I don't know, is squatting an option?
December 12, 2011 3:43 PM Subscribe
My husband and I would like to buy a house that's currently vacant, it was purchased by Fannie Mae in 2009. We don't know what to do next. We're in Oklahoma. Anyone have advice?
We found a house that we're interested in purchasing. It's vacant, but not for sale. Currently, the house has a NO TRESPASSING notice posted and another stating the home has been "winterized." It has been vacant for some time now, maybe a year or so.
Our realtor did some research and said that foreclosure has begun and the house was bought by Fannie Mae back in 2009, but it has never been relisted or changed names on the deed. The Fannie Mae/Homepath website is useless and the house not in their listings. The realtor said it is a "wait and see situation." So it's been sitting in this grey area for 2 years? How does this work?
The ideal situation would be is to live in this house and make renovations or, if it's uninhabitable, the lot itself is a great investment. I believe the house itself may be on a historic register or in a historic neighborhood, so renovation grants are a possibility. The house was built in 1905 and the current market value has been assessed to about $72,000. The house is in Oklahoma City. It's a shady neighborhood that is on the upswing despite the current economic climate.
It's just sitting there and we'd like see if it's useable. From the outside, there are no cracks in the foundation and it looks to be in fairly good condition, just old.
Has anyone encountered this before? Is this truly a waiting game? What can we do next? Have you been here before? Is this a bad idea? Is it even possible to pursue financing for a house in this situation?
We found a house that we're interested in purchasing. It's vacant, but not for sale. Currently, the house has a NO TRESPASSING notice posted and another stating the home has been "winterized." It has been vacant for some time now, maybe a year or so.
Our realtor did some research and said that foreclosure has begun and the house was bought by Fannie Mae back in 2009, but it has never been relisted or changed names on the deed. The Fannie Mae/Homepath website is useless and the house not in their listings. The realtor said it is a "wait and see situation." So it's been sitting in this grey area for 2 years? How does this work?
The ideal situation would be is to live in this house and make renovations or, if it's uninhabitable, the lot itself is a great investment. I believe the house itself may be on a historic register or in a historic neighborhood, so renovation grants are a possibility. The house was built in 1905 and the current market value has been assessed to about $72,000. The house is in Oklahoma City. It's a shady neighborhood that is on the upswing despite the current economic climate.
It's just sitting there and we'd like see if it's useable. From the outside, there are no cracks in the foundation and it looks to be in fairly good condition, just old.
Has anyone encountered this before? Is this truly a waiting game? What can we do next? Have you been here before? Is this a bad idea? Is it even possible to pursue financing for a house in this situation?
Adverse possession in most jurisdictions takes years. A winterized/vacant property is not the same thing as an abandoned property.
I would contact the assessor. You could also do a title search and find out the name of the previous owner and determine if there is any open foreclosure case. It might still be open, even with the bank buying it, because they plan to seek recourse for a deficiency on the mortgage. The foreclosure process is, in some jurisdictions, getting to be months or even years backed up, because of a lack of personnel at the banks and in the courts.
From this point onward you will probably need not a realtor, but a real estate attorney.
If you do find that the bank owns it free and clear, and the owner has no more redemption rights, it may simply be a matter of finding the responsible office to make an offer to. But there could be many other issues, such as a collateralized mortgage that is refusing to sell for less than the lent amount, or the bank's own unwillingness to write down an asset.
You can usually verify the placement on the National Register of Historic Places through your local city neighborhood/planning/housing office. If it's a contributing structure in a district, it will be eligible for tax credits under certain federal or state programs, and may also make it eligible for preservation grants, e.g. through the self-same city office or the state, but I wouldn't bet on these.
posted by dhartung at 7:18 PM on December 12, 2011
I would contact the assessor. You could also do a title search and find out the name of the previous owner and determine if there is any open foreclosure case. It might still be open, even with the bank buying it, because they plan to seek recourse for a deficiency on the mortgage. The foreclosure process is, in some jurisdictions, getting to be months or even years backed up, because of a lack of personnel at the banks and in the courts.
From this point onward you will probably need not a realtor, but a real estate attorney.
If you do find that the bank owns it free and clear, and the owner has no more redemption rights, it may simply be a matter of finding the responsible office to make an offer to. But there could be many other issues, such as a collateralized mortgage that is refusing to sell for less than the lent amount, or the bank's own unwillingness to write down an asset.
You can usually verify the placement on the National Register of Historic Places through your local city neighborhood/planning/housing office. If it's a contributing structure in a district, it will be eligible for tax credits under certain federal or state programs, and may also make it eligible for preservation grants, e.g. through the self-same city office or the state, but I wouldn't bet on these.
posted by dhartung at 7:18 PM on December 12, 2011
Best answer: I am a lawyer, but I am not your lawyer and this is not legal advice.
