced at $549,900, the least expensive home ever sold in that neighborhood. The lead came from Active Rain. The investor wants to bid $260,000. Will I write it up? You bet! Why? Because the bank might actually take it!Here are some deals you could bid on: Luxury condo on Waterway. Asking price $299,900.Waterway community custom home, 4BR/3BA. Originally priced at $799K. The bank now owns it and listed it with me for $489K.Just check out our website for current REO deals at: http://www.myrtlebeachhomes.us/Homes or www.BankOwnedInMyrtleBeach.comGo ahead: insult the Seller! I will be glad to do it for you!Mirela Monte, Your Myrtle Beach REO Source
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