Empty house in my neighborhood - steps to buying it

[George P.]

ok, so i see an empty house in my neighborhood. the city has put up a sign that's abondoned.

i did a search on the country website and found the owner. GMAC holds the mortgage, it's around $165k. the houses, if updated, is worth around 120k. so he was under water and just left the house.

what are the steps? no point of contacting him. although he is on facebook posted a picture infront of the house (lol).

if i contact GMAC, will they even care to talk to me or just foreclose on him? then list it?

if GMAC does talk to me, i doubt they will give it to me for 50 since the houses are popping on the MLS at around 110-120 at the moment.

what are my options? never went after an empty house that was not REO before, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Jerry W.]

@George P. if you can contact the owner maybe he would do a deed to you for $20 bucks and you could do a short sale or try buying out out his note. if you already hold a deed to the property it might simplify things a lot, but maybe not as there are loan forgiveness issues. You also try buying the Note from the bank it should be much cheaper if it is non performing and you could save them doing a foreclosure. DO NOT do this if you know nothing about foreclosures they can be long and costly in some states. You might ask @Bill Gulley or others about this strategy, it is beyond my area of knowledge.