In the Santa Maria - Orcutt California area, there are currently 667 active, contingent, or pending homes and condos for sale. Of those 667 homes, 167 are foreclosure listings. Of those 167 REO listings, 7 are “contingent REO.” A contingent REO is a foreclosure listing with a verbally accepted offer.
Cash Offers. Banks love cash offers. Why? Because they can close quickly and without any requests for repairs from a buyer. What is the down side to a cash offer from a bank’s point of view? Cash offers tend to be lower than financed offers.
I realize this is a controversial subject, but I do agree that freezing foreclosures or trying to turn back the clock only benefits a limited group of people. In California, most people who are losing their home to foreclosure are severely underwater and I find that once the foreclosure happens, a sense of relief soon follows that they can put the whole thing behind them.
If you’ve been tracking the market for foreclosures for awhile, I’m sure you’ve come across a contingent REO and wondered what that means. An REO is an industry term for a foreclosure, and a contingent REO is one where an offer has been verbally accepted by the bank or the asset manager, but the paperwork is still being signed.
1) For an “as-is” purchase – Banks don’t like to make repairs, and you will find that the Santa Maria real estate is littered with bank sellers who intend to make no repairs to their properties. This may even include situations where the property has been cited by the City of Santa Maria for violations of the municipal code.
The first half of 2010 has been pretty dramatic with the $8000 federal tax credit extension and the introuction of the $10,000 California new home and first time home buyer credit. Buyers were on a roller coaster with the first two months having moderate activity, then a blaze of acvtivity in March and April followed by low activity in May and June. Overall sales for the 6 month period were high with 553 properties being sold in the Santa Maria Orcutt area.
Wondering what the cheap foreclosure homes sell for in Santa Maria? Last month, the average foreclosure property in Santa Maria sold for $210,630, and for over its list price by nearly 2%. But, how much for the cheap ones you ask? There wer 30 homes that sold, and the cheapest was a 2 bedroom one bath fixer on West Mill which sold for $90,350. After that the cheapest foreclosure sold in Santa Maria was 3 bedroom one bath home on East Las Flores (near Hancock College) which sold for $109,900.*
Sometimes, the second lien in a short sale situation is held or serviced by the same bank as the first mortgage. This can make the situation a little easier than whe that note is owned or serviced by two separate entities. But, not always. Often banks will "charge off" a second mortgage once it becomes too delinquent or after a Notice of Default is filed by the 1st mortgage. In those cases, the note can be sold for pennies on the dollar to what is essentially a collection agency. And, with that you are dealing with a completely different animal.
1275 single family homes sold in Santa Maria and Orcutt in 2009. This excludes PUDs, condos, and manufactured homes. This figure is slightly higher than the 1230 homes which sold last year. 175 condos and PUDs sold during the same period in 2009; compared to 130 units in 2008. So, overall the number of sales in Santa Maria and Orcutt is up.
The Santa Maria Times reports that People's Self Help Housing is offering a seminar to help homeowners who are trying to prevent foreclosure. People's Self Help Housing is a HUD approved counseling agency. They have offices in San Luis Obispos and Santa Barbara and serve, SB, SLO, and Ventura counties.