TravelCent

Buying a Vacation Home

I bought a vacation home a couple of months ago.  I would have liked to have said that it was an easy process – but it was not.  This was the case even though it is a buyers market at this time.  The reasons it took so long are twofold.  Firstly I was looking for a specific property, and secondly I ended up buying a short sale.

Now looking for the type of property I was after was made harder by the state of the economy.  I was looking for a larger lot, with an older home (possibly a foreclosure) in a pretty affluent area.  My liking for a rundown property in a good neighborhood had always been good for me in the past.  The problem was that many investors were also on the lookout for this type of property too.  One that they could get at a bargain price, and pay for with cash – I assume to resell when the economy improved and price went up.  Well, I put offers in on many such properties, but ended up losing to cash buyers whom the banks favored over those of us looking to finance.

Buying a short sale took almost exactly a year from when I put an offer in on it until it closed.  There were two bank liens on the property and these had to be approved by both banks.  What happened was that one would approve it – which would take perhaps 3 or more months, and then it was passed to the other bank for their approval.  Once it was approved by the second bank (after a similarly long period), by then the first one had expired and the process had to start over again.  This happened a couple of times.

The good thing about the lengthy short sale was that cash buyers generally could not wait that length of time and so I held on long enough and ended up getting the property.  It certainly was not an easy process and right up until the final day I was not sure I was going to get it.  But patience paid off , the mortgage rates stayed low, and I am now in possession of a nice vacation property at a bargain price.