The inventory of homes for sale in Maricopa Arizona continues to increase due to an influx of short sales and foreclosures. Though buying has been relatively steady, it cannot keep up with the surge in supply. This fact, couple with the return of our seasonal buyers (snowbirds), has created a unique opportunity for real estate investors.

Most real state agents and their buyers ignore short sales due to the time involved in receiving a response from the lender. This can often take a few months depending on the lender(s) involved and the skill of the person doing the negotiations. A response on foreclosures often take only a metter of days. A few months ago, when inventory levels were much lower, it was often difficult to get an offer accepted on foreclosures as many of them had multiple offers and bidding wars were not uncommon. That is no longer the case as there are numerous foreclosures that have been on the market for over 30 days and lenders are even accepting offers below their listed price. As a result, agents are being forced to drop the prices on their short sales and accept offers well below market value.

A startegy that I am employing with a number of my investors is to write a number of offers on attractive homes. Since, in almost all cases their is no earnest money requirement, the investor has no out of pocket expenses and simply has to wait for a response from the lender. Obviously, many of these offers will not be accepted but at least the lender will counter and a price will be established. The investor can then decide if the deal makes sense. Since the lenders have large inventories and are also counting on a valuation from a realtor that does a BPO (broker price opinion), it is not uncommon for them to approve a price well below the current market. The result is a terrific deal for the investor who can then “flip” or resell the home or use it as a rental property.

The time of year could not be better for this strategy. If, in fact, an investor wants to resell the home, the timing would be perfect as they would be acquiring it right in the middle of the “snowbird migration”. If you are interested in employing this strategy, contact me and I can go into further detail and send you a list of available homes. There are hundreds of them!

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