Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with homebuying

How did mortgage HAPPEN so quickly?

Amizu — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:36:20 -0800

How late is too late to negotiate with mortgage broker for fees? And how can I track mortgage interest rates to get a better rate before closing? I'm in the process of buying a home (I hope!). I shopped around for mortgages and about Sept 4, I found one with a great rate (5.875) that was otherwise better than any of the other packages offered to me by other mortgage brokers, my credit union, found online, etc. I locked in that rate, and one thing seemed to lead to another, and now my mortgage broker has done all kinds of work for this mortgage (appraisal, gotten title company researching the title, processed our paperwork), etc. I have the GFE. But nowhere in there did I have a conversation with her about which fees might be negotiable, and I'm feeling like an idiot.

She also says if rates go down between now and closing (mid-Oct), she'll give us the better rate.

She is really nice, has a good reputation, and is a friend of a friend.

I'm in DC.

So the questions are:
(1) How late is too late to keep shopping for a better deal and go back to this mortgage broker and ask her to lower her fees?
(2) Mortgage rates seem incredibly varied by location and personal finance details. Is there any way for me to track mortgage rates and figure out when mortgage rates go lower than they were when she gave us the 5.875 rate so that I can proactively approach her and ask for a lower rate? (I have been to bankrate but it seems very general.)
(3) Any special tips about home buying in DC would be appreciated as well.

Should I close my old store credit card accounts?

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:55:30 -0800

Should I close my old store credit card accounts? I have a handful of store credit cards (GAP, J.Crew and the like) that are around 4-5 years old. I just got my free annual credit reports and all is well (minus the one 30 day past due on my old bank credit card right after college - that account has been closed for awhile at my request). But I have a bunch of these store credit accounts that I don't use at all and haven't for a few years. My credit history goes back about 12 years, including credit cards (currently paying off), car loans (all paid off), and educational loans (open for eternity, I'm sure).

I'd like to close them to simplify things, at least in my mind, but I'm wondering if I should leave them alone? We are looking to buy a house in the next few months. I know that there are complex ratios of available and used credit and length of accounts and whatnot involved in calculating your credit score. These cards all have fairly low limits.

So do you think it would be in my best interests to close these accounts or leave them alone for now as it relates to our future home-buying?

Hello, Maytag Man?

Edelweiss — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:16:59 -0800

Help me launder my (perfectly legitimate) money. ***Disclaimer: I do not really want to launder money. I just need to know how I can "prove" it's legitimate so my mortgage lender will OK it for my home purchase.***

My husband and I have been saving cash and coins for the past 10 years. We recently deposited it in order to purchase our first home. Now the lender tells us that we have to pretend the money doesn't exist in order to get the financing to go through, because its origin is unclear. (As I understand it, the bank may think the money is from a loan we haven't declared, which would affect the debt-to-income ratio.)

Now the problem - we need about $2k of this money for the purchase. Without it, we won't have enough for the down payment, closing costs, insurance, and taxes. How can we make this "unusable" money usable?

In case it matters, the money was first deposited into our checking account and then moved to our savings account, so there's no way to "hide" it in one or the other.

Back to the Sooner State

Edelweiss — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:42:04 -0800

What should a Florida teacher know about buying a home (i.e., getting a mortgage) in Oklahoma? I'm just about to finish my first year of teaching in Florida, after which my husband and I are moving to Oklahoma, where I'm originally from. We'll be crashing with my mother for a couple of months until we find a home to buy. My questions are:

1. Do I need to secure a teaching position in OK before I can start looking for a house to buy, or will mortgage lenders rely on my prior proof of income (FL paycheck stubs)?

2. What else do I need to know about this whole process? Any general advice about making this move?

Where can I find the best real estate data?

BirdD0g — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:22 -0800

I want some serious, hardcore real estate data so that I can analyze what's really happening with the market in my area. Obviously, realtors have access to this local data, but the general public has no way to get at it. Does anyone know of any workarounds or resources that make this info available to the general public? Obviously, I don't want the personal information of homeowners, but I do want very specific information on properties. I'd like to be able to see how long a house has been on the market (especially if it's on its second or third listing renewal). I'd like previous sale prices, recent nearby purchase prices, etc. over certain periods, etc. I just want all the raw data.

