[Grovenet] Forest Grove's Future (WAS: America'sTrillion-Dollar Baby)

[David Morelli]

On Jan 27, 2007, at 8:41 PM, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:

> ...
> A bank might sell a home below their asking price if they find it  
> is taking too long to sell. But the only reason it would take too  
> long to sell is if they make a mistake in setting the right price  
> on it in the first place. To the buyer, it might look like they got  
> a real 'deal' but, in reality, they simply paid the market price.
>
> Ron D'Eau Claire

It was a slow market, the house had been foreclosed and was in the  
hands of the lender.  Our offer was significantly less than the  
asking price, but covered their outstanding loan balance.  The lender  
found that it was faster to sell the house for their balance due then  
if they had held it longer and tried for more money.  And I  
understand that they would have been required to return any equity to  
the borrower.  So, there was no incentive to ask for more than the  
loan balance, or wait for a better offer.

We tried to convince Washington County tax department that the  
selling price was the "fair market value", but they would not accept  
that definition and insisted on assessing the property at the same  
value as the "comparables".

David