The Bank Said WHAT?

Since the beginning of this era, when the short sales and foreclosures began to hit, people have tried to figure out what the banks are thinking.

Most came into the buying process thinking "the bank is going to be thrilled I am willing to take this off their hands!". The offers were low. REALLY low. And in most cases, the banks said no...they were still trying to get as much money as they could.

As we moved forward, we saw banks pricing properties a bit more aggressively. The foreclosed homes often were a very good deal, listed well below the market price. And still, people offered low. Really low.

I cant blame people I guess. But when a house is ALREADY a steal as per the comps, the bank is still going to say "no" when a 50% offer is made.

This week, we made an offer on a foreclosed property. It was priced well. We offered well. We went to contract. But inspections revealed a problem the buyer didn't want, and we invoked our right to cancel the contract.

And the bank came back with the question "What does the buyer want?"

This is nearly unprecedented. A bank is asking what a buyer wants in order to make the deal happen? To me, it signals a couple of trends -

1) Banks, notoriously impersonal and uncaring, really are interested in negotiating with someone who is realistic and fair.

2) Banks are realizing the qualified buyers are qualified buyers, and like traditional sellers - they are loathe to let a qualified, interested buyer walk away.

Unofficial conversations with bank assessors has led me to believe that banks will accept offers up to 10-15% off list price pretty regularly - much under that, and they will simply wait for the next buyer. But if a home is already 25% under market or more, you really cant go too wrong.