I am a realtor based in Spartanburg SC. I

I suspect they were offers to re-fi when he defaulted, before the actual foreclosure. 

You put an non-refundable deposit to purchase the house and set a sales price  with a closing date in the future-usualy 12-18 months.SELLER FINANCING- 1 sales purchase contact1. you set a price and terms with a contract to purchase.2. you close with the property in your name and the first trust deed in the sellers name3. instead of rent -you pay them a mortgage payment4. all the money down goes toward the purchase of the house5. usually the seller financing is a limited time-12-60mo and you would need to re-fi out and pay off his loan.Good luck.... - pick 1 if you own the house- pick 2 if you wand to purchase it-

I would consider doing a cash out re-fi on the property you just purchased, or do it as soon as you can and use the cash as the DP on your next property, it beats the option of saving up a down payment on your next property.

Most likely, you'll need to re-fi the hard money loan with the original lender or a new private (hard money) lender.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/files/user/JNJ1987/fi...Sorry, here is the analysis sheet I used

Currently, I'm living and working in Columbia, SC. I

Third, if this is a non-occupied property, you will have a lot of difficulty pulling any future equity out...and I would assume the bank will not perform a cash-out re-fi on a pure investment property...My thoughts...live in the house as your primary for the first year...you can do a HELOC and maximize the amount of equity you can pull out (up to 90%)...then move out and rent it.

@Kurt F. - I wouldn't call it lowball...if the house is $150k, market value is closer to $135k and I offer 10% under market then my offer would be 121.5k which could look offensive or ridiculous without some discussion around how I arrived at my value.

Afterwards, then you can work on your own home as much as you want (although this will now be on your time and your dime).FHA loans generally cost a bit more overall and tend to have a higher mortgage insurance, which you can only get rid of if you re-fi out of the FHA loan.