Nanaimo Real Estate

There were two interesting stories that arose on Thursday when I went to foreclosure court in Nanaimo with some clients.  They had the original offer on a home that had a court order to sell the property and they were seeking court approval of the sale.  The foreclosure process has some major differences from the traditional method of buying/selling real estate which I’ll go into another time.  But the basics are that an original offer is made on the house.  This offer triggers a court date in order for the courts to approve the offer.  At the time this offer is to be approved, anyone else is allowed to also make a bid/offer on the home in writing and typically the home goes to the highest bidder.  This is a very simple version but should be sufficient.

Interesting Exchange:  Before our business was taken care of, there was a home in Bowser that was called.  This home ended having 4 offers on it and the judge openned all the sealed envelopes to browse through each offer.  After looking at the offers, the judge decided that she felt that “in fairness to the original offeror” even though his offer was slightly less than the maximum offer (turned out to be $1000 less) she felt he should be awarded the home because he made the first offer in good faith and that was the reason the home actually went to court.  The lawyer for the bank asked her to reconcider as it was his job to get the most money possible for the bank and the higher offer obviously did that.  She said, almost verbatem, I appreciate your input, but I’m giving the house to Mr. X and that’s the end of it.  Morale: Sometimes it pays to be the first offer in a foreclosure.

My Clients:  To make a long story short, when they went through the public details of my clients purchase there were no other offers on the property.  The financial details were staggerring.  The buyers’ offer was accepted at $206,000.  The final amount outstanding for the previous owner of the home was $323000!!!  That means my clients picked this home up $117,000 less than the owner owed on the home.  Did they make $100,000 on the home?  Probably not.  Here’s why:

• The owner had bought the home at the peak of the market and probably over paid (Needed a better Realtor )
• The owner had neglected the house.  It was flooding, moldy and the septic was shot among other things.
• The owner had stopped making payments a long time ago allowing interest to keep accumulating and compounding.

Now, did our clients get a good deal?  You betcha!  But not all foreclosures work out this way.  Some people get caught up in the emotion of it and offer far too much at the court date when there are multiple bids.  All shameless self promotion aside, you NEED a good Realtor represnting you in a foreclosure.  There are some very important details that, if overlooked, can cost you your dream home on the spot.  Make sure that your Realtor has been to foreclosure court numerous times in the last year or two at least.  If they haven’t, PHONE ME!

Have a great day!

Matt.