Found Something Need Some Help!
I found a vacant home that is up for auction Feb 19th. Is there anyway I can step in and intercept this property for a deal?
I found a vacant home that is up for auction Feb 19th. Is there anyway I can step in and intercept this property for a deal?
I rather prefer bank owned properties, the values are there, there are sold as/is no inspections, and you are quaranteed a free and clear title. And unlike the sherriff sale you get the deed at closing.
[addsig]
Yes, you "intercept" by making a deal with the owner of record (call the county assessor for their mailing address). If it's same as the vacant property, you need to do some skip tracing techniques. Then you need to eliminate/satisfy the reason for the auction. This all has to be done as quickly as possible. Or, you simply bid at the auction.
Not sure what you mean. The property has no mailbox and the property has been vacant for a while. What about the lawyers that are assigned to the case? Could they tell me what the remedy is?
Hbomb,
If the house does not have a mailbox, determine the address from the house addresses on the left and the right of it. If it is not in a neighborhood, write down the closest address, take it into the tax accessor and ask them to pull out the plat book. You can point out the location of the property on the plat and they will be able to bring it up on their computer.
As of a "Skip Trace", once you find who the taxes are sent to (probably the owner of record), if you can not locate them at another address, call a private investigator and ask them to run a skip trace for you. For them to locate the person for you, it may cost between $25-$200.
As of the lawyers involved, they will not speak with you about the case or information unless you have authorization from the owner. The lawyers are generally not much help even with it!
Best of Success!
BAMZ
BAMZ stole the words right out of my mouth. How do you know it is going to
auction? Who is the auction company?
Jeffrey Adam
Is there any place other than the local paper to find out when a piece of property that is being forclosed on will be forclosed?
It's going to auction via the county's sheriff dept web site... I talked to the attorneys, they told me the owner doesn't want to talk to anyone. The attorney told me to call back 2 days before the auction, because they are going to be bidding on it for the bank, they are going to tell me what they are bidding.
[ Edited by hbomb on Date 01/23/2004 ]
You are talking to the wrong people. The attorneys you spoke with represent the BANK and only have the banks interest in mind. You need to contact the owner to get any sort of possible deal going. Skip/Trace is probably the best route.
[addsig]
What's wrong with showing up at the sherriffs sale knowing what the opening bid is going to be? That's what I'd do. If the lawer is willing to give you the amount of the opening bid, i'd take it. The seller may be long gone, heck he may be in prison (it happens). If you wait for the bank to buy it back there will be other costs added in. They may not want to deal with you directly but ask that you wait for it to go on the market with a realtor. Then there will be a commission added to the price. Finding the seller and paying a detective etc. seems like way more work than it's worth. You won't get a better deal through the seller unless you are thinking of a sub to deal. The bank needs to get what it needs to get. I'd be at the auction sale with my down payment!
Sand,
It's a bit different here in Ohio. The sheriff sale is where the deed is cleared of all leins as part of a judical foreclosure. You get the title free and clear after the sale and do not have to track down the previous owner, it's yours if you are the successful bidder.
The downside is that 95% of the properties are purchased by the leinholders for numerous reasons.
If you cannot contact the holder of the mortgage that is going to sheriff sale, you are out of luck. A bank cannot short sell a property they do not own, only the borrower can. The attorney of record is working for the BANK not the borrower, thats why I suggested they contact the borrower as the attorneys only job in this process is to foreclose on the property.
_________________
Hope this Helps!
Bill
[ Edited by telemon on Date 01/26/2004 ][ Edited by telemon on Date 01/26/2004 ]
I'm not sure that Ohio is much different from Wisconsin in the way it handles it's forclosures from what you are saying. I do know that the lienholder will usually send in an opening bid on paper. That will be the bid that the sherriff starts with or the minimum. If there is a 2nd mortgage holder they may be at the auction to bid over the minimum in order to get their money out of the deal. If there is no other lienholder at the sale and you bid one dollar over the opening bid (submitted by the bank), the house is now yours and the bank is happy because they don't have to sell it. In my state, you just need 10% cash or check at the sale and the rest in about 15 days. If the thing goes back to the bank it means that nobody else showed up at the sale to bid or the opening bid was high because the owner owed more than the house was worth. I think that in some areas of the country the sheriff sale sees a lot more investors than in other areas of the country where people "just don't do that." That is the only reason why I can imagine that 95% end up going back to the mortage holder. If that's the case, it's even better because it means that other bidders aren't going to show up to bid against you at the sale.
