Trying To Figure It Out...
A local bank has a property for sale that is listed for $86,900. I checked the county web site and it shows the property sold on June 30th, 2003 for $59,000. Instead of me guessing on the difference in the price, I thought I would ask all of you why there might be such a difference. I know the bank has to add in the cost of legal fees but a difference of almost 30k seems like a lot. Where there is a gap like this, what would be a good asking price? Thanks
You need to a little more research. Were the property taxes delinquent? If so, for how many years? Any other lliens that may have existed on the property from either state or federal taxes, mechanics lien, etc., would have created a problem for the bank to obtain clear title to the property so they may have paid all of that. Again, I would suggest you conduct some more research and before anything pull some comps to see what would be a good target price to buy this property. Good luck!
I've seen this happen plenty of times. Another reason the asking price could be much higher than what the bank's payoff is could be that 1) if the house is listed with a realtor, they're going to list at market value or 2) the bank may have decided to list higher just to maximize their profits with some room for negotiation.