Anyone had success with buying a foreclosure? (bank owned, short sales)

[James Brown]

How did it go?
What was the house offered at? How much did you get it for?

tips, etc...

thx

[imtaya2]

my husband and his "investor" friend went to their first auction. home was listed for $94,000 but when they were about to write the contract - the realtor told them the house is going up for auction.
starting bid was $10,000
winning bid was $68,000
need to be fixed for about $15,000
the winning bid still needs approval from the owning bank

[tripper76]

I am in the process of trying to buy a bank-owned property. It seems the same except sllllllooooooowwwwww. Apparently, the bank is in no hurry because everything that should take one day ends up being two weeks. I think mine was priced right to begin with as there were several offers. I ended up getting my offer accepted for full asking, which was $125k. I think I got a deal as it is below the average of around $170k. The house was build in '03 and sold for around 141k. It is also a smaller home in a beautiful neighborhood, which is better for appreciation than having the biggest home in the area. Fix will be around 5k I think. This will be my residence btw, not an investment flip or anything.

[Captain Bill]

Originally Posted by James Brown

How did it go?
What was the house offered at? How much did you get it for?

tips, etc...

thx

James, you can think of it like buying any house from a regular retail seller, except that it will take longer.

The first thing is to inspect the property to determine the cost of any repairs.

Next, a close check of the comps, (Sold, Active and Pending) including physically visiting the vacant ones.

Then determine the current market value of the property you're interested in, along with what the market is doing in this sub-market area.

Then determine your maximum purchase price.

Then determine your offering strategy. This will be determined by the type of sale it is; and how the house is priced in the market (whether it's above or below the current market value).

On some properties you'll offer less than list price. On others you'll offer list price. On others you'll offer above list price. It all depends on the value of the property vs the listed price and your desire to have that particular property.

If you're working with a realtor s/he should assist and advise you throughout the process.

Dealing with bank owned, short sales, etc is not an easy process, and finding and evaluating the "right" comps in order to determine current market value is not as easy as it seems.

I do BPO's (broker price opinions) for banks and it takes me an hour (after doing hundreds of them) in order to do a good job of determining current market value just from the mls listings, and after the time spent visiting the subject property.

[military spouse]

We have some friends that recently closed on a bank-owned property. They started making offers on short sales, but the process was both tedious and unproductive so they moved on to bank-owned properties. I THINK the original asking price was $280,000 and they ended up paying $310,000. The bank called the agent and asked them if their original bid was the highest they were willing to pay, so they upped the amount. The problem was that they had no idea if they were bidding against themselves or someone else. The process was fairly smooth. They did find that the other properties on which they made offers, typically sold higher than their listed price. They did get a nice deal and would have paid much more if it wasn't bank-owned. The house was actually in good condition, just missing door handles, closet doors, light fixtures, etc. The paint and flooring were in good condition.

[blueeyz911]

We just bought a bank owned house and we offered $1500 more than the asking price of $99,900 and our offer was accepted right away (this was our 5th house that we made an offer on) and it took less than a month to close. The bank and realtor were very easy to deal with.

We first made an offer on a short sale and they were screwing around too long. Also we were getting out bid by full cash offers on the others.

[CG4]

We put in an offer for the asking price (225,000) with the bank paying closing costs and they verbally countered by saying they'd take 225,000 if we paid closing costs. We said ok, they called back and said another offer (nice ploy) had come in and what was the most we were willing to pay. We said 225,000. One day later we had a contract as they accepted our 225k highest price. It took about 40 days to close b/c of deed transfers b/c of foreclosure, but it was fairly painless and we got a steal.

[tripper76]

It sounds like the banks always say to bring your best offer because they have multiple offers. After mine was accepted, I think they're full of it. I thought my house was a good deal at full price or more. I offered full and it got accepted even though I was sure someone had to offer a bit more or at least waive the incentives offered by the bank. Plus the bank offered to pay closing costs, which we did not change.

Anyway, my process seems really slow. Its not really a huge aggravation buts its really annoying. I really hate when the process is artificially slow. Right now, we are waiting for the addendems to review and sign. The bank has not even turned on the utilities so we can inspect and its been two weeks since the offer was first accepted. I see no reason for any of it. Five minutes of work that takes over two weeks. If I was in a rental that was ending, I'd really be pissed.

[_Charles_]

Look for deals where the lender is paying the current occupants to leave the place intact and clean. Many lenders are doing this now.

[thegirlinaz]

We are buying a bank owned home (not short sale). The bank has been very quickly to respond. Our closing date is august 27th. We offered full asking price of $165,000 (which the house just got appraised for $186,000) and the bank is paying our 3% deposit and $5000 in closing costs.