Short Sale Tip # 4: Property Improvement & Repair Estimate Report

When things go bad…they usually go real bad. If a homeowner has not paid his mortgage in many months, it is likely that the house has been neglected. 

If funds were not on hand to pay the mortgage, then it is probably safe to say that they have not been able to perform proper maintenance and repair and the property may not in the best of shape. Especially if it is vacant or has been vacant for some period of time.

It is most probable that the mortgage lender does not know this. Unless the lender is local, it is quite hard for them to have an accurate assessment of the property from their desks in California, New York, Chicago, Texas or some other distant location.

With the advent of automated valuation models (AVM’s), many banks are using the former appraisal together with an AVM to perform a “desktop valuation” of the property.

The number they have in mind can be tens of thousands of dollars higher than it’s true value.

We’ll talk about the BPO and comparables later, but before either of them can be properly completed, you are going to have to justify your estimation of value and substantiate your offer in order for the bank to look at your deal.

Having an extensive repair and improvement report performed by a local and licensed general contractor will significantly enhance your repair report.

You are going to want to take extensive pictures of both the interior and exterior to add substance to your corresponding repair estimate.

In our Mock Short Sale Package that’s a part of our free Short Sale course, we show you how to put this repair estimate together.