[Jr_Bullit]

My lease is coming to an end soon - so the debate as to buy or not has reared its ugly head again (I feel your pain on the housing market stosh!).

Anyways - I can afford more this time around, no foreseeable problem with a lender, but the housing market, as stosh has pointed out, has climbed a wee bit in prices.

So...I was wondering...

Has anyone on here either a) Bought a Bank Repo'd home? or b) Bought a home at auction (foreclosure process not yet complete)?

I just sent me mumsie poo some questions about foreclosures to see what she can dredge up from her realtor's basket - but I have a funny feeling as a first time buyer she's gonna recommend against it.

What do you guys think? Have you done this? Was it good/bad/ugly? Landmines to know about?

 

[N8 v2.0]

My lease is coming to an end soon - so the debate as to buy or not has reared its ugly head again (I feel your pain on the housing market stosh!).

Anyways - I can afford more this time around, no foreseeable problem with a lender, but the housing market, as stosh has pointed out, has climbed a wee bit in prices.

So...I was wondering...

Has anyone on here either a) Bought a Bank Repo'd home? or b) Bought a home at auction (foreclosure process not yet complete)?

I just sent me mumsie poo some questions about foreclosures to see what she can dredge up from her realtor's basket - but I have a funny feeling as a first time buyer she's gonna recommend against it.

What do you guys think? Have you done this? Was it good/bad/ugly? Landmines to know about?

You want to make sure you buy Title Insurance in this case, for sure!

 

[TN]

where can you find listings of foreclosures?
I always see ads for lists but you have to buy the list, surely there is another way to get these lists.

 

[Yossarian]

Find out what the "legal entity" is for the area that you want to purchase. For instance, in GA, every county has a legal entity, which is the newspaper where all legal notifications are published. All foreclosures are required to be advertised for a specific period of time, it may be 1-2 months. The foreclosures are then auctioned on the courthouse steps (this is the foreclosure). In Georgia this is the first Tuesday of every month and if you go to the county courthouse on that Tuesday, there are all of the bank representatives, reading legalese to no one inparticular and taking bids, if there are any bidders.

 

[reflux]

If you're completely serious about doing this, it might be worth your while to beat mostly everyone else to the foreclosure. I don't exactly know where to get started on this process or market, but here goes. You buy a list, like someone mentioned, that contains homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage. You basically offer to purchase their home, you'll assume/payoff their mortgage and give them the proceeds. The homeowner gets their equity out of their home before the "bank" forecloses and you can sometimes find a better deal than a foreclosure sale. Werd.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Make sure you have a line on a good handyman, or are comfortable doing home repair yourself. 'Cause if they can't pay their mortgage, they sure as hell probably weren't paying to get things fixed......

-S.S.-

 

[Jr_Bullit]

where can you find listings of foreclosures?
I always see ads for lists but you have to buy the list, surely there is another way to get these lists.

Hehe - I'm doing a 7-day "free" trial - so long as I'm a smart girl and cancel on Tuesday, I'm good. Then I'll convince my mom, who's my realtor, to get me better lists.

http://www.realtytrac.com/

 

[Jr_Bullit]

Make sure you have a line on a good handyman, or are comfortable doing home repair yourself. 'Cause if they can't pay their mortgage, they sure as hell probably weren't paying to get things fixed......

-S.S.-

Yeah, I know - fortunately the lists I've found so far contain the address - so I can do a drive by and put a checkmark next to the ones I'd be willing to bid on.

And N8 - Title Insurance is required, at least in WA, in order to buy one of those bad boys....

C'mon now, a 3bd, 2 ba house for $16k....on an acre...hah...

The nice thing about the lists is they also include the going market rate for the place too. Move in, fix up, get out!

 

[luken8r]

i acutally looked into some forclosure listings online this morning and they are all either in the inner cities of the dumpy towns around here (lynn, lowell, lawrence, etc) or arent much cheaper, and still unaffordable. mass is the worst possible place to find a house, damn i need to move

 

[rigidhack]

MA does suck if you are buying a house.
Why not build your own list of foreclosures by going to the local banks and talking with the residential loan manager and asking them if anything is coming up?

I agree about keping some extra aside for rennovations or repairs. THe house will probably need it.

 

[N8 v2.0]

Yeah, I know - fortunately the lists I've found so far contain the address - so I can do a drive by and put a checkmark next to the ones I'd be willing to bid on.
C'mon now, a 3bd, 2 ba house for $16k....on an acre...hah...

I worked with a guy who bought a HUD nice HUD house for $30k when it was valued at nearly twice that.

 

[Jr_Bullit]

I worked with a guy who bought a HUD nice HUD house for $30k when it was valued at nearly twice that.

I'd believe it - $16k was for the lowest of the low-end - you're buying what's left a person's mortgage and paything that off I guess. The highest I found was 500k...All the houses at least on the list I found were rated at $50k market value closer to $2k - but we'll see after more research.