Unless you haven’t followed real estate at all this last year, you know quite well that the $8000 tax credit for first time home buyers is about to expire. On November 30, if your purchase is not closed, you lose your chance at the tax credit. This has motivated quite a few buyers in the lower end of the price ranges lately. Given the new financing rules, it would be good to have your offer accepted by mid-October to reasonably expect to close in time. If the house you like happens to be a short sale, you might want to factor into your offer in the likelihood that your closing will occur after November 30th.
Over the last few months, I’ve noticed increasing reluctance among some buyer’s agents to show and sell short sale homes. A reason for this is short sales can take an extremely long time to get approved by the banks. For example, I wrote an offer on a house for a client in February, and it just closed on the last day of September.
The flip side of this reluctance to sell short sale homes is this creates an opportunity for buyers willing to be patient as there is less buying competition for these properties. After all, the offer I wrote in February that just closed DID CLOSE, right? If that’s the main objective, to buy a house at a good price, and a little patience can get you there, then it can be worth the wait.
People may wonder if there are still decent short sale homes to write offers o
n, and well, there are. Take for example if you would like to live in Lake Oswego or West Linn, here is a map of all the short sale homes currently on the market. Yeah, there are some to choose from. Call or email me if you’re interested in how best to move forward. --Ward Spears


