When you think of the condo market in Scottsdale, you cannot help but think back about 4 years when it was a buyer's market and buying a condo was fairly easy. Today, buying a condo is far different. Take into consideration that condos have their own culture within the real estate market. HOA companies can truly make or brake the experience of owning a condo in a really big way. The best way to avoid buying a condo you might regret is to use an agent who specializes in the condo market. This is especially important when you add in REO's, short sales and foreclosures into the mix. It's no wonder why you need a specialist. While the condo market can be very detail oriented and tricky, it has provided a true niche within the real estate industry.

Our focus today is to discuss the value of searching for short sales within our local real estate market. When you begin a simple search for condos for sale in Scottsdale, you will unavoidably come across short sales and foreclosures. In doing so, there will the allure that you will somehow gain a great bargain by putting in offers for these condos. While this can be true, we are here to advise you to be cautious.

Typically, short sales have multiple offers with different types of financing available from each buyer. The bank has the discretion to sit back and entertain these offers for months, sometimes even over a year. What tends to happen during this time is the quality of the buyer keeps going up. What we mean by quality of buyer is, for example, buyer Joe has 3% down and an FHA loan behind him to cover the other 97%. Buyer Mary has 20% down and a conventional loan behind her to cover the remaining 80%. Now, between these two buyers, Mary is the stronger client and the bank is likely to side with her. However, an acceptance of the offer can drag on and on for months, leaving the door open for buyer Jason, who is a real estate investor and who will offer 100% cash. Now buyer Mary is very likely not to get her offer accepted.

Even worse, as the offers come in the price the bank will accept goes up. While the bank it entertaining offers below what is owed on the home, the issue is what the property is CURRENTLY worth. Most of the time, condos go for fair market value. That means a condo around the corner will sell quickly in the traditional manner and it will sell for the same price as the headache short sale. So, why not save yourself 6 months to 1 year by avoiding the short sale entirely?

Of special importance, there are times when a short sale is a great deal. Unfortunately, those often go quickly, to a full cash buyer.