I would not go with adverse possession, since that is typically a long game (as in, 15 or 20 years, depending on your state).
There are three things that you should acquaint yourself with. You will want to explore one or more, and possibly all three of the following, in the following order: a) title searching and title insurance; b) warranty deeds, and c) actions to quiet title.
Title searching is pretty cheap and simple -- you may even be able to do it yourself: speak to the clerks at the relevant registrar of deeds or land records; if not you can hire a paralegal or an attorney but I wouldn't pay more than $300 without a good reason -- and should tell you who is the owner of record and who has recorded mortgages and liens, and who has foreclosed on the property.
Title insurance is something that is (as I understand it) typically bought incidental to a sale, so you may have to wait on that.
Once you know who the owner of record is, you can approach them about purchasing the property. You want a Warranty Deed from them: this is them warranting that they have clear title to the property and that they will indemnify any other prior claims to the property. If it appears that a foreclosure has been recorded on the property, the owner of record may be the present holder of the mortgage.
If you can't get in touch with the owner of record, you may be able to file an action for quiet title, basically asking anybody who has any interest in the property to make themselves known to the court. This is a deprecated way of going about it, and you should definitely have a lawyer talk to you about how (and even, if) this will work in your state.
posted by gauche at 7:34 PM on December 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
I would not go with adverse possession, since that is typically a long game (as in, 15 or 20 years, depending on your state).
There are three things that you should acquaint yourself with. You will want to explore one or more, and possibly all three of the following, in the following order: a) title searching and title insurance; b) warranty deeds, and c) actions to quiet title.
Title searching is pretty cheap and simple -- you may even be able to do it yourself: speak to the clerks at the relevant registrar of deeds or land records; if not you can hire a paralegal or an attorney but I wouldn't pay more than $300 without a good reason -- and should tell you who is the owner of record and who has recorded mortgages and liens, and who has foreclosed on the property.
Title insurance is something that is (as I understand it) typically bought incidental to a sale, so you may have to wait on that.
Once you know who the owner of record is, you can approach them about purchasing the property. You want a Warranty Deed from them: this is them warranting that they have clear title to the property and that they will indemnify any other prior claims to the property. If it appears that a foreclosure has been recorded on the property, the owner of record may be the present holder of the mortgage.
If you can't get in touch with the owner of record, you may be able to file an action for quiet title, basically asking anybody who has any interest in the property to make themselves known to the court. This is a deprecated way of going about it, and you should definitely have a lawyer talk to you about how (and even, if) this will work in your state.
posted by gauche at 7:34 PM on December 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
Head down to your local Recorder's office and have them bring back the records for the place. In most counties you can actually do this online by a property search, but Oklahoma County's clerk website requires you to know things like the lot and subdivision information, which you probably don't have. A realtor might be able to help you there.
This will let you know both what the property was most recently assessed at and the current (and previous) owner(s). From here, you can go about making an offer on the home. Your realtor will be able to help you with that too.
Just because a property isn't on the market doesn't mean that the owner wouldn't sell if made the right offer. A lot of banks are sitting on tons of vacant, foreclosed properties, slowly putting them on the market over a period of years, afraid that if they list them all at once they'll crash property values even further. But this doesn't necessarily mean you can't get them to sell.
posted by valkyryn at 5:16 AM on December 13, 2011
This will let you know both what the property was most recently assessed at and the current (and previous) owner(s). From here, you can go about making an offer on the home. Your realtor will be able to help you with that too.
Just because a property isn't on the market doesn't mean that the owner wouldn't sell if made the right offer. A lot of banks are sitting on tons of vacant, foreclosed properties, slowly putting them on the market over a period of years, afraid that if they list them all at once they'll crash property values even further. But this doesn't necessarily mean you can't get them to sell.
posted by valkyryn at 5:16 AM on December 13, 2011
You can look up owner information, subdivision information, and the like in Oklahoma County in map form here.
posted by wierdo at 7:52 AM on December 13, 2011
posted by wierdo at 7:52 AM on December 13, 2011
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Have you looked at the county records yourself? In texas these are public and there's usually a website per county. You enter an address and it shows you all the sales for the property. There may be enough information to get a phone # and start calling around. I'm sure it'll be frustrating as hell.
I wonder if it's possible that there's pending litigation on the house, and the owner can't live in it, but it's in legal limbo and they can't sell it.
posted by RustyBrooks at 4:50 PM on December 12, 2011