I find myself spending a good amount of time on my blog focusing and even bragging about the, still thriving, Eagan economy and job market. So would that mean Eagan area would not be a good place to find a foreclosure home for sale? That is not the case; for instance at the time of this posting there are 379 active single family listings for sale in Eagan, MN. and of those there are 27 that are foreclosed and lender owned properties. Those lender owned properties range from a $31,900 condo all the way up to $347,800 two story single family home. This quick search is limited to the real estate for sale in the Eagan MLS area. I am sure that we will find similar listing for sale by lenders in the surrounding areas to Eagan.
So you would like to buy a foreclosed property that is owned by a bank. These are all great deals, right? The lenders do not want to own houses in Eagan, MN so they will be just waiting by the phone for that offer to come to them, RIGHT?! I hate to curb your enthusiasm here, but the process of purchasing a foreclosure home is much the same as any other real estate purchase – sometimes even a little more complicated. I have been know to call the process “Adventures in Real Estate” which is actually a subject for another post in the near future.
So back to the process of purchasing a foreclosed home. The seller (lender in this case) has some real estate for sale and they may not know what the property is actually worth in the current real estate market and in its location. The seller asks a REALTOR to represent them and to provide them with a CMA (comparable market analysis) to help the manager at the lender determine what list price they might expect to get on the market. They also send requests to a number of other Realtors and ask for a BPO (Broker Price Opinion) which is a market analysis done by that Realtor. So many times the lender’s asset managers will have several professional opinions regarding the value of a home in the current marketplace. Based upon those opinions the seller will set a list price for the property and place their listing on the market with a Selling Broker.
At this point the foreclosure property is subject to the opinion of the buyers on what the actual market price for the property would be. Let’s suppose that the seller decides that this property should be listed higher than actual market prices. They will experience the same market reaction from the buyer’s as any other listing of homes for sale, there will be only a few showings and either no or only lowball offers. If the list price is low enough to find value with the buyers that are currently in the market the selling agent may receive multiple offers for this property and if the list price is below market value then some buyer(s) will find value and actually offer higher than list price for a foreclosed property. Just keep in mind that the list price is the public offering price advertised on the MLS and also the internet.
We are seeing a lot of activity in the Eagan area real estate market at this time. Given the volume of homes available, Buyers are sure to find these properties that are value priced appropriately and they will sell quickly. To give you the entire picture of foreclosed properties in Eagan, there are 16 foreclosures that are now PENDING (waiting to be closed), and in the first three months of 2010 there are an additional 17 foreclosed properties that have SOLD.
For those that like statistical analysis, if you take the 27 available bank owned and foreclosed properties and apply the rate at which they are selling in Eagan, those remaining 27 will be PENDING OR SOLD within the next 45 days. Sure, there will be additional new foreclosures entering the marketplace during that time (unfortunately), but when they come on the market and if the seller gets the price correct then they will not be available for long.
So if you are looking for a foreclosure in Eagan, MN or surrounding area, give me a call. I can help you with finding and making a successful offering to purchase the right property for you.