Every realtor I talk to says things are going fantastic, and yet the national real estate market (overall) is practically in freefall. I think this is borderline fraud on the part of realtors, considering they've got a near monopoly on the statistical data.

Note: Madison, Wisconsin is a super strong real estate market due to the University of WI and the State Government among other things. This drives me even more crazy because local realtors basically claim our market is unstoppable, even though I know it's slowly receding.

Is it more fiscally wise to rent or to buy a home?

arnicae — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 09:50:41 -0800

Buying a house (vs. renting): How much more does it cost to buy than rent? Is it worth it (tax, asset, etc) in the long run? A fair number of people think that renting a house in the long-term is better for some people than buying. I understand that might be the case if you plan to stay in your home for less than five years, buy in a hot market, or have lots of repairs.

I'm trying to compare the costs of home ownership and renting, and hoped you guys could chime in in terms of how much more owning a house will cost, year over year, and the benefits.

Right now as a renter I pay:
monthly rent
utilities
renter's insurance
parking tickets when my street-parked car is caught by the sweepers

As an owner I'd pay:
*monthly mortgage
*utilities
*homeowner's insurance (which costs more than renters?)
*landscaping upkeep (time and/or money)
*home repairs and upkeep (money)

Right now Mr. arnicae and I have a lump sum of enough to put a reasonable down payment on a home and salaries that could pay the mortgage and plan to live in the area we're looking at for a looong time.

Also, a family member has offered us a sum of money roughly equivalent to our down if we buy in the next two years (complicated story that would make this AskMe even longer, please ignore why/how)

Is it a better financial decision to buy or rent for the long-term? Any specifics (like how much more it has cost you monthly or annually to own a home because of X and how much you've saved in taxes, if anything) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Working with lender's real estate owned (REO) department?

BirdD0g — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:30:37 -0800

Does anyone have any insight or experience into dealing with lender REO Departments (Real Estate Owned) when it comes to purchasing a foreclosed property? My wife and I are interested in purchasing our next primary residence from the bank prior to any sort of auction. Essentially, I'm wondering if we can put in an "order" of sorts with the bank and have them contact us should something that meets our criteria become available. However, I'm not familiar enough with lender REO procedures to know if this is even a possibility, much less if we really stand to find a great deal in this manner. Are they willing to unload foreclosed property efficiently if they have approved buyers waiting in the wings?

Well, maybe we could play skee-ball during dinner parties...

TryTheTilapia — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 11:46:37 -0800

Should we pass on this great apartment we've found because the floor slants a bit? We've found an apartment in Brooklyn co-op we interested in buying. There is one problem - the floor slopes a bit in the hallway and into the master bedroom, and there is noticeable crack in the wall above the bedroom doorway where the foundation has settled. Welcome to New York real estate if you're not a millionaire.

The apartment is in great shape otherwise and a good size. The problem is concentrated to one patch of floor. The price is a little high, but the seller is motivated (he has a job offer in another state) and we feel we could get the asking price down to within a more comfortable range. We love the neighborhood and the street, there's public transportation nearby, the building has no underlying mortgage so our maintenance would be considerably lower than other places we've viewed. The building is well-maintained and managed, and the co-op board consists of all of three people. Average approval, we're told, takes one week.

The building was built in 1930. We're told by the real estate agent that co-op investigated the matter and it was determined there wasn't much that could be done - old buildings settle, and so forth. One owner in a lower unit apparently had their floors evened out for about $13,000. Of course, the agent is trying to sell the apartment, so we're taking this info with a grain of salt.

Questions - how big a problem is this? Anybody have experience leveling out a floor like this? Would this be a deal-breaker for you? Is this just the price of wanting to live in a Pre-War building? If we went for it, what kind of reduction in the asking price would be appropriate? Too big a risk? Any experience, advice, cautionary tales, encouragement or insight appreciated.

Speeding Up the Sullivan Co. Real Estate Closing Glacier

LGCNo6 — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:08:49 -0800

Buying a house in Sullivan County, New York. Need your best recommendations for people to work with (lawyers, title folks, inspectors)... The sellers accepted my offer tonight, so that part is done. I have a good real estate agent who has some (not tons though) of recommendations for people in Sullivan County (and/or the Port Jervis area) that we can work with on moving towards closing. (And yes, I've got a buyer's agreement with the real estate agent, so please don't offer names of real estate agents--it is too late for that.)

