Local estate sale went on the market for $265k, under contract 12 hours later. Sold 5 days later at 280k. Reviewed the listing and everything looked solid. Somewhat dated, but nothing unreasonable.
Thing is, market comp for the house is roughly 350k. I own a separate property in the same neighborhood and just spent the last 2 months checking rent and sold listings; so I’m well versed in this particular area.
Obviously, there could be some major hidden issues. But 70k off market in what is still a sellers market (in this area) just seems wild in this day and age.
Am I looking past something or are estate sales really this big of an opportunity?
Posted by shwaynebrady
3 Comments
Never make assumptions about estate sales unless you walk the property and talk to the person selling it.
Often you don’t get any sort of disclosure since the person who lived there has passed away. Also, sometimes the sellers want to get every penny they can out of the sale, sometimes I just want to get rid of it and forget about it..There could be huge issues, there might be simple fixes, no way to know dangerous to assume.
estate sales can be crazy good deals sometimes, especially when family just wants to get rid of property quick and move on with their lives. i’ve seen this happen in my neighborhood too where house goes way under market because heirs live in different state or just don’t want deal with repairs and staging
the 70k gap you mentioned is pretty huge though, so there’s probably something going on. could be foundation issues, electrical problems, or maybe family had some debts they needed to pay off fast. sometimes estate lawyers also price things aggressive to avoid lengthy selling process
from production side of things, i always wonder if these quick sales are similar to how musicians sometimes sell catalogs way below value just because they need cash now instead of waiting for better deal. timing and urgency change everything in any market really
definitely worth keeping eye on more estate sales in your area since you already know the comps well
Estate deals can get priced to move rather than to maximize value. Could be condition, could be heirs wanting a quick exit, or something not obvious in the listing. That kind of spread usually isn’t random.