I still can't believe it!

[BLINGMW]

Excellent news Dave!
When's the party? I'll ride up.
My vote is for wood.

Keep in mind unless it's an especially fancy wood or gas fireplace, it doesn't heat a damn thing other than the room it's in. I love using ours, and the wood's free, but it costs heat either way, sucks it out of the rest of the house unless you can close all the doors to the fireplace room. And have someone inspect the chimney before you use it!

Nice job on the foreclosure find. With all the crazy adjustable mortgages for more than the value of the house out there, I hear that's a popular thing these days...

[mrbaggio]

Congrats. Can I ask how you found the place?

[HAULN-SS]

WaPo has a section of houses in short sale, foreclosure, or REO. If you're asking for around the nova area..thats how you can find a lot of them.

Also - countrywide's website has a list of all their foreclosed properties.

[John]

What terms are you having to agree with since it's a foreclosed property? I don't know the details, but was told you need about 30% down? What other fees are you liable for? Back property taxes as well?

I was shopping around out here at foreclosed properties since San Diego real estate is suffering, however with my itch to go to business school, it'll require me to move to elsewhere (most likely Chicago). I think I'd have to plan on being somewhere at least five years for me to buy with the market the way it is...

[.RJ]

I think I'd have to plan on being somewhere at least five years for me to buy with the market the way it is...

If you dont plan to stay 5-10 years then hardly any home purchase is worth while, unless you flip a house in the middle of a housing boom.

[Evan]

WaPo has a section of houses in short sale, foreclosure, or REO. If you're asking for around the nova area..thats how you can find a lot of them.

Also - countrywide's website has a list of all their foreclosed properties.

and "WaPo" is what?

[.RJ]

wash post

[HAULN-SS]

What terms are you having to agree with since it's a foreclosed property? I don't know the details, but was told you need about 30% down? What other fees are you liable for? Back property taxes as well?

I was shopping around out here at foreclosed properties since San Diego real estate is suffering, however with my itch to go to business school, it'll require me to move to elsewhere (most likely Chicago). I think I'd have to plan on being somewhere at least five years for me to buy with the market the way it is...

i wouldn't buy a foreclosed property. As far as I know, you generally aren't allowed in them, so the fixtures could be knocked out, carpet tore up, etc etc. Also, buying a foreclosed property subjects you to any liens on the building - so if the P/O quit paying taxes, which they likely did, since htye weren't paying their mortgage, you have to pay that back too.

Now, an REO is already bank owned, and generally you are allowed in these, and the bank has already paid any liens on the house. These may not be as good of a deal because of that, and because they are usually sold through a realtor hired by the bank...but at least you know they're clear, and you can get in them.

[Ginger]

There's pics from inside the house, and he hasn't closed yet, so I'm pretty sure he got in

[HAULN-SS]

There's pics from inside the house, and he hasn't closed yet, so I'm pretty sure he got in

I don't know the intricacies of each situation. It could be a short sale or some other situation. Homes that are announced in the paper as going to auction because of a foreclosure are locked up.

[Dave]

Thanks for the temptation Scotty :-).

There will be a party eventually. I was kinda thinking of taking over the MM summer "burn it down" party...

Linds found the house through our realtor's website and we went to it on a whim b/c we were in the area.

There aren't any real special terms that we had to work through. All of the financing is between you and your bank; the bank that's foreclosing doesn't care how you get the money to them. The only real stipulations that we had to meet were that our mortgage had to be a traditional lendor (not govt subisdized) and that we agreed to it being an as-is purchase. We made our contract contingent upon a house inspection to cover ourselves from buying a bad house. The inspection turned up a bunch of cosmetic stuff, but nothing to avert us from the house.

I don't know the difference between an REO and a foreclosure, but I was told mine was a foreclosure. I have been inside it several times (as Andrew pointed out, our pictures weren't peeking through windows) and I do not have to pay any back taxes for the previous owner. In my opinion, that should be something that the seller takes into account when they are agreeing to the price, however that might be the situation if you are buying a house at auction.
If you are approaching it like a normal house, almost everything is negotiable. We were able to negotiate on closing costs, time until close, and contingencies to make sure the house was solid. As for it not being as good of a deal, that's hard to say. By Derek's definition, mine isn't a foreclosure but we got the bank to cover almost all of our closing costs and are paying about 2/3 of what the house was put up for sale last summer by the previous owner. The only snag that could potentially do anything to us at this point is if something is discovered during the title search which could cause the bank to lose money. Personally, I think they would have found that by now so I'm not TOO worried about it, but at this point everything else is cleared to go.

[HAULN-SS]

i dunno, it may be a tomatoe tomato thing. the progression goes short sale -> foreclosure -> REO generally, although a short sale is sometimes skipped because the owners don't know enough to ask their lender to do a short sale. It's less of a ding on your credit than a foreclosure, and looks more like a regular sale.

[ScottyB]

its getting chilly here so we had a fire in our fireplace last night. hard to beat the sound/smell of a real fire IMO. with all that land i'm sure you have old trees and finding a used chainsaw would be so easy.

i go on craigslist and find free firewood all the time. i cut it up in the parking lot with a big old ax....i get alot of stares.

[Evan]

i go on craigslist and find free firewood all the time. i cut it up in the parking lot with a big old ax....i get alot of stares.

stare back. while holding ax.
like this

[ScottyB]

hahaha....how the hell you found that, i don't want to know