However, in this state and county, things often move super slowly because of arcane contract rules, so I want to hear if The Green has any good recs or pointers on the best people in the area to make this all go smoothly and quickly. I'm not a first-time homebuyer, but I have never bought in Sullivan Co. .

What should we do now that we've discovered a major flaw in our new house?

amanda — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 18:31:08 -0800

We are about four days from closing on our house and just did the final walk-through and came upon a real gut-punch of an issue. The next door neighbor has the framing up for his new garage -- we knew that he was building this and where it would be but we really did not know how tall it would be.... .... it is easily 25' high and, I will guess, that once he puts the roof on, it will be at the 30' max. It is 5' from our property line. We did not do due diligence and pull the permit papers as we should have weeks ago; we learned that the permit he had was for a new bedroom addition, single story and a garage. We had seen where the footings were placed for the garage so we had some sense of how close it would be.

Our prospective house is on a small lot and we have about 5' on either side from the property line. The backyard is not very substantial and the rear neighbors are about 1' off the property line but with our 6' fence and the fact that they have a 1-story house, while not ideal we accepted it. To the south we have two somewhat dense fruit trees so our real sky view is to the North -- soon to be obstructed.

The seller was there and told us how this neighbor required a variance for his structure and that he and some other neighbor's signed something agreeing to it! He also told us how this guy wanted to have his garage even closer to the property line (not allowed) and was convinced to move it. I am distraught.

Questions -- we are going down Monday to the zoning office to see if we can get these permits pulled so we can take a look at them and see what the hell he has planned and also to see what variance was issued and whether he has any other violations of code going on. We are hoping to see if an inspector will get out there and give it the eyeball.

In our disclosure from the seller, there was, of course, no mention of this building going on next door or the fact that he had given his approval for a variance to be issued. This is Oregon and there's nothing on their little check-box form that specifically asks this. The seller appeared himself to be a bit surprised at how the framing was going.

We are supposed to sign papers on Wednesday, get the keys on Thursday and start moving in on Friday. Obviously, we're first going to hunt down this permitting/zoning thing and see what that tells us. I'm just not sure what else to think. If we are able to pull out now, we'll surely lose our earnest money. Will there be an option for the seller to reduce his price? Unlikely, right? Was this something that should have been disclosed or is this one of those, "sorry, you're s-o-l, dumbass." Also, we are worried that we'll end up in this house having royally pissed off a new neighbor -- if we're willing to set the inspectors on him, should be we even more ready to just back out of the whole deal? He's lived in this neighborhood for about 15 years and it seems the seller found him to be a great source of help -- he's apparently a really handy guy who is quick to help out a neighbor.

Oh, I'm just really sick over this. This is our first house and the whole thing has been a roller coaster and we were so looking forward to moving there. I'm just really afraid that this big wall (all the bedroom windows in the house will face it) is going to be a real stinker when we go to sell in 5 years or so.

Oh, and, you know, any thoughts about how to lessen the impact of a 25' wall dominating the back yard -- go ahead and bring 'em.

How to Get an MLS Map for the Wall

rush — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:07:49 -0800

Where can I get an on-dead-trees map of MLS areas and zip codes? We're looking for a home in Austin, TX, and we're trying to get a deeper understanding of location, location, location. I'm more than happy with the numerous online resources, but my wife wants a big on-dead-trees map of MLS areas and zip codes to put on the wall. Where can we get one?

Tips for getting a mortgage with bad credit

dial-tone — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 09:32:08 -0800

The path to a house when you have bad credit... My wife and I are interested in purchasing a house within the next few years. She has a decent paying job, while mine isn't amazing, with a combined income of just under 60k. The trouble is that in the past I declared bankruptcy due to financial mistakes I made when I was in college (approx 5-years ago). To try to recover, I have taken out a few credit cards, and am in the process of paying them off.

With the credit cards, I haven't made a single late payment and always more than the minimal payment. I also pay my student loans and other debts on time. Our combined Credit Debt is equal to approx 12% of our yearly income. We also have more than 40k in students loans between the two of us, but I'm under the impression that student loans don't count horribly against you when going for a house.

