Ed

Robert,

You probably will never get an answer like this one but here goes.

Never buy a house without Title Insurance to be on the safe side especially from an owner that doesn't use a realtor or title company or attorney to sell their home.

It seems that everyone replying to your question is referring to Bank owned and Short sales when they are talking about foreclosures but the most important foreclosure is a foreclosure resale which we specialize in every day of the week.

There are people who buy their own listings and they are also foreclosures and are referred to as foreclosure resales. However, the great difference is that they have no corporate structure to go through and can be bought at the same price with limited repairs but usually completely remodeled and have a much higher value than either Bank Owned (as is) or Short Sale (which have a long and unending waiting period with several contracts and little hope of getting answer within a reasonable period of time.

If you want a house to remodel then buy a bank owned property or, If you want to wait along with many others on the possibility of getting a short sale then you will have to wait with many others on someone at corporate level to decide which offer they are going to take and then can't close within a a reasonable period of time.

The above bank owned property is considered a flip house, if the proper definition were used, but because it's bank owned, someone in power decided it could be resold to consumers under FHA without the 91 days that investors have to hold homes to sell under FHA, regardless whether they are remodeled by the investor or not.

If you want a remodeled foreclosure resale then ask your realtor to find a listing that has a foreclosure resale which can usually close in 5-30 days depending on your financing and you don't have to wait on some corporate manager to make a decisions which could take 1 to 6 months.

Now the real foreclosure market and great buys are with the foreclosure resale market because most investor/owners have remodeled their homes and put back into like new condition just like we do on every house except an occassional home that an investor wants following our purchase at the courthouse. That would be considered a Flip Property. We sell only remodeled homes , usually better than they were when it was previously lived in by the person that lost it to a foreclosure. That's what we do and we don't ever refer to them as flip house which is what a bank owned property is by definition because they sell it as is and rarely do any work to the home before the sale. Foreclosure resales are also sold "as is" but usually have already been remodeled.

This is not a solictation so I can't answer most inquiries because I already have too many waiting for answers. If you have the patience for a reply and would like to know more, especially agents who are not aware of this part of the forelcosure market then you are welcome to email me at my email address but don't expect and immediate reply. If you are a buyer then I prefer your realtor make the inquiry because we don't try to sell our own properties although we don't turn down buyers, we simply don't show other peoples listings for sale and don't solicit buyer for our own properties. We simply love realtors selling our houses because it gives us more time to find and market our houses.

I simply don't know of another real estate agency that buys their own listings so we may be a one of a kind in the business.

You have been provided this information as a reply to your question only, but you should now know there are other foreclosures available such as tax deeds, IRS and many others forms of foreclosures out there in the market place to consider.

If anyone cares to make an inquiry or respond to my answer feel free to email me at : Ethornbu@tampabay.rr.com


I will gladly answer you as time permits. No legal questions please - save those for you attorney

Ed Thornburg, Bay Living, Inc
Foreclosure Acquisition Broker - Tue Aug 11 2009, 17:45