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HUD house- What's the likelihood of this bid being accepted?

We've found a very lovely little house that we would really like to have after almost 4 months of finding something and just before we were ready to make an offer, the house sold. It's a HUD foreclosure house for 27,000. It's been on the market for at least 3 months, probably longer- they've already reduced the price 3,000 over the past month or so. The house is nearly perfect except for a few minor holes in the walls and the one glaringly obvious flaw... its previous owners left their dogs behind when they left. The smell literally made the realtor who was showing us the house step back outside as a first reaction when she opened the door and took a step inside. It reeks to the point I doubt many people would want this place. We still do, it's the best thing we've seen in a long time and pulling the carpets and putting down laminate would be best for us anyway. We've been approved for up to 20,000 on a loan and could go a bit more if necessary and the bank felt the property was worth it- this one's appraised at 49,000, and we'd like to stay in the 20,000 range to keep the payments low enough we can guarantee we make them. We wouldn't have even looked at this place if we hadn't been told that HUD does seriously deep discounts sometimes on houses. How likely is it that we could bid 20,000 on this house and get it? I know it's all a numbers game with HUD, trying to recoup losses. How much, if the 20,000 wouldn't be enough, would we need to bid? So far no one's been bidding on the place. No, I said every other house we've looked at and were getting close to bidding on has sold. It's gotten bad enough that we've started joking that realtors just need to convince us we want something to make it sell to someone else. We don't know if they just left their dogs there for a while unattended when they were moving and didn't care what they did or if they literally abandoned them. I'm very sure if they abandoned them that the realtors or someone would've reported them. This area is pretty pro-animal care.

Public Comments

1. I'm sorry, but I'm confused here. You said that the house sold. You can't make an offer on a sold house. Hopefully you or your agent called animal control and reported the previous horrible owners. I would have serious concerns. Anyone that could do that to an animal probably didn't exactly care for their house. If the house has sold, then this whole thing is moot. In general though, speaking of a theoretical house, 3 months is NOTHING to sit on the market in this economy. A $20,000 offer is over 25% off an asking price of $27,000 and 60% off appraised value. Unless you get a home inspection saying that the house needs $25,000 worth of work, chances are slim that they would accept your offer.
2. It is a buyer's market. Hold your ground. Can't no more than loose it. There is more houses down the road. Sound to me you have a good chance.
3. HUD will not even look at an offer that far below their offer. I have never heard of them dealing this low to begin with though. You are talking about a cosmetic problem, dog smell doesn't effect the value at all. New carpeting and paint would fix that right up.