My wife has better credit, though she may have made a reported misstep or two in college (five years for her as well). According to her last credit report, she only has one mark against her.

We're looking to buy a home eventually, with a long-term mortgage (15-30 years). To accomplish this, first we're paying off the credit cards, and then trying to save up the 10%-20% downpayment. We've found houses we'd love for 60k-100k.

We want to be in the best position possible when we start looking for a loan.

1) Should we cancel the credit cards as we pay them off which will apparently hurt our credit score in the short term, leaving only one with the highest available funds, or should we pay them all off and leave them open?

2) What other steps can we take to assure banks that we're the type of people they should lend money to?

3) How will we know when it would be worth trying for a mortgage (how much money saved up/bills paid off/etc.)?

Will I be able to live with myself if I contribute to "gentrification"?

n'muakolo — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 06:41:11 -0800

Ethics question. Should I contribute to gentrification or not? I'm thinking of buying into a neighborhood in DC (Petworth - http://www.petworthdc.net - to be exact) that appears to be in the beginning stages of gentrification. Without getting into the safety concerns, what are your feelings on contributing to gentrification? I am young, white, and can't afford much of anything in the rest of DC. (And am not quite ready to move to suburbia.) Petworth (besides the safety concerns) also has a lot to offer (more residential, more space, yards, basements, possibly a great investment). Should I only buy in areas that already fit my demographic, or is it okay to contribute to gentrification (by which I understand that I would be a factor in making poor, mainly minority people have to leave the nieghborhoods they now live in). I've read the pros and cons, but I wouldn't mind hearing them again here (might be some I haven't heard of), and also I'm interested in your gut feelings about this issue.

(Full disclosure: I want to feel okay about this b/c I want to be able to buy a house in this (or similar) neighborhood, but my gut tells me it's morally wrong. I don't have a ton of faith in my gut on complicated issues like this, though. Hence the question.)

Will we ever be homeowners?

starbaby — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:20:35 -0800

Help me find resources to help me figure out when I might be able to buy a house. My fiance and I are trying to figure out when we might be ready to buy a house. We know without a doubt that we want to do this long before we could possibly save the 20% we'd need for a regular loan. That's about all we know. I have tried and tried and tried to find books or websites that might help me understand low- and no-down payment loans, PMI, closing costs, etc, but they all seem to go over my head. I need something geared toward first-time home buyers with pretty much no knowledge of real estate and no large amounts of money who don't feel ready to contact a realtor just yet. [I don't want to contact a realtor because I don't feel I understand any of this well enough to even know when we might be able to make the jump from renting to buying, when we will be able to afford it.]

Basically, this is what I am trying to figure out:

Based on a down payment of $X, an assumed interest rate, and an assumed finance period, how much house could we afford if we want our TOTAL monthly house-related costs [mortgage, PMI, taxes, homeowner's insurance, EVERYTHING] to be $X or less? Until I know the answer to this question, a realtor is far beyond my league, as I won't know if I can afford anything at all.

If any of you can explain this me, with as much dumbing-down as possible, great. If you can't, I would really prefer a book I can ILL or a website that would explain this to me.

What's a fair offer for a house that needs major repairs?

jay_wiese — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 14:10:34 -0800

My wife and I put in an offer on a house for $187,000, which was accepted by the sellers. However, the inspector found a major problem that will cost about $22,000 to fix. What's a fair counter-offer given this problem? House is a 3/2 built in 1958.

Here's what needs to be done, according to one contractor:
>Scope of work:
>Demo interior bathrooms, removing all fixtures, interior walls and tile,
>removing floor/subfloor, inspecting all electrical wiring and plumbing.
>Remove all construction debris
>
>Installing new sub-floor in both bathrooms, install imperial board with
>textured plaster finish, new tub in hall bath, new light fixtures, new
>contractor grade tile, (white or bone color), tile work includes tub
>surround and walk-in shower and ceramic tile for the floors. Install new
>commodes, 4' vanity with a single sink for the hall bath and 24" vanity for
>the master-bath. Vanities with cultured marble tops would be procured
>from local distributor, (contractor grade selection, any custom build or
>difference in price of customer selection would at owner expense above
>contractor price). Prime and paint interior walls with paint matching, (as
>close a possible to current paint scheme).
>Any electrical or plumbing work will be done by licensed contractors, all
>sub-contractors names and phone numbers will be given to owner upon
>completion of project if requested.
>
>Total price including materials, labor and permits:
>
>$22,500.00 (twenty-two thousand five hundred dollars)

Other than that, the house is still in relatively good shape.

