Are you looking at short sales? I did a search on Redfin of all the 3 bedroom properties in Tarzana that are standard sales or REO's, and I find nothing under the 250k price range.

Would you please post some examples that are not short sales?

Here is the search criteria I used. City of Tarzana, 3 bedroom plus, exclude short sales:

http://www.redfin.com/search#excl_ss=true&lat=33.575546&long=-117.240959&market=socal&num_beds=3&search_location=tarzana&sf=1%2C2%2C3%2C4&v=5&zoomLevel=15

I will take that back, I found a couple of non-short sale condos. One is in probate:

http://www.redfin.com/CA/Tarzana/5700-Etiwanda-Ave-91356/unit-287/home/4082076

The other has 4 bedrooms stuffed into less than 1200 sq feet:

http://www.redfin.com/CA/Tarzana/5700-Etiwanda-Ave-91356/unit-285/home/4082065

Ask yourself... "If this condo never appreciates, and even loses a little bit of value, will I be OK with that?"

I'm not saying this will be the case, but if you can't answer YES to that, don't buy it.

I am going to assume that you are not buying with an FHA loan. For those who are, be aware of the new FHA condo rules that took effect earlier this month. Now the condo association has to be on the FHA "approved" list before they will lend on them:

http://www.myfha.net/FHAguidelines/FHAcondos.html

Hubby and I are cash buyers, and we have stepped back from this market and have decided that we are just better off renting right now. I could not see plunking down the cash for either of those condos and feeling good about it, but that is just me.

For some reason TRULIA.com has alot more listed...

http://www.trulia.com/for_sale/Tarzana,CA/3p_beds/1p_baths/CONDO_type/#for_sale/Tarzana,CA/3p_beds/1p_baths/CONDO_type/resale,new_homes_lt/price;a_sort/

What does PROBATE mean? The $129K one has an open house next weekend I was going to go check out... Sure it's 4 bedrooms stuffed into under 1200 sq feet... But can't be worse than 1 bedroom rental stuffed into 500 sq feet... for $1225.

If it never appreciated in value.. I'd still make out in 5 years vs. renting. I'd made a mistake with my $54K equity after 5 years... That'd be with a 15 year mortgage not 30 year.. But that'd still be as cheap as renting or cheaper the first year with the $8K credit on the $129K 4bed/2bath.

And i wouldn't use FHA.. But thanks for the condo guidelines...

The news is so schizophrenic about housing right now... Yesterday I was reading articles about Foreclosures/deliquencies out-numbering homes on the market. Then I'm reading sales are up 10.1% for October and the stock marke reaching for new highs...

It all seems like manipulation...

rmm221: You might try plugging some of the addresses you found on Trulia into Redfin to see if you can get further information on the properties that you are interested in. At least you will probably see if they are short sales or not. I have found that sometimes Trulia is very out of date. Redfin just did a major upgrade in the last few weeks, and you can get a lot of property information off that site.

I agree completely that the news is so schizophrenic about housing right now! It is very frustrating and counter intuitive.

One thing my husband and I encountered when we were making offers on homes was the multiple bid scenario. We would only offer list price, and the bank would come back asking for "highest and best" (we always refused to bid any higher). Each home that we initially put an offer on went pending immediately to someone with a higher offer. We finally gave up when, on one house, the bank was asking us to bid higher against people who had submitted offers with FHA loans. They wanted us to bid at least as high as the FHA people. We withdrew our offer at that point because we knew the property would never appraise for what these people were trying to bid it up to. They were trying to get more cash out of us when there was no way the property would appraise. We felt totally manipulated and decided to walk away.

I have noticed that in the last month, prices on the lower end of the market have risen. Properties that would have been listed under 200k a month or more ago are now being listed above 200k. In a lot of cases, these prices are not supported by the comps.

Inventory has gone down because the banks are spoon feeding REO's onto the market to create a feeding frenzy of bidding wars. I feel so manipulated that I just cannot even look anymore.

I wish you luck in your search.

Natti

Forgot to add - Probate means that an estate is being settled due to the death of the owner and there will be a court hearing at which point someone can bid against you on the property. I bought a condo this way in 1990. I had to wait almost 2months for it to clear the probate court before I could actually complete the transaction.

@natti:

Just remember: If you're in an auction/bidding process and you're winning everything, you're paying too much.

Try restating your bid, with a followup note that the price offered is supported by current sales data for that area. That your bid is a better bid and more likely to go through since it's not a FHA loan. Don't budge, and make sure your argument is fairly well laid out (even if it's a form letter argument that you could apply to any house).

Eventually you'll land a house, and without being pulled into these auction wars.

pkennedy: we have tried that to no avail. Most realtors won't even bother writing offers at list price because they feel that it is a "waste of their time". Insane! We also have never been able to get a realtor to write an offer under list. We are so disgusted with their cavalier attitudes that I have actually considered taking the darn realtors course and test just so we can buy a home and bypass these people completely. We have gone through 9 realtors already, and sad to say, each and every one of them was a total flake who tried to get more money out of us. We are just so done right now.

I hope other people are having better luck because nothing makes sense to us with the So Cal market right now.

9 realtors already? Wow pretty aggressive!

Well I would only recommend keeping it up. If home prices really aren't going for list price, then it's probably going to require finding some realtor willing to just submit all of your requests, without getting overly involved in each one. If you do score a list price, then you're probably doing pretty well!

Other options include mailing the owner directly with your offer. Say neither realtor thought it was worth submitting a list price bid, but if the current bidder falls through, your offer was X and you still stand by it.

At the very least you'll light a fire under a few people.

"Most of the condos in the area were selling for $300-500K a few years ago"

And to think some still have that the figure on the brain. GOLDEN! Good thing it wasn't
you sticking your neck out and paying the amount. More opportunities will surely come
your way. Keep at it.

SJ had similar condos going for $400-500K now down to $150K ... 70s shit hole!
it was a laugh watching people buy these.

Unless you're in a hurry, keep looking for the right place. Condo associations can be awful if the homeowners don't agree.

I don't know for sure (does anyone?), but I think the bottom's yet to come.