Does everyone want to buy a foreclosure in Charleston
... or does it just seem that way.
I can't count the numbers of inquiries I get regarding foreclosures available for sale in Charleston. Our office just printed a foreclosure list and indicated on our sign that you could pick one up at the front desk and the dozen copies we had printed were gone before lunchtime.
I saw an interesting foreclosure with a client about a week ago, I'm sure it was a beautiful home when it was built but the owners did some damage on the way out, some of which just didn't make any sense but at least they left the appliances, often those are the first things to be stripped out of the house. On the other hand, they took the newel posts from the stairway, maybe they were Swarovski crystal or something, who knows.
It's really difficult to be accurate in determining every single foreclosure available for sale in Charleston because the entry field in the Charleston MLS is optional for agents to indicate whether the home is a lender owned property. Of course, the same is true for short sales and wouldn't it be nice if both were required fields so that it would make searching much easier than reading the descriptions and agent notes carefully to figure it out. Of course, a low asking price is often the best indication for either.
But not always
With foreclosures, really low prices aren't always the case because sometimes it seems like the banks are actually trying to make money instead of simply getting rid of the property. I saw a foreclosure a while back that had been on the market for almost a year and the price had only been reduced once and not that significantly. The good news was that when they listed again, they finally took a serious price reduction that made it a really good value.
And if a foreclosed home has just come on the market, it's been my experience to not expect the banks to accept offers that are significantly below the listing price during the first weeks or the first month or two of the listing. After that, pretty much all bets are off and at that time, you can really find a great buy.
Search for foreclosed homes for sale in Charleston
If you're looking to buy a foreclosure (or a short sale) there are several search solutions available to you. The Charleston MLS map search IDX on my website gives you the ability to search for either foreclosures or short sales by including it in your search criteria. Or you can view RSS feeds of foreclosures that are either $200k and less or $200k and higher.
In both instances, Diverse Solutions, the IDX provider uses proprietary software to search for key words that lead them to believe that a home is either in foreclosure or a short sale. But it isn't perfect, as an example, I've noticed several listings that are indicated as not a short sale or foreclosure and the computer may not pick up the word not and include it in the search results.
And directly from the Charleston MLS, click here for a search of available lender owned homes. As of this morning, you'll find 184 available properties but of course there are even more. As I said before, if only it was a required field, it would make life easier for everyone.
Or you can contact me and we can find them together.