Originally posted by @Rene D.:
@Christopher Villa thanks - when you say 'cash offer' do you mean they will take a loan with your pre-approval letter?
@Lynnette E.wow thank you! So what happens when you win in regards to the keys, title etc? Do you have the option to do pre-bid inspection? or are you assuming house as-is?
Does the local sheriff go the property immediately upon close of auction?
This is for post foreclosure REO property.
When you win, you have a bunch of things to do quickly or they will not proceed. You must wire the deposit, sign the contract and give them the proof of funds documentation. If you do not meet the schedule, a day or two for each item, and they tell you the schedule, you loose the $2500 credit card prebidding charge, otherwise they cancel that charge.
You sign whatever they give you or they cancel, even though its a very one sided contract and says things like you inspected the property and did due diligence and they will not even let you on the property. You do not get to go inside the property until after you own it.
Depending on what bank owns it you may have bills for water, sewer, grass cutting, etc. since the house went into foreclosure, maybe a year or two worth of bills. They will make you sign that you know its your bill. They do not negotiate, they are offering you what they want. If you do not sign or give them grief, they just do not accept the contract.
After you did all the tasks above, then they send the contract to the selling bank for signature. They generally have 2 weeks to accept or not. IF they accept then they will schedule closing. They say its within 30 days of when they sign the contract. It has been longer when there are title issues, shorter sometimes.
My last one was, I won the bid 9/5. They signed the contract 9/13. We closed 9/25. Pretty fast.
I always buy title insurance through a local title company. I had a bad experience with their title company once. They just put all the 'problems' on an exclusion list that is not covered by the insurance. They all do that with some things such as 'things that a survey would discover'. But they put on things specific to the foreclosure being done property like the power of attorney for the foreclosing company to act for the bank owner. This could make the whole foreclosure improper and is a major title issue. The bank can fix this by producing the POA, but if they do not have a reason to do this they won't, so they need to do it when they are trying to sell the property, not in 10 years when I am trying to sell it. They should give you a clear title, except maybe for things like water, sewer, lawn care, etc. But get title insurance...through a local company, not their company.
The police do not come when you close. By chance today the police were at my newest house because the bank had a court action that just got to the point of the police starting a lock out of the past, prior to eviction owner. The owner has been gone for at least 2 months. The bank is clueless.
Generally you do not get keys. You break in or hire a locksmith to drill the locks. You do not get keys, even when they have them. The rented house I got keys from the renter when he left. 2 houses had actual lock boxes, but no one would tell me the code to get the keys out. Had to throw the doorknobs with the lock boxes attached away. (An electronic one a friend realtor could open and she returned it to its owner.)
And after you break in, its like Christmas, you get to wonder through the house and see what you bought. Sometimes its like a sweater from Aunt Matilda and you just smile and figure out what you have to do, and other times its like a new bike! The house is as it!