Here is the deal with my county. 10% down, balance in 30 days. Houses are appraised (Appraissed Low, from what I gather) and opening bid is 2/3 of appraised value. What I am gathering, there is a group that has the inside track on these sales and only bids on the homes they know they can move. My question is how do they know they can move them? These houses could have mold, flooded basements, & leaky roofs. It seems like a huge roll of the dice. I have been tempted to "break in" and get a sneak at this home to see what your dealing with. Me and my prospective partner took a look in the windows and the place is destroyed. My partner leaned on the front door and it opened up, but I freaked out so we shut the door and left. My thought is someone is getting a look at the homes before hand. This is a very nice residential neighborhood with no crime rate to speak of. The home could be a home run with some elbow grease and some money. (which I don't have yet) Any thoughts on what I should do?
Forgot to add this, if you know what the bank is going to bid, (the clerk of courts states on thier site the remedy (which is 130,000) So I am guessing the attorney will bid around that, and the house sold 2 years ago for 152, appreciation is about 5% a year in this area, which puts FMV around 164-169K, is 30K sounding like a number? Am I looking at this correctly? (not figuring rehab costs, obviously)
Unfortunately that is the risk in buying these houses. There are usually some issues that you wont know about until you get in them. If the house is vacant, I usually sneak around, looking in windows etc. At least I can see the condition of the floor and cupboards etc. If it looks bad in the kitchen/livingroom then it's probably been uncared for throughout. Mold etc., You just won't know until you get it.
My strategy has usually been to find out if the house that is going to sale is on the market with a realtor and I make an appt. to see it. Or if it was on the market within the last two years I will look up the past MLS info on it. I have a bit of an advantage that way as I am a broker and have access to all of this already. Maybe you can find a realtor that is willing to look this up for you. Just tell them that if they help you out on this that you'd be willing to let them have first opportunity as a buyers agent at the resale for maybe 3% commission.
Be aware though that if their are others bidding against you at the sale you may have to purchase this house for more than you expected. You have to go in there with a maximum price in mind and stick with it. You base that price on what you believe it will sell for and what you believe that you will have to put into it. You will have to think this through and decide if it's worth it to you to bid on this based on the fact that you have not seen the inside. Sometimes it is better to find something that you can get into and see and not take the risk. I know a guy who buys 12 or so a year this way. He makes some great money on them but he has had at least two big losses also. As a new investor you may not want this risk. I still think that finding the seller at this point and trying to negotiate is going to be tough to do.
One other thought. It may be a good idea to find a way to become part of this group of investors or at least find one of them who you can become friendly with. They might be willing to share there info.
Thanks Sandbahr. I think I am going to go into the home (since I know it's open) And scout it out. I undertand that I could pay more but if the house is in OK shape ( I will find out this weekend) and I know what the Bank's high bid is, I will set my price and attend auction.
Is it breaking & entering when the door is not shut all the way?? LOL.
Hey Hbomb, just curious. Did you ever go in there and look around?
Dear Sir,
I assume the door was ajar, and your dog ran in so you had to go inside to protect your dog who is a notorious coward. You do know about mold? Look for it. around showers, bathtubs, toilets, etc Press your hands firmly on the walls of the shower, if they press back you may have a small problem and have to strip walls down to the studs. Those are the pieces of wood standing on end. Supposed to be 16 inches on center except in Calif. where they cheat.
At the foreclosure sale. Make a point to know the other bidders. If there is such a clac, see how they work. Do they go to the local bar after the sale and rebid it up from the point that it was knocked down at sale?
I was a member of such a group back in the late 50's and 60's. We went next door and in a clockwise direction everybody in turn bid and as you dropped out you participated in the overage bid as of that moment. It was fun and several very elderly gentlemen made a small living.
It all came to an end when one of the participators refused to honor his handshake. So sad. the name of his company since out of business. Mortgage Refinance. May it live in infamy. Mr. Zimmerman, the only person I have met in my entire life, that when you shook his hand you automaticaly counted your fingers upon release. I have met Bedoin Chiefs who I would trust before him. The Terrorists who worked for me in Yugoslavia had better morals then he. I would not trust him with my dog, much less my cat. As for the lower phylums, near him they are on their own. Oooops Sorry a Senior Moment, I digress. But it was a shocker.
Trusting, once Lucius
No chance to look around, we have gotten alot of snow and been busy.. The auction is feb 19th so I will be snooping before then.
I know about the mold, I had it in my bathroom and my house is only 10 years old. Cheap tile that wasn't sealed properly had to tear it down to the studs.. put greenboard back up and then siliconed solid marble walls up... loads of fun!
Lufos,
Your take on things is great! I appreciate your short stories!
BAMZ