Bold Flipper or Fishy First Sale

[Irvinecommuter]

I was just perusing the listing in Woodbury and saw this:
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/113-Lamplighter-92620/home/7201465

Sales history:

Nov 06, 2013
Listed (Active)
$899,000

Oct 31, 2013 Sold (MLS) (Closed)
$750,000

Oct 29, 2013
Sold (Public Records)
$787,500

Seriously...$100,000 to $120,00 profit in a week?  The first sale seems super smelly to me. 

This comp sale was about 5 months earlier for a smaller place...$950,000.
http://www.redfin.com/CA/Irvine/172-Intrigue-92620/home/7218999

 

[FranchisePlr]

I was watching this property and had my real estate agent look into it back in late Spring, early Summer.  It was a short sale which I am sure the listing agent already had a buyer, negotiated a good short sale price which took 4-5 months to close, I believe with B of A and the buyer is trying to flip in this market to make a quick turnaround....I'm sure a "tiny" gift from the seller is going to the real estate agent and vice versa.....hello RESPA.

 

[Irvinecommuter]

I was watching this property and had my real estate agent look into it back in late Spring, early Summer.  It was a short sale which I am sure the listing agent already had a buyer, negotiated a good short sale price which took 4-5 months to close, I believe with B of A and the buyer is trying to flip in this market to make a quick turnaround....I'm sure a "tiny" gift from the seller is going to the real estate agent and vice versa.....hello RESPA.

If that happened, whoever handled the short sale for the bank screwed up.

 

[liveatoc]

Add posted around 10:30 PM on May 8th and I was chasing this property, next day morning May 9th around 8:30 AM property went to  pending sale status.

Last month I say the property history and sold to cash buyer.
Cash is king to short sales/foreclosures ?

 

[zubs]

You should have offered the sales price, and also offered $50,000 under the table to the short seller...You would have gotten it then.  Live n learn.

 

[Irvinecommuter]

You should have offered the sales price, and also offered $50,000 under the table to the short seller...You would have gotten it then.  Live n learn.

That doesn't really work...bank holds the final decision for short sales.

 

[woodburyowner]

You should have offered the sales price, and also offered $50,000 under the table to the short seller...You would have gotten it then.  Live n learn.

That doesn't really work...bank holds the final decision for short sales.

The bank will only have a choice of offers presented by the seller/selling agent.  Lots of offers can get "lost" unless the seller/selling agent has some incentive to present it.

Luckily, I played the game a few years back and was successful.

 

[Irvinecommuter]

You should have offered the sales price, and also offered $50,000 under the table to the short seller...You would have gotten it then.  Live n learn.

That doesn't really work...bank holds the final decision for short sales.

The bank will only have a choice of offers presented by the seller/selling agent.  Lots of offers can get "lost" unless the seller/selling agent has some incentive to present it.

Luckily, I played the game a few years back and was successful.

Agreed but bank need to do their due diligence on the price.  It would silly to agree to a low price on a place as desirable as Irvine.

 

[quattroporte]

It happens more often than one would think.

 

[nosuchreality]

It happens more often than one would think.

It took 9 months to buy ours, the price was largely set by the comps that were bought 3 months before that.  So the price we paid was basically built off of the price that was paid a year before we actually closed.

 

[abosch00]

Add posted around 10:30 PM on May 8th and I was chasing this property, next day morning May 9th around 8:30 AM property went to  pending sale status.

Last month I say the property history and sold to cash buyer.
Cash is king to short sales/foreclosures ?

I remember looking at this property. We called the agent asked them if offering 750k was in the ballpark - got no response

 

[paperboyNC]

I have a friend that recently short-sold his place to his best friend. It was basically his way of getting a principal reduction on his mortgage with the agent getting a nice commission from the bank as well.

 

[qwerty]

I have a friend that recently short-sold his place to his best friend. It was basically his way of getting a principal reduction on his mortgage with the agent getting a nice commission from the bank as well.

how is it his way of getting a principal reduction? is his friend going to sell it back to him for the same price?

 

[paperboyNC]

I have a friend that recently short-sold his place to his best friend. It was basically his way of getting a principal reduction on his mortgage with the agent getting a nice commission from the bank as well.

how is it his way of getting a principal reduction? is his friend going to sell it back to him for the same price?

No.  He used to the same agent to buy a new place with a 100% buyer's agent commission refund.

 

[sgip]

Hey PaperboyNC,

Hope your friend keeps a good attorney on retainer for the next few years, just in case. Sounds like there could be problems if the lender digs into things. That post - if ever tied to some sort of lawsuit - doesn't help their claim much for their deal qualifying as an "in-distress, forced short sale". FNMA and FHLMC are starting to investigate some of the jingle mail sellers in 2008-2009 when they come around to finance a newer home. That background research pattern might grow as more boomerang buyers begin to re-purchase.

My .02c

 

[paperboyNC]

Hey PaperboyNC,

Hope your friend keeps a good attorney on retainer for the next few years, just in case. Sounds like there could be problems if the lender digs into things. Your post doesn't help their claim much for an "in-distress, forced short sale. FNMA and FHLMC are starting to investigate some of the jingle mail sellers in 2008-2009 when they come around to finance a newer home. That background research pattern might grow as more boomerang buyers begin to re-purchase.

My .02c

Good advice. I'm not endorsing what he did, just saying that I have first hand knowledge of fishy short sales.

 

[sgip]

Sorry to imply and I've updated my note.

Given the number of fishy short sales this board has seen, there's plenty of fodder for enterprising attorney's to work through. If some lawyer ever figures out how to monetize the prosecution of SS fraud effectively, there's quite a pot o' gold out there.

 

[paperboyNC]

Sorry to imply and I've updated my note.

Given the number of fishy short sales this board has seen, there's plenty of fodder for enterprising attorney's to work through. If some lawyer ever figures out how to monetize the prosecution of SS fraud effectively, there's quite a pot o' gold out there.

If the banks really cared about short-sale fraud they would insist on hiring their own realtors and finding a buyer in the open market, right? Or is that not allowed for short sales?

 

[sgip]

I know from my experience that of the 100 short sales we've run up against, the percentage of "real need, in distress" transactions are in the single digits. The overwhelming number of closed sales were either "Hey, I'm not going to pay on a loser" or "Hey, I got a bad loan so I had to sell short". (Hmmm... from the looks of it you got 2-3 bad loans from your refinance history in the title report, but that's another story)

There is plenty of fraud going around, from the incompetent or complicit banks, realtors who are clearly in on it, to principals who figured out how to game the system.

No one is guilty, yet everyone is.

 

[zubs]

When a vast majority of people are doing it, and you are not, you will lose out on the bid for your dream home.  C'mon do it.  it's not that bad and no one will ever know.  The first taste is free...