Do we need a financial planner?

tastybrains — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 06:46:19 -0800

Because we are looking to buy our first home in the next few months, my husband and I want someone with more knowledge to help us figure out our financial situation - where we're at and where we should aim to be. I am not sure if what we're looking for is a financial planner, or if this is even really necessary to do before we go home shopping. My worry is that most financial planners (if that's even what we'd want) seem to be focused solely on retirement planning & investing. I'm not sure if that's what we need. Basically, my husband & I are 27 & 26 respectively and were married last year. We both have decent jobs, and are not in a ton of debt - I have a credit card balance that we need to pay off, and some student loans that are very low interest that we're not in a rush to pay off. We have no car payments and pay all our bills on time, etc.

Due to our personal savings and some generous wedding gifts, we're at a point where we feel ready to put a down payment on a house. We pay a lot in rent to live in an apartment that doesn't really meet our needs...we're both extremely tired of apartment living and feel ready to take on the responsibility of owning a house. All of the mortgage calculators we've tinkered with have indicated that we should be able to afford the type of house we're looking at with our down payment amount plus a monthly payment that's not that much more than our monthly rent.

We are also at the point where we're thinking about having a child within the next 2-3 years.

Because of these two huge responsibilities, we kind of want someone with more experience to look over our finances and help us determine if we're doing the right things with our money, and how best to prepare for our future goals.

What's the best way to do this? Is there a professional we can hire to do this? If so, how do we find one who is reputable and won't try to sell us stuff?

Or would we be better off getting some books (any recommendations would be appreciated) and doing some hardcore research?

What do most people do in our situation?

experience with mortgage brokers

hazyspring — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:57:34 -0800

Does anyone have any experience with Mortgage Brokers that are co-owned by real estate agencies? My realtor has recommended a broker who works for a company that is co-owned by the agency she works for. I am shopping around with other people, but I am wondering, what is the deal here?

It seems like there must be a major conflict of interest with this and some way they are ripping you off. Does anyone have any experience with something like this?

I am pretty early in the home buying process, and am definitely going to crunch the numbers that I get, but I'm not there exactly yet.

Exactly what will I get after messing with my withholding?

COBRA! — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 14:35:16 -0800

I've got a mortgage and withholding question. I'm about to buy my first house; I know that paying mortgage interest will allow me to change my (and my wife's) tax withholding, but I'm uncertain about some of the nitty-gritty there. Specifically, how can I calculate what our take-home income will be after our withholding is changed to take advantage of the new tax situation?

(I assume this is one of those questions that's butt-simple, but totally impenetrable if you're ignorant like me. I've spent quite a while googling, but get nothing but withholding calculators, which only seem to give me part of the picture)

Ethics of using a buyer's agent in home purchases?

jayder — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 18:49:16 -0800

I have a couple of questions about buyer's agents. My wife and I are interested in selling our current home and buying a new one. We don't have an agent yet, but we swore, after buying our current home and realizing that "our" agent didn't really represent us, that we would never again buy a home without a buyer's agent on our side. After seeing a home we liked while driving through a local neighborhood, my wife called the listing agent and asked him if we could tour the home. He was very nice, but when my wife told him we'd probably get an agent, he said something like, "If I show it to you when you're unrepresented by an agent, how can I be expected to give half of the commission to your agent, if that agent didn't find you the house if you end up buying it?" Maybe it was a faux-pas for us to even ask to see it while we were unrepresented, but he showed us the home (and, actually, he was very nice) and we like it.

(1) Does the fact that we discovered the home ourselves, without an agent, mean that any agent we may ultimately get would not have a claim to part of the 6% commission on houses we discovered ourselves? (I ask, not so much because we're planning to buy this particular house, but because the same agent has sent us a bunch of other listings. He does not advertise himself as a buyer's agent, and we're determined to have a buyer's agent before buying.)

