Beware the housing scalpers

When we have tools such as Zillow that enable us to look up a property's price history, ignorance is no excuse for overpaying for a property. Nevertheless, I suspect that there are scalpers out there who are praying that you don't use such tools to your advantage.

Here's an example of what I mean. 4142 Noslen #A was listed December 18 for sale at $820,000. A sale record is posted for January 18 at $686,219. I do not entirely understand the transaction chain here, but the property is now lender owned. (Since I don't know much about foreclosures, I don't know exactly what the $686,219 represents - my wild guess is the default amount.)

The lender slapped on new carpet and paint, and is now listing the place for $759,900.

This property was sold to the defaulting homeowner in October 2003 for $614,000. I think a sale at $686,000 would be like winning the lottery and even a sale at $614,000 would be very fortunate, but as this spring has proven, there are impatient buyers out there who want their house NOW and are willing to pay to get it. We'll watch this one and see how it goes.