Nick Ruta

Hello Kelly, Absolutely. When a repossessed property is sold based on the highest bid, typically the remaining balance on the mortgage loan is the bidding starting price. A house that went through foreclosure auction and failed to attract any bids officially becomes property of the bank.

When foreclosed homes are put on the market, they are appraised and priced "fairly", usually defined by the relevant state as a certain percentage of the home's assessed market value. The assessed value depends on the home's condition, neighborhood, nearby schools, and other factors, in addition to the general demand for housing. However, in the rush to sell foreclosed properties quickly, appraisals are sometimes made hastily and consequently the houses may be undervalued. - Sat Nov 22 2008, 20:56

Hello Mary,

You have a right to offer whatever you want, regardless of what one of us Realtors tell you. What you need to understand is that the seller, whoever it is in this case, can simply refuse the offer, especially if you throw a really excessive lowball one. Then again, you just never know the intentions of the seller and counter offers can occur. As a Realtor I would only advise an offer based upon my personal research on the "said" property. If you are not working with a Realtor, especially if you have no experience purchasing a HUD home, I highly recommend finding one with experience in that area.

As for why a Realtor may discourage a HUD purchase, it all depends on who you deal with. I've run into Realtors in the past who actually specialize in HUD properties, and are darn good at it. Keep in mind these properties usually have some sort of "history". Foreclosure, damage, tons of work, etc.

HUD homes are sold to the public when HUD/FHA mortgages are foreclosed. HUD pays the original lender the amount of the loan due and other expenses. HUD then resells the property.

Again, a lot of times these properties need major attention. Not always, but usually there's something that may turn away most buyers. While I've never dealt with a HUD purchase, I would assume a lot of Realtors simply don't want the headache of dealing with a home that may have numerous issues that need to be dealt with. - Tue Oct 14 2008, 09:40

I highly recommend two sources:

1.) Craiglist - http://allentown.craigslist.org/apa/
Craigslist is an awesome site for rentals and I've had great success using them to find apartments.

2.) Check out our local MLS system public search - http://www.lvarmls.com
Once you are at LVAR's site, click where it says FIND PROPERTIES under the bottom left PUBLIC LINKS heading. You can then do a search of the entire Lehigh Valley MLS system for "Residential Rentals". Direct agent contact information is with all listing information. - Wed Jun 18 2008, 10:23

I used to live in West Allentown near Muhlenberg "Lake" (more like a big pond) and the Allentown Rose Garden. Very pretty parks when the weather is nice and plenty of room for dog walking. Go to Google Maps and do a search for "Muhlenberg Lake Allentown" and you should see exactly where I am talking about. It's not too far of a drive from where you are and you can spend a lazy hour there just about anytime.

See the web reference for a link to the Google Maps page (if it works). - Sun Jun 8 2008, 12:29

Hello Daisy! As a Realtor I can tell you that it is hard to gage exactly what the price of a home may or may not be without physically seeing it. Sure, I can run some numbers based on a simple Internet post, but to better evaluate the price and comp it properly, I would absolutely have to physically see the home to gather all of the information on the finer details. Maybe you have something in your home that others may not? Certain amenities and certain aspects of a home can help or hurt the overall evaluation. Again, as a Realtor, I'd feel much better visiting the home, than blindly giving a guess over the Internet. If you haven't contacted a Realtor yet, I actually reside in Whitehall and would be willing to discuss a listing presentation appointment. I work for a well respected Coldwell Banker franchised based out of the Lehigh Valley. Feel free to contact me if you would like to investigate more options into what Coldwell Banker and I can offer you.

In the meantime, I can tell you this, based upon the information you have given me, 2 similar homes have sold in the Wedgewood Park area during the past 6 months. A 1980 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath - $200,100 and a 2005 3 Bedroom, 2.5 bath for $227,000. Average time on the market for those two homes comes to be around 2 to 3 months. One was 92 days and the other was 38. That's actually not too bad, but with only two homes to use, the number could be skewed a bit. Finally, is your asking price of around 210K possible? It is possible and I think it’s in the right ballpark, but there obviously are no guarantees. My initial opinion would have to be based on more statistics from your home and possibly a wider comp range, which would include other surrounding areas with similar style homes.

Feel free to contact me with any more questions! - Tue Apr 15 2008, 17:04