I'm so nervous...and excited at the same time. I finally put in a bid to purchase my first home. It's just my son and I so I have been super picky on what I can afford. It's pretty expensive where we live, so I have been looking for a home to purchase under market value and fix up. So, I finally found one! I was very impressed that it's not going to need "that" much work. I expected to do alot more. But, this is a HUD home. So, the bidding process is much different than the normal writing of a contract. Just wondering if anyone has any experiece with these types of transactions and might be able to soothe my ulcers My real estate agent doesnt have alot of experience with them either.

Thanks for any info!
Heather
reidsmom

I've never purchased one, actually I am not sure what a HUD home is. But congratulations! What a great feeling it is to be getting your new home Good luck with everything, hopefully it will go smoothly.

We own a HUD home. It was a great deal, but a lot of work and a pain in the butt to get through at the time. Stick with it though and it will be worth the equity you get.

Our's is a 1999 townhome. We bought it in 2002. We had the benifit of knowing a little bit of the background of the home. Our realtor's husband had been approached to sell it before it went to HUD so we knew a little bit about it's issues and also approx. how much to bid without being under or over too much either way.

The only thing really wrong with ours was that the owner had two large dogs and possibly some cats. He didn't care enough to let them outside so they just did their business wherever they wanted. Our closet was the worst. We think that he kept them in there when he was at work.

Our realtor didn't want to show us the home to begin with because she didn't know what to do with a HUD home and all the paper work. She had just started working with her husband and didn't know too much, but at the same time wasn't willing to go the extra mile. By the time we found this out about her it was too late to do anything.

We bid on it during the open bidding so we didn't have to wait as long to find out it they excepted our offer. It was listed for $145,00, and we bid $133,000 I think. We had been planning on the seller paying some of the closing costs, but our realtor was very adiment that HUD won't do that. We learned later there was a spot on the bidding paperwork to figure into your offer them paying some of the closing costs. If you were planning on this make sure you address it before the bid because you can't change it afterwards.

Also, closing was a nightmare. At the time I worked for a title company so that helped a lot. Our realtor gave up on everything once the bid was excepted because it is hard to contact anyone at HUD. Thankfully one of my coworkers really went to bat for us and spent hours on the phone getting the correct people and the information needed.

There were times when we just wanted to give up, but we knew it was the best place that we could afford and the equity in it would be great later on. In the end we started out with almost $20,000 in equity.

We will be selling this spring/summer and plan on using the equity to pay off DH student loans so we don't have to make payments while he is in seminary and we have very limited income.

Hope my store helps. I didn't mean to scare you, just to let you know there might be some bumps ahead, but in the end they should be worth it.

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Thanks so much for all your advise It does seem to be a bit harder than just buying a "ready" to move in to home, but i'm after that equity. Then, resell in a few year and upgrade. You are deffinitely right about the realtors NOT wanting to go the extra mile. I unfortionately ended up with one of those too. I was able to contact the realtor that is selling it, and he was able to help me out a bit. I'll letcha know how it turns out.

Thanks again,
Heather
reidsmom

I'll be praying for you about it. Let me know how it turns out.

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Does anyone know where to find a list of HUD or Foreclosed houses without paying a fee?

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If you goto the US Dept of Housing and Urban Development website hud.gov you can get info on HUD and click on the state you're interested in and it takes you to an external link for HUD homes, just fill out the search criteria.

A good Realtor can help you out enormously too, We're very lucky when we moved to NC I found an awesome realtor and the first house she showed us was a HUD house, but we wound up finding something else. We just contacted her to talk about selling and her first question was 'how do you still feel about HUD houses'.

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass~ It's about learning to dance in the Rain

Well, just to update. I lost the bid on the hosue I was trying to get by only $1000. I was so heartbroken. I didnt realize when I bid, that there was no counter bidding. My real estate agent should have known this, but did not. I would have bid $10,000 higher if I would have known. Thanks so much for your prayers. I am still going to hunt down the HUD homes. They really don't seem to be in terrible shape around here, so I think as far as buying to sell in a few years. This is still a great way to go.


Also, if you have a county website. You can search under keyword "Secretary" and this will pull up the houses in your county that HUD owns. I have found that alot of times, my county website has the house listed on it, before it actually goes onto the market

Thanks again everyone!!

Heather

Oh, I'm so sorry it didn't work out. Hopefully you'll be able to find something else soon.Hugs

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I encourage you to get an inspection after your offer is accepted. All HUD Homes are sold AS-IS, without warranty. HUD will not make repairs nor pay to correct any problems.