I am always amused at the people who come up to me and say they want to find a good deal on a foreclosure.  What is amusing about this statement is that these people think they are the only ones looking to find a good deal on a foreclosure.  They read happy stories in the news paper about the home owner who got a great price on a bank foreclosure and how they had their closing costs paid for and were able to obtain a great loan, blah-blah blah. 

What that happy story does NOT tell you is that there were dozens of other buyer's jumping through hoops for that same house!  For example the cute little house I showed this morning in Burbank.  The marketing remarks say:  No offers will be excepted in the first 7 days.  Then it says,  on days 8-12 they will only consider offers from, Neighborhood Stabilization Program buyers, Municipalities, non-profit organizations and owner occupants, excuse me,  WHAT??!! Oh and then in 13 calendar days they will consider offers from all buyers.  Then just for fun they insist that ALL buyers MUST get approved with a certain lender.  Did I mention that this home is grossly under priced and will inevitably sell for way above asking?? 

When I informed my clients of this they just kind of looked at me and said "okay".  Fortunately they are realistic enough to understand that this is our current market and they will do what they have to do.  We will write our offer and submit it and see what happens.  When it is all said and done there will be several disappointed buyer's that scrambled to do what they needed to do all to find out that they didn't get the house.