Why are Orange County Short Sales Often Priced Lower than Other Homes?

A short sale occurs when the seller sells his home and he owes more to the bank than the home is worth and cannot or chooses not to make up the difference to the bank from other funds.

I had a seller ask me the other day, why are Orange County short sales often cheaper than the regular houses?

There are a few reasons that Orange County short sales might be priced less than other “standard” sales.

First – The seller may need to sell the home and/or get an offer quickly.

If the seller has not made a payment in several months or longer, the bank may have started foreclosure proceedings.  If the seller is facing a foreclosure sale date soon, he may choose to price his house signficantly below market value to try and get an offer quickly to prevent the foreclosure sale.

Second – The seller may want price his home low to get several offers and/or start a bidding war. 

Sometimes pricing a home well under the market value will result in several buyers making offers and driving the price higher than it might have if it had been priced at or just below market value.

These reasons beg another question.  Are short sale prices “for real”?

This is a hard question to answer as although the seller sets the price for the home, it is the bank that will make the final decision on whether or not to accept the offer, and the bank is unlikely to accept the offer if it is significantly beneath the fair market value for the home.

For more information on this, please see wannabe Orange County home prices.

If you are interested in buying or selling an Orange County short sale and want a real estate broker who has successfully closed several Orange County short sales, please give me a call 714-319-9751.

Please see below to hear from a successful Orange County short sale seller.

Originally published at Orange County Short Sale Prices.