This home on East Mill Road has been repossessed by a bank and is on the market. While the estimated market value is $334,862, its estimated market range begins at $281,284. Photo by: Edward Lea

By LYNDA COHEN Press of A.C. Staff Writer | Sunday, August 8, 2010

Lost jobs and predatory loans have caused for-sale and foreclosure signs to pop up all over.

But if buyers have the right bank — and a good dose of patience — distress sales can be a good thing for those looking to get a home for a lower price, experts say.

“It’s a great opportunity the majority of the time,” said Mary Lou Ferry, owner of Farley and Ferry Realty in Margate. “But it can be time-consuming.”

Beware, though. “Short sale” doesn’t reflect how long such a purchase takes. Ferry advises clients to be prepared for about 90 days, although it can take much longer.

“There are certain banks out there that there’s such bureaucracy, it can be 12 months into a sale and you still don’t have an answer,” said JoAnn Torcasio, of Marketplace Realty in Margate.

She said she’s worked with both buyers and sellers who have had problems.

“The difficulty is usually on the bank side,” said real estate attorney Duane Phillips, who works in the Galloway Township-Absecon area. “It’s sometimes hard to get a decision because they don’t want to let a property go for too little.”

“Most of the agents out there are more than happy to follow the procedure and work as expeditiously as they can,” Torcasio said. “Sometimes, you just hit a brick wall.”

“Those type of situations are generally more complicated and more difficult to structure, particularly for the buyer,” said Daniel Young, an Ocean City-based real estate lawyer.

The key for buyers, he advises, is making sure to deal with someone who can enter into the transaction.

“Often you’re dealing with middle men working off a check list that don’t have any real authority,” Young said.

They also may not know details about the property.

“There are issues that an ordinary seller would know that a bank who took back the property may not,” Young said. “So the buyer may not be able to get representations they normally get.”

No matter how rough or smooth such sales go, Torcasio said, the lower selling prices these homes are getting needs to be recognized by the towns they’re in.

In certain neighborhoods, there are so many distressed-sale homes, it brings down the value of others — but not when it comes to tax assessments.

“When you go to get a tax appeal, they won’t take short sales and foreclosures,” Torcasio said. “That’s affecting people still in their homes.”