The Distressed Homes Tar Babies

When I was a child there was a popular children's story about a character called Briar Rabbit. Now, Briar Rabbit was a feisty little bunny who was always matching wits with the fox and the bear in these stories. He was sort of an early day Road Runner to his nemesis - Wyle Coyote.

Anyway the fox and the bear came up with a plan to trap Briar Rabbit by fashioning a scarecrow out of tar and other things. They correctly guessed that Briar Rabbit would try to strike up a conversation with the scarecrow and get angry if the tar baby didn't answer.

Well it worked and Briar Rabbit took a swing at the tar baby and got stuck to it. The more he got angry and hit it with fists and feet, the more stuck he became. The tar baby had trapped the rabbit-the fox and bear had him.

It was only through his quick wit and gifted tongue that the rabbit later talked the fox and bear into not eating him but to supposedly cause him much more pain by tossing him in the briar patch (or so they were lead to believe). He happily escaped into his natural habitat-the briar patch. In a kids book of that era, that served as a happy ending.

Well today we are facing a modern day tar baby in the real estate world-distressed homes. Whether they are foreclosures or short-sales many of the homes on the market feel a lot like tar babies-the more you struggle to buy or sell them the more they suck you in to a morass that is hard to escape. The bear and the fox were replaced by Bank of America and CountryWide (and others) and they came up with tar babies of their own.

The low prices have incredible appeal for many would-be homeowners, so they take a swing at it. Then they become stuck. Stuck waiting and waiting for an answer from the banks or feeling stuck by sunk money invested in inspections and appraisals. There doesn't appear to be a way out a way to extricate oneself from the tar baby distressed house.

Even for some agents, dabbling in listing these houses they've become tar babies. Money is sunk in maintenance and marketing and all of a sudden there seems to be no way to get loose.
A very real issue is that it is increasingly hard to avoid these real estate tar babies. They make up about 1/3 of the listing on the market today and about 1/2 of all sales these days.

So, what is one to do? If you are a buyer, get a good agent who will keep as much of the tar off of you as possible. A good agent will make sure that you are not stuck in a deal that has no end in sight, by making sure that your offer has out clauses in it that allow you to walk away if you get tired of waiting.

Your agent should also protect your money by having provisions that don't require you to tie up earnest money until the bank has agreed to the deal and will insist that you have the option to wait until that bank approval before you spend your money on inspections and appraisals. Don't let the distressed home tar baby suck you in. Get a good agent and listen to their advice.

For sellers my only advice is to try to work with the bank(s) ahead of time so that you shorten the process once an offer comes in. You want the deal to stick without starting to feel like a tar baby to all concerned. To a certain extent you will probably end up feeling like your home is your own personal tar baby-one conjured up by your bank to keep you stuck. You need to be persistent and patient and persistent . Got the picture? Did I menton persistent?

As for me; well, I'm up to my armpits in tar babies. One half of my current listings are short-sales and literally all of the current offers that I have out with buyers are for foreclosed or short-sale houses. I'm stuck to these houses and to these sales (many of which have now been on-going for months with no end in sight). Please throw me back into the briar patch of a normal real estate market!