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In my state, unpaid HOA fees must be settled by the seller (bank or original owner) prior to close. In the case of a bank-owned property, legally they are only responsible for 1 year of HOA fees or 3% (if memory serves) of the prior mortgaged amount whichever is greater.
Don't rely too heavily on the amount displayed by Zillow, check the city/county tax appraiser's internet site instead for actual sale price. Sale records are public record (in Florida at least, I can't say for certainty in all states), but the fine details of the transaction (HOA fees in this example) are not.
A $250k condo sold for $20k?! Is this a typo, or were there hidden costs like overdue HOA fees and fines that the buyer was expected to assume?
The condo may have sold for $20k, and that was probably the "current market value". It is the "zestimate" of $253k that you have to be leery of. They are notoriously wrong; and the sale happened in March 2010.
The Zestimate is completely worthless and almost never has any relation to the actual market value of a property. If the condo sold for $20K then it's worth $20K. The pool of buyers are the ones who determine market value not Zillow, not real estate agents, not appraisers, and not lenders.
Someone else made a suggestion that the sale prices can be much lower than the market prices, when it's not an arm's length transaction, e.g. one relative sold the house to another.
Sometimes Zillow puts the sold price as what is late/owed on the mortage. And it might be on the 2nd mortgage only. So it gets back to looking at the tax records for the real selling price.
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