Buying a house in a Sherrif's Auction - need info

[Nitrousbird]

The foreclosure my wife and I were ready to put an offer on got a really good offer, and the bank took it (sounds like for more above the asking price than we were going to offer). Figures, the place was a STEAL.

 

We have looked at some Sherrif's Auction stuff, and had some questions (pretty much are only looking at Delaware County):

 

- 10% down required @ time of auction - no biggie, plus a loan within 30 days. Typically, will a lender consider that 10% down as part of the down payment. Paying 10% of the auction price, plus putting another 20% down on the remainder adds up to quite a bit of money, especially w/ a budget in the mid 200's.

 

- Is there typically a way to get to look inside the home prior to bidding (the homes are all listed online a month before auction)? Of course I can go to the house and look around outside and in the windows, but you can never really tell a house without taking a good look inside.

 

Otherwise, is there anything else to know. We have seen a few potential's on there already; good looking on the outside, newer builds in PRIME locations.

 

We are basically wondering if Sherrif's Auctions are worth our time. Liquid cash for down payments isn't the issue; making sure we are getting the right home is.

 

I know many people would be against forclosures/auction homes. Our problem has been that most homes in the mid 200's are, in a word, lame. It's only my wife, me, and the dog, with no kid plans in the near future (if at all, we are both iffy on it). We both have good jobs. But we don't want the typical 4-5 bedroom family house, seperate rooms for everything, and boring. We want a bigger version of our condo...vaulted ceilings, open floor plan, big master bedroom (and closet), open basement capable of a theater room, 3+ car garage (or space to add a garage), nice kitchen, and overall nice, open place. The floor plans we like tend to be the mid 300-500k price range (that are sized bigger than we need, sadly). Our price point tends to have the sizes or bigger we want, but not the floor plan. We also want north end...Dublin, Powell, Delaware south of the city, Galena, Westerville...but in either a country setting, or a spread apart neighborhood. My wife HATES communal back yards, and won't even consider a home with one.

 

Off that rant, we want a good bang for the buck. Are auctions the way to go? If so, what do we need to know? I'd prefer advice from someone that actually knows something about it, not a 19 yeaer old kid that read something on the internet and can barely afford rent on his 450/month apartment.

[KillJoy]

The only thing I can think of is this:

 

Most auctions like this I have attended, have had a viewing day. They are usually a day, to a week, before the auction.

 

Good Luck!

 

It is DEFINATELY a buyers market!!!

 

:thumbup:

 

KillJoy

[1veryfastvr4]

i looked at tons of them before i bought my house, same sond an dance as you said when i went to auction, either investers ( realtors) or bank s out bid everyone one that was a decent deal and not a condimed house..... i gave up and just bought one from a for sale by owner.....

 

all the ones we looked at before hand most were unlocked and my dad asked the sherrif ( knows him) if there was anything wrong with looking in side these homes and he said go for it... not sure if he just said that causeh e knew us or if its all right to check them inside an out before hand...

[Nitrousbird]

How do you find out about the viewing day?

 

We were looking at houses online tonight. We saw one online that I said "I'd pay 260k for that." It said short sale (auditor value of over 500k, which seemed high...should have been high 300k value), but we found out it was an old listing that sold at auction...for 255k.

 

We really want to get in while the market is good. We are pretty sure our condo will sell for good money (the only two that have been for sale in our complex sold in December and January, for what we would want, and they are not as good of units as ours).

[Linc5.0]

I just put an offer in on a short sale home. definately the way to go cus the bank is already basically agreeing to take a hit on the house. They wanna get rid of home before it gets foreclosed on and costs them abunch more money...there are certain realtors that specialize with these types of homes. I suggest meeting with one. Remember usually the seller pays for closing costs so that means they pay for your realtor.

[87GT]

I don't know much about auctions but I do know this, it isn't a good idea to buy a house without a home inspection. Do they let you inspect the house before you lock in a bid?

[Skinner]

have you considered buying land an building a home??

[Tractor]

have you considered buying land an building a home??

 

I was gonna suggest this. Sounds like they are kinda picky about some interior things so this is probably the way to go. Buying land and building a home is gonna be cheaper than buying an existing one in almost any market. Well unless your wanting lake front property:-)

Only draw back to building is you'll have to wait around 10 weeks for someone to build it.

[excell]

Joe, I'd consider consulting a real estate attorney. We have friends who recently bought a foreclosed sheriff house and several months later, the old mortgage owner came knocking threatening to throw them out and claiming they still had the deed. Long story short, a few thousand dollars later, they were clear. A couple-hundred dollar pre-purchase consultation would have saved them the agony and they still would have got the house.

[LJ]

Joe, I'd consider consulting a real estate attorney. We have friends who recently bought a foreclosed sheriff house and several months later, the old mortgage owner came knocking threatening to throw them out and claiming they still had the deed. Long story short, a few thousand dollars later, they were clear. A couple-hundred dollar pre-purchase consultation would have saved them the agony and they still would have got the house.

 

I don't know much about the auction process, especially with so many these days.... but do you not get title insurance with an auction house? If it did have it, they wasted their money because title insurance would cover that.

[excell]

I don't know much about the auction process, especially with so many these days.... but do you not get title insurance with an auction house? If it did have it, they wasted their money because title insurance would cover that.

 

Case in point?

[LJ]

Case in point?

 

Either:

A. They wasted money on an attorney when their title insurance would have covered it

B. They had a mortgage not covered by title insurance and got away with it somehow and the bank didn't catch it.

[Akula]

I built, i now have EXACTLY the house I wanted. Prior to this I bought (two) and always thought people skimped on things they shouldn't have. On this house I put all my budget into square-footage and garage. I bought the minimums on fixtures, and will upgrade as I can afford it.

[Linc5.0]

Just an FYI, it is extremely hard to get a new build loan or construction loan right now. Unless you buy from a builder, but then your getting a cookie cutter type.

[AWW$HEEET]

Get it inspected. If its at auction, it was probably foreclosed. People who get foreclosed on like to do some pretty nasty shit to their homes right before they get the boot. They have the mentality of "oh, well I cant have my home, so no one else is going to".

[LJ]

The best part of building on your own land is that you can use all your cash to buy the land, then use the value of the land to be your downpayment on the house.

[RS69]

Joe,

 

There is no viewing day for the Delaware Sheriff auction. You can view the property, but you have no access in. Our newest property was on the sheriff website and we were prepared to buy at the auction, but on the the day of the auction, the property was scratched from the auction. Many of the properties are removed the day or day before the auction because the person has up to the auction date to work things out with the lender. In our case the person who was in foreclosure made a deal with the lender. We worked out a deal with the lender and made a short sale and bought the property with a clean title. If you are buying a property at the sheriff auction, you need to make sure their are no additional mortgages against the property(clean title) or you will have another situation to work through. My wife is a real estate attorney if you have questions, I can forward you her contact info.