Buyers can often find great opportunities in bank owned properties, but they often wonder how much they should expect to be able to negotiate off of the list price of a bank owned property.  Let's take a look....

For all residential sales in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County in the past year, we find:

• 738 sales
• Average List/Sell = 95.1%
• Median Sales Price = $176,375

When looking only at the properties above that are bank owned, we find:

• 75 sales
• Average List/Sell = 95.8%
• Median Sales Price = $130,000

Amazingly, the list-to-sell ratio is higher with bank owned properties than with the overall market (which includes these bank owned sales). 

I suppose the important thing to remember is that the list-to-sell ratio of any property is largely dependent on how realistic the asking price is.  Both a homeowner and a bank can price a home too high when putting it on the market.  Perhaps banks do that less often, and thus achieve a (slightly) higher list-to-sell ratio despite still offering great deals on properties?

Additional Relevant Information:

• Buying a Foreclosure (a refresher on the differences between short sales, trustee sales and bank owned properties)
• HarrisonburgForeclosures.com (upcoming trustee sales in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County)