“Where did all the homes go?”

From ABC Channel 15 in Phoenix.

“We started off with this long list of homes to see, now it’s more like maybe 10 and most will have multiple offers.” said Christina Koster, ” It’s silly, it’s like, where did all the homes go?”

Homesmart Realtor Brett Barry says the amount of foreclosed homes has diminished, and the demand is still high. “Buyers are battling it out for foreclosed homes, it’s not uncommon to get as many as 10 offers on a home.” said Barry.

Greg Sobek with West USA Realty is seeing the same. Sobek says he’s had as many as 23 offers on a foreclosed home and one recent even sold for double it’s listing price.

Barry says banks are asking them to price homes for a 30 day sell. That means juicy prices which attract multiple buyers, then the banks pick and choose which buyers they like.

Okay, just for fun, let’s look at the percentage of recent home sales that were bank-owned properties in an affluent zip code. Brett Barry specializes in Tatum Ranch so why don’t we look at 85331 which includes that area of Phoenix and all of Cave Creek.

In 85331 in the last month bank-owned homes made up 38% of home sales and short sales made up another 23%. That means 61% of homes sold recently in 85331 were distressed sales!

Rick Rogowski says he and Christina would often go home and then call back and say make an offer, “they would tell us the home already has several offers and the bank has accepted one, and we’d say, it’s only been four hours!” said Rogowski.

Barry suggests these four ways to help home buyers get a foreclosed home.

1. Offer a higher down payment.

2. Be prepared to close quickly.

3. Offer a shorter inspection period, instead of 10 days, offer 4 days.

4. Make a strong offer. But be careful not to offer too much, the home still needs to meet appraisal.

Good advice.