(2) What provides a buyer's agent with an incentive to get you the best deal, when they presumably are paid just like any other agent -- with a percentage of the ultimate sale price? Seems like they would have a stake in you paying more, rather than less, for the property you choose.

House Panic

fucker — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 16:31:25 -0800

HomebuyerFilter: Should I buy a major fixer-upper? I need to know if I'd ultimately be getting a good deal; what do I need to know to figure this out? For instance, what's the cheapest way to get a full repair cost estimate on this house before making the purchasing decision?

Would this house turn us into Tom Hanks and Shelley Long?

COBRA! — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 07:13:31 -0800

Is this house worth pursuing? My wife and I have been looking at houses, and made an offer on one this past weekend; the offer was accepted, and the deal was on, pending inspection. Yesterday, during the inspection, our inspector discovered a largish (say, 3' x 1.5') hole in the concrete floor (the hole is in a closet underneath some stairs; the lighting situation makes it really hard to detect unless you're crouching in there with a flashlight looking for holes). Looking down into the hole, you can see an open space at least 8 feet in diameter and 5 feet deep.
After seeing that, we noted that the concrete floor in the main area had several large cracks radiating outward from where the hole would be.

We immediately called our realtor and said the deal was off. A while later, she called us back and said that the sellers were offering to A) pay for the hole to be filled and for the floor to be re-sealed, and B) have a structural engineer examine the house and sign off on its structural integrity (the house does lean a bit; and the garage has a definite slope). A one-year home warranty would be added. Further, she said that because of swampy soil (there's a creek nearby), house foundations in this part of south Minneapolis sit on steel pilings that go down to bedrock, so, while it's not good that the house sits above mini-Carlsbad Caverns, it's not as big a deal as it could be. It's a 70-year-old house, she says, and most of them aren't going to have a structural engineer saying that tehir foundations are good.

So we're not sure what to do; a big part of our dilemma is emotional/subjective (after all this, we certainly don't have the burning love for the house that we did a few days ago), and that's beyond the scope of AskMe. But objectively, we want to know if this sort of thing can be repaired once and for all, or if the repair would be a one-time fix that would eventually be undone. And we don't know what having all of this foundation work would do to the resale value of the house when the time comes for us to re-sell.

I'd love any thoughts or suggestions from people with house buying/selling/repairing experience.

First-time homebuying for dummies

BackwardsCity — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 06:42:18 -0800

If you were a first-time homebuyer, would you buy a home right now? Specifically, would you buy in Chapel Hill, NC? My wife and I are moving to the Chapel Hill area this summer to attend graduate school (she'll be at UNC, I'll be at Duke). Since we know we'll be in the area at least five years, until my PhD is done, it would seem to make sense to buy if we can. But with all the talk of housing prices dropping and the housing bubble finally popping, I'm reluctant to sign up for a 30-year (fixed-rate, don't worry) mortgage and potentially be stuck with debt I can't recoup later when I sell.

The places we're looking at are mostly in the 80-120 thousand dollar range, and they're mostly townhomes and condos, if that matters to you.

If you were me, would you buy right now, or would you rent?

Lending Tree? Bad idea?

OmieWise — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 13:14:58 -0800

Mortgage-Filter: Is using a mortgage offer aggregation webiste like Lending Tree a bad idea? I want to start the process of thinking about buying a house, and going to such a site seems like a way to get a bunch of data quickly about what I can look forward to in a mortgage, but I'm wary of entering all the personal information etc. Have other people used any sites like this? Any recommendations for whether or not/how to approach it?

Tell me about the "We Buy Homes For Cash" businesses

Optimus Chyme — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 07:28:56 -0800

Tell me about the "We Buy Homes For Cash" businesses that are seemingly popping up all over. Please note: I have no interest in starting one of these businesses or selling my home to one. I'm just wondering why someone would choose to sell this way, and if they pay anything near market value or if they're - as I suspect - greedy parasites looking to take advantage of people in dire financial situations.

I'd like to pay less for a home.

Four Flavors — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:53:53 -0800

What happens to foreclosed homes? When the bank forecloses on a home, how do they sell it? Do they auction it, or sell it on the open market? Are foreclosed-on homes generally good deal? My intuition says that they should be, but perhaps there are additonal factors I'm not aware of.

How would I go about finding and buying a foreclosed-on home?