Upcoming Foreclosures

Has anyone ever bought a home from HUD?

Okay, the house I am looking to buy is a HUD home and it is also a foreclosure. It is about 75 years old and much of it is newly remodeled but it still needs a lot of work, definitely a new roof and the whole house probably needs replumbed. A lot of the rooms need carpet as there is none. The asking price is 50 grand. I guess what I am asking would 25 grand be to low of an opening bid for them to even talk to me? Like stated earlier it is a pretty descent house as far as foreclosures go, but I will still have to put about 20 grand into it before i can move in. I dont want to lowball them so bad they wont talk to me but at the same time i dont really want to pay more than 30 G for this house. Any thoughts out there from homeowners, or HUD/Foreclosure homeowners especially? Okay, to be more speciffic we already have a realtor and i dont trust any realtor because they just want my money, just like any business. Im going to see the house for the second time tonite with the same realtor so its pretty obvious that im interested, i just dont want them to not ever do business with me again because i offered to low.

Public Comments

1. Your Realtor should be able to help you with this - you need a Realtor to enter a bid, and they must be registered with HUD, besides being licensed to sell real estate in that state. DO NOT call the office with the sign in the yard. Their contract only allows them to represent the owner (HUD) and so they are not allowed to tell you how low you can go. Unlike other sellers, HUD does not allow for the listing company to act as an 'Intermediary' or 'Dual Agent' in the sale of any HUD homes. Get a buyer's agent. The actual amount that will be acceptable will depend upon a few things - how long the property has been for sale and how many times it has been reduced in price (at least that's how it works in Texas). If the original price (also called the "As-Is Value") is at least $83,333 then you could buy it for $30k when it's listed at $50k (if nobody out bids you).
2. I bought 2 HUD houses. I always offer the absolute minimum that the rules allow. You can read them at the website. For a long time the auction always generated offers above the "asking" price; even tho it was supposed to be an auction. So if you really want the house, be prepared to offer $50,000. At one time no offers would be considered if they were below 90% of the asking price. That may be changing with the current economic crisis. Anyway, they did not bargain much. If you want to buy it at a lower price, you will probably have to wait 60 days until they lower the asking price to $30,000.