Here is an update to my USDA sale experience. On May 31st we attended the open house at the property. I spent about 30 minutes speaking to the USDA rep and she was great. She told me all about the process, the do's and dont's. The following Tuesday we went to the sale and purchased the property. They did not require I bring the check for the deposit with me as long as we dealt with a local bank. (The legal notice states they require a cashiers check at the time of sale) They took my information, followed us to the bank where we decided to pay in full. They gave me the keys at that time.
We did have to sign a paper stating we understood that until the sale is signed by the federal judge we were advised to do no improvements to the property. The reasoning was that if something turned up in the paperwork to cause the foreclosure to be considered illegal (basically someone forgot to dot an I or cross a T) they could null the sale. We would get our money back but any improvements would not be reimbursed. At that time they also advised us to get insurance on the property and it was now our responsibilty to take care of the lawn. Then the bomb dropped. She told me it would be 2 to 3 months before the judge would sign off. Because it is a government property, a federal judge has to sign off and they are very backed up.
The take away to this is if you are going to purchase a USDA home, please be sure to add extra time to your estimate for at least 3 additional months of holding costs as it is not a fast process. Even though we paid cash we still have to wait our turn in the federal court system. Had I known it would take this long, I would not have paid in full so that cash could have been available for other projects.
