Foreclosures....Bank Owned....Short Sales....REO's

These are popular buzz words in today's real estate world. We talk to buyer daily and often hear "Super Deal!", "Sweet Deal!, "Great Deal!" or something similar. That is perfectly ok. Today is a fabulous time to take advantage of the depressed real estate market.

How much can knock off these foreclosures and short sales?

Many home buyers come to Florida with the misconception that you can immediately take off 30-40% from the list price of these distressed properties. Let's see how much you can expect to get.

I ran a search on MyFloridaMLS to show me all single family homes and condos that are either foreclosures or short sales sold in 2011 in Sarasota county. Here are the…

Sarasota waterfront homes and condos continue to be in high demand. Enjoying a fabulous water view or parking your boat behind your house is a fabulous way to enjoy the Florida lifestyle. The Sarasota area offers a variety of waterfront properties. You can enjoy the gorgeous sunsets over the Sarasota bay from a high rise condo like Beau Ciel. If a single family waterfront home is more attractie we have a variety of great neighborhoods like Bird Key, Harbor Acres, St. Armands Circle and Country Club Shores.

Sarasota Waterfront Foreclosures and Short Sales

Below are a handful of properties that are either short sales or bank owned. Click on the address to view more information about the property.

St. Armands Circle Homes

308 N. Washington Drive,…

Clients of mine just purchased a great unit in the Beachplace condo complex on Longboat Key. This unit is a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1,503 square foot condo directly on the beach looking west over the tranquil blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This was a Longboat Key short sale.

It was originally listed in September of 2010 for $941,500. In November of 2010 the price was dropped to $725,000. In December of 2010 the unit went under contract. In April of 2011 the condo came back on the market and was priced at $652,500. A couple of days later the condo went under contract again. Last month, in November, the short sale was finally approved however they buyer had walked from the transaction. The bank approved the sale at $650,000. My buyers came in and…

Congratulations to Allison Werner for selling this foreclosure in Tuscana. This fabulous home at 4549 Tuscana Drive was a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 3,385 square foot home.

It closed for $430,500 (public record) and the asking price was $445,900. There were multiple offers on this property.

View other Tuscana homes for sale in Sarasota, Florida

4549 Tuscana Drive, Sarasota, FL

Looking for a sweet deal in the Sarasota Florida real estate market? Below are foreclosure and short sales statistics I pulled from the Mid Florida MLS. For a current glimpse of what is for sale visit Sarasota foreclosures.

Sarasota Foreclosures

Below are sales statistics for Sarasota and Manatee counties from July 15th, 2011 to August 15th, 2011.

Distressed properties account for 37% of the total sales. Considering where we were that is pretty good. If you look at this blog post - September 2010 Foreclosure…

**** Blog Post Update - As of June 27th this condo in Gulf and Bay Club is now under contract ****

Looking for a fabulous Siesta Key condo? Take a look at this bank owned condo in the popular Gulf and Bay Club community on Siesta Key beach. This 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1,335 square foot unit is one of the least expensive condos in Gulf and Bay Club at $575,000.

Is this Siesta Key Foreclosure a Great Deal?

One way to determine if a property is a great deal or not is looking at recently sold similar properties. Follow this link to view 8 condos sold in Gulf & Bay Club within the last 12 mon

ths. Here are the sales statistics for the 8 condos:

• Highest sales price - $1,065,000
• Lowest sales price - $460,500
• Average sales price -…

I am contacted frequently by potential buyers looking to purchase a short sale or foreclosure on one of the barrier islands - Siesta Key, Longboat Key, Bird Key, Lido Key and Casey Key. I thought it might be interesting to see data on how many "distressed properties" close on the barrier islands. It constitutes roughly 45% of the entire market. However, the Sarasota county statistics can often be skewed by the sales in North Port. Here is a good article about how North Port is pulling down Sarasota county prices.

February 2011 Closed Sales Figures

Check out this new foreclosure in Lakewood Ranch. It is located at 6939 Westchester Circle in the Country Club section of Lakewood Ranch overlooking the golf course. I showed this home a few months ago when it was a short sale. It was huge. It has 6 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms and 7,087 square feet on the golf course.

6939 Westchester Circle

One common theme among today's home buyers is the need to find a "deal". Almost every buyer mentions it when talking about their needs and wants. We Realtors joke about it as we hear it all of the time. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. If I was buying a home I would be asking for the same thing.

I just ran a search in the Mid Florida MLS for all of the sales in Sarasota county for the last 6 months. There were 3,836 sales of which 1,725 of them were distressed (short sale or bank owned). That accounts for 45% of the market which has been pretty consistent.

Interesting Statistics:

Out of 1,725 distressed sales (foreclosures and short sale)

• 1,535 or 89% of them closed for less than $250,000
• 1,649 or 96% of them closed for less…

Foreclosures and short sales are the main buzz words in real estate today. Buyers are looking to find a sweet deal in these distressed properties. Below I pulled all of the REO/Bank owned sales in Sarasota and Bradenton for the last 30 days. I went as far north as the Manatee river and as far south as Venice. I wanted to exclude North Port where there is a high concentration of foreclosures and short sales.