Multiple Offers . . . in Progress

"Hmm, I Wonder Where That Lockbox Key Went??"

An interesting little contest is shaping up over a certain Twin Cities foreclosure that came on the market yesterday for 50% of its tax assessed value.

I am withholding the address because I have a client interested in buying it, but here's the background:

A saved search on my computer popped up the home 90 minutes after it hit the market yesterday morning.

Because the agent remarks indicated the home was "As is," and the price was tantalizingly low, I called the listing agent to make sure it didn't need hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs.

"Negative," he said.

"But, it's already sold," he continued.

"The bank already signed an offer that came in the first 45 minutes it was on the market."

The Plot Thickens

Yowza.

With all the details involved in getting a Purchase Agreement executed, it's almost inevitable that there'll be at least one loose end -- especially if there's a bank involved, as is the case here -- that will give one party or the other an out.

And with instant, multiple offers, that's exactly what the bank wanted.

So late last night, I received an email from the listing agent indicating that the first, supposedly accepted offer wasn't in fact completely executed, and that all interested parties were invited to join the bidding.

Sand in the Gears

Once whoever took the keys and lockbox cover returns them, that is.

It turns out that the (vacant) home wasn't available to be shown almost all of yesterday because the lockbox keys (and cover) had been removed.

The agent's email publicly asks whoever took them to return them -- their identity isn't really much of mystery to the listing agent, who knows exactly who got in yesterday and who didn't (or soon will).

The listing agent's email continues that the bidding process for the property will be delayed until the key is returned, and that if it isn't promptly returned, the locks will be changed to accommodate agents whose showings were thwarted yesterday.

Nice to see a listing agent handling it this way: level playing field, open and transparent communication to all interested parties, etc.

Real Estate "Whodunit"

Ditching the lockbox key is actually pretty rare (If I had any doubts about the screaming deal this home represents -- I don't now).

It's also more likely to backfire on the agent pulling it; clearly, it's already seriously annoyed the listing agent, which is never a good thing.

It's also eminently traceable, given how well-documented showing requests are today (100% computer-driven).

By contrast, in my first week of law school school in 1987, when a certain dusty treatise that everyone needed for a research project disappeared . . . it wasn't so easy to trace.

Want to find out what happens to "the home with the missing keys" next?

Stay tuned . . . .

Sold! . . . Not Sold! . . . Sold! . .

Back on the Market Twice (in 10 days);

Third Time's the Charm?

The image I have in my head for this St. Louis Park foreclosure is a traffic light, alternately blinking green, then red, then green, etc.

That's because in less than 2 weeks on the market, it's already gone "Pending" twice, and each time has quickly come back on the market.

What's going on?

Be Careful What You Bid For

Given the price, $89.9k, location (just Southeast of 394 and 100), and the fact that it's a foreclosure, you'd certainly speculate that an overeager Buyer won a (presumed) bidding war, then either couldn't perform financially, or, re-did their math after carefully going through the home -- I did last week, and it's a total mess -- and reconsidered.

After all, foreclosure Buyers have been known to bid first, and do their homework second -- if and when they actually get the property.

It's also the case that sometimes condition is irrelevant, because the home is a tear-down. However, given the limited upside on the immediate block, I don't see that happening here.

Yet another possibility is that the bank dropped some bomb on the Buyer in the custom contracts it routinely substitutes for the standard Minnesota forms everyone else uses.

Possible, but less likely given that banks typically sell "As is," and provide no disclosure whatsoever.

So which of the above is it?

To paraphrase that old commercial for a hair color product ("only your hairdresser knows for sure"), in this case, only the listing agent knows for sure.

"Bidding War" Dynamics Shift

Sellers Fret Over Scaring Off Buyers

Interesting tidbit from today's Wall Street Journal (my paraphrase):

Whereas a few years ago the two rival Buyers might have been drawn into competitive bidding, this time the Seller "concluded that the risk of the first Buyer terminating its discussions with the Seller outweighed the benefits" of soliciting an offer from another Buyer.

A would-be home Seller trying not to scare off a prospective Buyer?

Not exactly.

The article, titled "Gap Widens Between Tech Richest and the Rest," discusses Starent Networks Corp. and its decision not to jeopardize an offer on the table from Cisco by soliciting a competing bid from Juniper Networks.

Starent accepted Cisco's $2.9 billion offer last October.

Subtract 5 zeroes, and the foregoing applies pretty well to today's housing market.