Purchasing a HUD home

[John W.]

I looked at a house that is being sold by a "bidding" process. I sent my real-estate agent my offer. After filling out some info, he found out it was unavailable to investors. I know many of you have come across this before, but please let me know how this has worked with your experiences. Is there any way around this? What is the reasoning? Do they not want you to flip? I would be doing a small rehab and renting the house out. Have you found that after the initial bid, they change it to allow investors? Any input is appreciated.

[Kyle Hipp]

Hud homes typically go up in a "lottery" bid period where only non profits and government agencies can bid on it for 7-10 days. Then there is roughly 30 days after that owner occupied buyers are also allowed to purchase, this is called the "exclusive" bid stage. Then after that it opens to all buyers including investors, this is called the "extended" bid stage.