Sharon

I would never buy a foreclosed or bank owned home as a primary residence - as most of these are as is and it would be taking a big risk plus like someone else mentioned if it is in an area of more foreclosed homes, fear of anti-social activities etc. Also, I would feel bad to live in a home where another family has left unhappily and have a lot memories there. I have seen some real bad damage in some of these homes - kitchen counter-tops ripped off, plumbing clogged etc!

If I were an investor or had lots of money to play around with, perhaps I would get one of these homes cheap (even if they are fixer-uppers), hold onto them till the market improved and sell or fix them and rent them out.

Short sales ofcourse are a different story. I wonder if the banks just keep these homes on the market long enough to disgust potential buyers by the delay and then they go on and sell it cheap to their own pals! I know of a beautiful short sale home listed for 600K and the bank did not respond to a 575K offer for weeks! What are they thinking - the banks? what kind of offer do they want? Full price on short sales? but that is a totally different topic! - Wed Feb 27 2008, 15:16

Thx for the answers. In response to JR, our agent did not fight for us or guide us when the sellers only gave us 12 days to release contingencies, then the sellers demanded 5 % down at release of contingencies on a more than a half million dollar home (which we were not made aware of till the 12th day!)

She did not help us to bring down the price and infact was telling us to bid higher. finally we bid almost full asking price under the pressure that there was another offer coming in soon. Isn't Sacramento supposed to be a falling market? a buyer's market? What place did she think she was living in? Cupertino? Palo Alto? Ross?

Inspite of knowing that we were under pressure to perform in 12 days and that our loan was not finalised, she came in on the 12th day demanding the rest of the 4% check. When we wanted more time - atleast 3 days, she forced us to ask only 2 days saying that the seller was moving the 3rd day and wanted to make a decision soon. We were shocked - she was our agent but was behaving as if she was the seller's agent. She forced us to release the inspection contingencies though we were not happy with the repairs, rather than replacements we had asked for. She should have fought for what we wanted and not forced us to give into the seller's offer for repairs.

A HUGE disappointment. I am writing all this so other buyers should not get trapped by this type of realtor and to let these kind of realtors know how clients wish to be treated - with some respect! - Wed Feb 27 2008, 14:57

Thanks to all for your different opinions. Does anyone know of a good real estate attorney in the Sacramento, Roseville, Folsom, Granite Bay area?

Also, we think we got a predatory loan - will that help? the lender gave us a loan on our last year's annual salary even we told the loan agent that our salaries had decreased this year! - Fri Feb 22 2008, 09:39