Experience with bank owned home purchases?

Question

My husband and I have patiently waited out the housing bubble (realizing that the stuff that was going was just out of control on all sides!!!), and now we are starting to find a lot of bank owned houses. We live in New England, and the price of living is still a little higher than a lot of the country, but we feel that we may be able to get a good on a house now.

Has anyone else from New England (southern NH, or northeastern MA, specifically) had any experience purchasing a bank owned home? We are specifically interested in how much lower than the bank's asking price we can go. While it is considered a buyer's market at the moment, their are days when it doesn't seem that the sellers or the banks agree.

Any thoughts/advice, please?

Thank you!!

Acermill: "Your concerns should not be based upon 'how much the bank will come down', but rather on how good a deal the purchase is."

Actually, my concern is well placed. My husband and I have waited patiently for 2 years. 2 Years!! For all this crap to come to a head, and now that it is starting to disipate, we have a shot. My husband makes some pretty good money, while I am in school and work part time, and the greedy little money grubbers have caused the housing market to go so out of whack that people with real jobs, and real incomes cannot afford to buy in.

No matter how "good the deal" may be, it doesn't negate the fact that these houses were overly inflated to begin with! The question is now, "Who wants to join the real world?"

Answer 1

Not in New England, but have purchased bank owned property before. I tried to buy 2 different properties from 2 different lenders this summer. They are not coming off of asking very far these days.

Answer 2

As much as you hear otherwise, banks aren't giving these properties away. Many banks are facing staggering losses from the huge number of foreclosures they are facing, and cutting sale prices further will only increase those losses. It's impossible to indicate how much a bank will reduce the price it is asking. The home may be very attractively priced in the first place, and you might get NO reduction.

In the past six months, I have handled for clients two foreclosure purchases, and BOTH ended up selling for MORE than the bank's asking price. One went for about $20,000 over asking, and the other about $5,000 over asking.

Your concerns should not be based upon 'how much the bank will come down', but rather on how good a deal the purchase is.

Answer 3

I just bought a bank owned home recently. It took us two offers over the course of two and a half weeks to reach an agreement, and the bank was really reluctant to lower their price.

A big bank has more assets over which to distribute the cost, and can sit on it until the right buyer comes along. With a small bank, you might run into our issue, which was that this institution had never before sold a house. It was completely foreign to them, and they had no concept of “reasonable.” (They also hired an agent solely on the fact that she was a former bank employee, not because of her skills & knowledge and that didn’t help their lack of understanding.) If you want a deal, try to find a house that has been on the market for months. The longer it sits, the more desperate to sell the bank will become.

Hire a buyer’s agent if you haven’t already done so. You will need someone creative and experienced to help you in dealing with the seller’s objections to your offer. Definitely have your property inspected. Our inspection showed us we were getting a sturdy house, with newer systems that was just in need of a lot of little repairs. We also brought in contractors during the time that we could still kill the contract to get estimates on the repairs we couldn’t make ourselves. Chances are, you’ll be doing an as-is sale, so the problems that you find will be yours to fix.

Lastly, be prepared to work. For the last two weeks, I have spent 4-5 hours a day on weekdays, 8-10/day on weekends, cleaning, painting and repairing my house. We’re finally moving in tomorrow, but the projects haven’t stopped.

Answer 4

Your question could be superb spoke back with a splash added information. once you are going to public sale or sheriff's sale to make the acquisition, your opposition will count on MANY components. In-individual auctions are the main unpredictable, as climate, time of day, appropriate merchandising, and various different components will impression the typical public sale's attendance and ensuing bidding. Auctions require determination and action with out hesitation, and auctions commonly have a different end while the sale would be made to the optimum bidder at that 2d. If the valuables is being marketed in a commonly happening way, the place you would be making your furnish on paper, there is way less probability which you'll be bid up very extreme, as this technique of sale facilitates significant contemplation via clients. the only end to the sale is while an furnish is made and usual. In the two case, you particularly have of challenge to purchase the valuables at your favorite value. As consistently, it's going to count on whether somebody else needs it greater at that factor.