Entry Level Maui Home Buyers Compete For REOs (Foreclosures) & New Home Developments

The last 3 months have seen some serious bidding wars on properties across Maui, especially in starter homes in Kahului, Kihei, Wailuku, Makawao and Pukalani.

Maui starter home under $500K | new Maui development projects under $600K

As bank owned REO homes (foreclosures) come on the market, there can be immediate multiple offers. Many of these properties end up closing as much as 10% over the original asking price.

Our personal experience attests to this trend as we’ve successfully closed 4 of the 5 transactions where we represented a buyer competing against 5-20 other buyers on each respective property.

Many entry level buyers (generally $500,000 and below for single family homes) are getting frustrated because they can’t compete with cash offers that sellers, including banks holding the REOs, will generally accept. Even cash offers at lower prices than offers with financing in place).

Also noteworthy is that lenders are finally getting more cooperative and systematic in working with well structured and documented short sale offerings. There are still no guarantees that offers will be responded to in a timely fashion or that the property will actually close, but they are improving the process and the results speak for themselves.

Top picks: Maui starter home under $500K →

On another note there are great alternatives offered with new development projects such as:

• Na Hoku at Maui Lani (D.R. Horton),
• The Cottages at Kulamalu (D.R. Horton),
• Opukea at Lahaina (D.R. Horton),
• The Cottages at Kehalani (Stanford Carr Development),
• And the Milo Court at Kehalani

These new home and condo developments offer excellent financing packages that often include below market interest rates and cover a large portion of buyer closing costs. Furthermore, the developers will often run “one-day” sales lowering prices on select new homes that they are highly motivated to sell.

Top picks: new Maui development projects under $600K →

These homes are selling fast. The ultimate testament to this is that of the 14 homes that were in the initial release of Milo Court, all except one are currently pending. These Maui properties have not even been on the market for two months. There will be a total of 94 homes built in Milo Court and Phase II estimated completion is mid 2011. Better to get in now. Roughly 90% of Milo Court buyers are first home buyers.

The Stice Team has represented about a dozen extremely pleased buyers on both REO properties and new developments sales during the course of 2009. What first time buyer would not be excited to get an unbelievable deal (last year we had several properties that appraised for up to 20% above the contract price) and/or a brand new home?

This article is a collaborative Stice Team effort between Tracy Stice R(B), BIC and Jeremy Stice R(S).