Three Common Mistakes People Make When Buying Short Sales

If you’re buying your first home, you might have read about the all the benefits of buying home foreclosures, or how you should buy while interest rates are low, or even about the importance of choosing a realtor. Yet, you might not have heard about the potential mistakes many first timers make when going after real estate short sales.

To help keep you from making these real estate short sales mistakes, here are a few common examples and what you can do to avoid them!

1. Forgoing Extra Research.

Typically, disclosure statements indicate whether a house has had unpermitted renovations or if it’s at risk of a natural disaster, but many real estate short sales don’t have to disclose such information. This means that you’ll have to do a little bit extra research on the home to ensure that you’re not buying property that’ll spike your insurance rates or receive a citation from the city.

2. Ignoring the Problems.

Homes up for real estate short sales often sit empty for weeks, months, or maybe even years. This can lead to neglect issues, like growing mold, inviting squatters, or becoming infested with termites. What’s worse, some real estate short sales were foreclosures that forced the occupants out unwillingly. In such instances, the property must be taken as is, so vengeful evictees will take a sledgehammer to the wall or maliciously ruin parts of the house on purpose. The sellers will try to remedy this issues, but they may not have been properly resolved, so the property may need additional maintenance or repairs.

3. Forgoing the Home Inspection.

Tagging along on the home inspection and asking questions can actually bring the price of real estate short sales down, believe it or not. Some potential buyers might not like to clear their schedules to make time to tag along on the inspection, but if you were to go and ask about possible repair estimates, the seller may be forced to lower their price to accommodate for these extra expenses.

If you’re interested in real estate short sales, you’ve got to be sure not to make these mistakes. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments.