Buying a foreclosed home

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Buying a foreclosed home

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What state / parish / county?

In Louisiana, you typically need either 10% down and cash in 30 days or 100% cash or cash equivalent that day (i.e. letter of credit / certified funds cashier's check) in some parishes. The Sheriff's websites usually have the sale schedules and bidding requirements posted, in addition to appraisal figures closer to the sale (CAVEAT: do not rely on foreclosure appraisals as they are typically drive by appraisals). Make sure you pre-qualify if necessary.

You can figure out who the bank is, there attorney, and how much they are owed from the court records with the case number. If you can't access these records online in your parish, you can go down to the courthouse and look at them.

You are buying the house as is without the benefit of inspections or the like, but there is some research you can do:

1. Start by trying to approach the homeowner. They may let you see the house and answer questions. Additionally, that may be an intro into a short sale discussion, which will afford you the traditional buyer protections, such as inspections, time to get financing lined up, etc.

2. If that doesn't work, talk to a realtor who should be able to get you MLS info on the property if it has been listed in the past several years, even if not presently for sale.

3. You can call the attorney for the lender using the number obtained from the court records. Though don't be surprised if that doesn't get you anywhere. They'll probably relay to the client that you called, but lenders sometimes don't want to get bogged down dealing with "prospective buyers" until at or after the foreclosure sale. But it's worth a shot.

4. You can also usually check the tax assessors website to get an idea of tax assessments.

Try to find out why the owner's walked away. Could be a lot of normal reasons like loss of job, but could also be something terrible like foundation / flooding issues. You can go to hud.gov and read all about the buying process