Forclosed homes (Charlotte: for sale, real estate, foreclosures)

[ncpeace]

Has anyone bought a home that is foreclosed? How is the process? I know the short sales can take a long time. Is buying a foreclosed home easier? I assume the banks will negotiate a price with you?

Is there a list of foreclosed homes in the Charlotte area?

(I have a real estate agent we will be using....but haven't contacted her yet. Just getting some things straight before we actively start looking.)

Thanks.

[frewroad]

If the house has already been foreclosed, then you will be buying from the bank and presumably the bank will have listed it for sale with MLS so it is like any other purchase. Like any home, it behooves you to go and inspect it and make an offer based on what you think it is worth. Foreclosed homes can be in bad shape as it isn't uncommon for the previous occupants to strip it of appliances and anything else of worth and sell it off.

You might be thinking of a short sale. This is where the owners still own the home and are offering up the house for sale for less than what they owe the bank and they are not able to make up the difference. They are doing this in order to avoid foreclosure or other issues with paying off an underwater mortgage. In that case, you have to negotiate with 2 parties because ultimately the bank will have to agree to it too. There might be complications from additional encumbrances on the home who might enter into the process. These kinds of sales can take a long time because a lot can happen outside of the buying process. For example, the owners might declare bankruptcy which I believe trumps a potential foreclosure. In other words, there are a lot of potential land mines and every case is different.

[USCRugbyNo1]

Your agent should be able to answer all of these questions with ease.

[krokus]

Buying foreclosed homes is not a cheap as it used to be. Was the time when banks just unloaded forclosures back into the market at more or less the value of the debt owning. This was a quick and easy way for them to rid themselves ov unwanted assest and to keep their books clean. Shearholders hate seeing lots of "dead" assest on the books come the sharholders meeting so, the bank just disposed of forclosures quickly.

Today, banks have wised up. Several things were happening.
- the foreclosed homes on their books were actually saleable for more money than they had previously been sold for. Can't have that now, can we? Gotta get as much as we can for any and all assets today. Oh my, yes indeedy.
- cheap foreclosed home on the market was not allowing other homes sale prices to rise. So even if you could get a mortgage, your often had to borrow less than the bank could have gotten. Again the bank did not like this.
- today banks have a kind of open ended closed bidding process except that they open the bids and if the don't like it then you may never hear what happened. They will sometimes keep bids (they don't call it that) open for months to see if anyone will bid higher than the best they hcurrently have. It is not a nice process for the buyer.

In 2009 I was offered a 2 for 1 deal if I paid cash for 4 such properties i.e if I bought 4 they (no names here) would give me 6. I know that such deals are not even talked about today.

So, please be careful what you buy. frewroad has alreay pointed out that many foreclosures are not in good condition so caveat emptor is my watchword phrase.

I am about to buy a number of units and I have decided NOT to even look at Short Sales (never, ever), Foreclosures, For Sale, by Owner category homes. I am looking for simple, straight deals via my realtor. I shall rely upon my business acumen and negotiation skills to get the deal I wantfrom the properties I select .