Let the Bidding Wars Begin Again in Prince William County
By Cindy Jones on April 12th, 2009Have the prices in PW County (VA) finally hit bottom? Have the lower interest rates sparked new interest in home ownership? Has the $8000 tax credit finally gotten buyers off the fence?
Whatever has happened the bidding wars to buy lower priced properties in Prince William County are back and going to strong. Look at this list of current list to sales prices for townhouses in the Lake Ridge neighborhood.
List Price Sold Price
$87,900 $125,000
$97,900 $135,576
$119,000 $128,000
$128,900 $145,000
$125,900 $150,000
$139,900 $159,900
$139,900 $160,000
$149,900 $160,225
$144,900 $175,000
This past week I spent a good deal of time searching for properties for a buyer and one property on our must see list have 5 offers on it in 3 days and another one had 15. In the agent remarks we see the comments “multiple offers received”, “best and final only”, “contracts sent to the lender” and “no more offers being considered.”
The good news is that this is going to have a positive impact on prices this spring and we should see the list prices for foreclosures start to be more in line with true market prices. This will help “regular” sale and possibly short sales as well. It also means if you are a buyer you need to have your mortgage paperwork in order and be ready to make an offer on the property you want.
Lowball offers are dead!
Cindy, it’s not fair that many of those listings are still being held as active. Part of the MRIS new guidelines state:
“Appropriate status. The status for any listing where a ratified contract is subject to a lender approval must be changed to CNTG/KO or CNTG/NO KO, indicating a third-party approval contingency. MRIS’s perspective is that a listing broker, in such an instance, may continue to market the property and continue to accept back-up offers. The MRIS Rules and Regulations require that the listing’s status be changed within 48 hours excluding weekends and holidays. ”
A huge majority of “ratified” short sales are supposed to be listed as CONT and we shouldn’t have to waste our time sifting due to the unprofessional listing agents.
Jay-it is a frustrating process to weed through all of the listings that are obviously unavailable. Unless MRIS steps up the fine process when these are reported or changes the status themselves then it will continue. I