Legal Annoyances / the Normal for foreclosures in RURAL OK

[Adam Greene]

1st. I love Rural Oklahoma for real estate.. buying REO, and distressed can be quite rewarding.. if a lot slower than someplace less rural.

I have an accepted offer on a 4 bed 1.5 bath brick home on 1.62 acres of land just south of Stilwell Ok, and North of Sallisaw.  Great very rural place.. built in 85.. over all good condition, HVAC looks good only one broken window pane.. roof needs work.. needs gutters and new floors and new kitchen counters.. and a couple of closet doors.. oh and popcorn removed and painted.. had been occupied by heavy smokers.  Accepted offer is at 30,250.00 and after the approx 25-30 k in repairs and updates the house should in this area have a value of 85-100 depending on finishes etc that we end up with so a pretty good score..

Here begins the Rural Oklahoma part.. 

Title trouble.. turns out the bank actually foreclosed on the 1.62 acres next to the house, and not the 1.76 acres they actually built the house on..  additional complication the land they did build the house on is actually owned by the neighbor.. so now the Bank did a contract for deed and the elderly couple that lived there moved happily to an apartment..  

However they have a law suit currently pending in court.. court date is actually for some day this next week.  the bank has now tried to sell this house to me twice.. admittedly it's never gotten past my giving them 1k security deposit, but they keep putting it on the market after they can't work this out...  How do I know all of this well the former / possibly soon to be again home owners found me and showed me all their legal documents.. the funny is they still want to sell me the house themselves if they win in court.. They asked me to go down to the county and see if I could understand all the stuff that's going on and explain it to them..  the County Clerk said it could go either way, and she doesn't care so long as it goes.  She doesn't want to listen to the crazy old bat any more :)   So I figured I'd share this story thus far..  Oh if they do win they can sell the property because the old lady married the old man who owned the land about three years ago.

at this point I don't care who owns it they both want to sell to me I just have to wait for the court date.  I am a little torn about how I want it to go down.. I like the sneaky old lady who might have pulled one over on the bank and ripped them off for 43k, (what was owed on the note.) but then I really like justice and she didn't pay so I tend to think the bank should get it... either way I love Oklahoma real estate it's somehow so much more colorful than it was in CT. not to mention a whole lot cheaper. :)