Foreclosure shopping

[Demon-Xanth]

Most are listed as any other home. The realtor can get printouts with details on the metrolist.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: Squisher
It sounds as if someone broke into the house after the previous owners left. I have a hard time believing that someone as industrious enough to do all the work to remove that stuff couldn't find a job and have made the house payments, but it takes all kinds.


I don't know if you remember my thread about the house across the street from me being recently bought under a foreclosure, but nothing was taken and the people got the house for about 60% of the market value.

Some people have no problem doing hard work when they see immediate payoff, but somehow they fail at steady jobs.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Aharami
how do you go about searching for foreclosed houses?

Just look for regular sells.

Our foreclosed house was listed just like a normal house, butt he banks owns it not a person.
Usually if it sounds to good to be true it is. So its really cheap, ours about 100k less then normal, it will probable be one. But like the OP was saying they will usually need work.

 

[Greenman]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
I can't say that ANY of the short sales we looked at were like that. I think someone was either bitter, desperate, or an ass.

Edit:
$20k for a house?! If I saw that deal I would hit it faster than Ron Jeremy loaded on Viagra and extacy in a room full of passed out supermodels.

Agreed. If I heard about a house around here for 20k I wouldn't even go look at it, I'd buy it on the spot. A lot around here is 250k.

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: Greenman

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
I can't say that ANY of the short sales we looked at were like that. I think someone was either bitter, desperate, or an ass.

Edit:
$20k for a house?! If I saw that deal I would hit it faster than Ron Jeremy loaded on Viagra and extacy in a room full of passed out supermodels.

Agreed. If I heard about a house around here for 20k I wouldn't even go look at it, I'd buy it on the spot. A lot around here is 250k.

heh. 250K would buy a 11-1200 sq ft condo where i live.

 

[wiredspider]

no pictures?

 

[FoBoT]

that is borderline criminal

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975

Unless you are doing the work yourself i see that costing more then 25K. I am remodeling my house and we are close to 20K right now and only $2500 is outside labor.

Unless you use really basic(see cheap) items and do all the labor you need to check out the labor rates in your area esp for heating/air, electricial, etc... let alone the parts on top of that.

While I have no experience really doing this whatsoever, outside of watching those house flipping shows...my gut says Marlin1975 is correct. That doesn't seem doable for 25K unless you use really cheap materials or do all the labor yourself or something.

 

[tcsenter]

Unless you are doing the work yourself i see that costing more then 25K. I am remodeling my house and we are close to 20K right now and only $2500 is outside labor.

That's assuming we do about 90% of the work, else it would easily add another $10K in labor costs. We will need an electrician to either splice into or replace the wiring to the air conditioner and breaker box. Just about everything else we can do ourselves. No permits are needed since this is all repair work covered by the original permits.

how do you go about searching for foreclosed houses?

Call a realtor. They can hook you up with the foreclosures listed in the MLS in your area or print you out a sheet. Otherwise, there's no good way to find them because a lot of foreclosures are listed just like any other home, the banks even use realtors now. If you have a good relationship with your bank and a good FICO score, you can often talk them into giving you their foreclosed property list, but they don't give it to just anyone because they don't want realtors to feel snubbed and/or bypassed.

So how much was this house?

Too much. Its listed at $300K, only about $15K less than market value assuming none of this stuff was an issue. I think we will offer around $230 and go no higher than $250. There are other bargains in the neighborhood, so we aren't going to pay more than is in our interest to. A couple realtors have told us they were surprised at the offers being accepted by the banks these days. They want to take the charge and get these liabilities off the books.

Air Conditioner? Like, the central AC unit???? Or a window unit??? WTF

Central air, just an empty concrete slab. They even took the water heater, which I forgot to list.

 

[d33pt]

you may have plumbing problems too. sometimes they clog up the drains with concrete or other things. check into that before you commit to an offer.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: d33pt
you may have plumbing problems too. sometimes they clog up the drains with concrete or other things. check into that before you commit to an offer.

I was about to post something to this effect.

There will be a pile of stuff you did not see that needs work. In our house we had a idea what was needed. Then i saw the wiring, that had to be ripped out and redone. Some pipes had to be replaced that were not planed. No insualtion in the walls, now have to do that. and so on...

 

[TwiceOver]

Wow. That guy was bitter.

 

[dougp]

Why would someone take the crown molding ... that makes no freakin sense.

 

[tcsenter]

Ever buy crown moldings? Depending on the material, style, length, and finish, it can cost several hundred bucks. They took the light switches and cover plates for crying out loud. What are cover plates, 3 for $1.00? Oh, and they rolled up the carpet in four rooms, too, padding and all. lol!

We never make an offer without paying a home inspector to go through it, even a home that looks pristine.

 

[tw1164]

crown molding is a bitch

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
that is borderline criminal

I dont' think it's borderline...

 

[theknight571]

Not defending what was done to the house but...

Did it ever occur to you that the stuff was taken and sold to try to make up the difference, or to try to save the house in the first place?

I know when my sister-in-law lost her house she took all the applicances and sold them... however she stopped at that. Personally I wouldn't even have thought of taking all that stuff. lol

(Note for my S-I-L it wasn't a matter of to much house... her husband got involved in drugs, lost his job, and was arrested several times... eventually they divorced and the house was lost because she couldn't keep up the payments on just her salary + all the stuff she got stuck with when he ran off with the credit cards, savings, etc... it's been 3 years of hell for her (divorced 3 years now))

 

[lokiju]

I've seen a lot of crap taken also from foreclosures when I was shopping for homes a few months ago.

Stupid stuff also.

 

[Modelworks]

I got you beat on a couple items.
One house I looked at they took the service panel and breaker box, half the copper wiring, the plumbing, water heater, shower, outside heat pump, and the back wall of aluminum siding.

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
I got you beat on a couple items.
One house I looked at they took the service panel and breaker box, half the copper wiring, the plumbing, water heater, shower, outside heat pump, and the back wall of aluminum siding.

Recycling pays big! Especially copper!

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: theknight571
Not defending what was done to the house but...

Did it ever occur to you that the stuff was taken and sold to try to make up the difference, or to try to save the house in the first place?

Kill the house to save the house? Maybe, had they not deliberately damaged so much removing all that sh-t. It's completely uninhabitable, so they weren't planning on being there. The discrepancy between the amount owed and the list price is nearly $200K.

 

[Alistar7]

Originally posted by: Aharami
how do you go about searching for foreclosed houses?

Should be printed in local paper on a certain day of the week. Usually when the action, "lis pendens", is filed and a court date is set. Want to know before the general public, go to the court where those are filed. After the judgement a notice of sale will also be posted in the paper.

Check your state laws for any special provisions regarding foreclosure, some odd (and beneficial) ones on the books. In Ohio the mortgager has 30 days from the date of sale to satisfy his balance owed and retain his rights to the property. In SC when they sell property for failure to pay property taxes the winning bid is held for one year. The property owner is given that time to satisfy his tax burden, pay the winning bidder a set % based on how much time his money was "in check", and retain title. A saavy investor could clean up under these special circumstances.

A bank pushing it's reserve ratio will dump property cheaply, perhaps the situation with the O/P. Find local credit unions that offer mortgages and watch for a rash of their lis pendens being filed, hit them up right after the judgements are made.