Foreclosure Vultures
I am truly sickened and disheartened by an offer received today on one of my Emerald Coast short sales. I will alter some basic information for the sake of confidentiality, but will tell you the key points of the story. My sellers, like many homeowners in the Destin Florida area, have lost more than half their income in the past couple of years. They are in sales, (and we know how that is going). They have a beautiful home they built in 2005. They also have three children. In the past year, one of the children was diagnosed with a serious medical condition. As a result, they have been unable to pay their mortgage. Their only mistake was to call me too late. In a higher price range, with only four weeks in a declining market, even after continually dropping the price, we have three days until the foreclosure sale. In the past week, one of my agents was contacted by an individual from Texas regarding buying the house. He had obtained the sellers’ telephone number independently and had been conversing with them about his “terms”. One was that they not accept any back-up offers if they agreed to his. He even got them to sign such an addendum before faxing his offer. Well, I just received it. The house is listed for $300,000. The offer is for $150,000. The offer states, among other things:
- The purchasers are real estate investors who buy and sell real estate for a profit.*****Acknowledged and SIGNED by Sellers _____________________________________________
- Purchaser may show the property at any time with advance notice to the seller.
- The purchaser is free to resell or otherwise dispose of the property in any manner that is legal
- Purchasers may perform renovations to property prior to Close of Escrow.
- Paragraph 5 of “Short sale addendum to purchase contract” is deleted and not applicable. No offers shall be submitted to sellers’ lender unless this contract is cancelled prior to submittal.
You know what this is? Preying on people in a desperate situation. In my opinion, it is unconscionable.
