An agent friend was recently involved in the sale of a foreclosed house. She was the listing agent. The house is in a newer neighborhood of San Ramon, Ca. surrounded by many houses that have been built within the last few years. The house was built in 2006, sold and resold in 2007 for $870,000. Unfortunately, the owner lost the house to foreclosure.

Given the difficult real estate market in which we find ourselves, the listing agent and the lender agreed that the best way to differentiate this house from many of the REO properties on the market and to find a buyer for this foreclosure that the bank wanted off it books was to put an attractive price on it. The house was listed for $544,900. The house was in decent shape, the neighborhood is desirable and the price was very attractive. An open house attracted a very large number of shoppers. (I was told 300 attended, perhaps an exaggeration, but half that number would still be amazing.)

Over 50 offers were submitted. The final sales price was $610,000…well over the asking price but a substantial discount from the market high of the past.

Our expectation is that houses will sell for less that they would have a couple of years ago…that is a given. But lower and spectacularly lower are hard terms to quantify. In other words, at what price does real estate become a bargain…even in today’s market? Do you think that the buyer of this house will look back five or ten years from now and say, “Wow! I really made a great deal on the purchase of my house.” I think so.

I also think that there are numerous other bargains to be had in today’s market. If you find the house you like, in the neighborhood in which you want to live, at a price that looks good, don’t wait for prices to go down even more. You will just watch someone else buy the house you wanted. You don’t know where the bottom of the market is. You do not know when it will go up. No one does. We will not know the market has turned up until after the fact. But if you buy now and hold the property for a few years, I believe that you will be glad.

 Whether it is San Ramon, Fremont, Pleasanton, Newark, Union City, Dublin, Hayward or real estate in any of the cities surrounding those areas, I would be delighted to help you.