If you are looking to buy a foreclosure HUD homes are a great source. The best place I have fund to locate them is http://www.gohud.com. They have a free service and really great advanced search. They don't sell a subscription so you don't have to worry about the sales emails. They have to all the homes int he nation and if your in need of any help they can find you a qualified HUD agent and a good lender. They have a great FHA 203 K lender for Chicago area. 203 K loans allow you to buy a home and fix it up in one loan and still have the low FHA down payments. I believe the $500 down works with this loan on HUD homes.

Hi Caroline,

Did it close or was it under agreement? There is a big difference. If it was under agreement that means they have signed a Purchase & Sales agreement, but will close in the future. If that is the case, your real estate agent can tell you when it is scheduled to close by looking it up on the MLS.

Another possiblity that has happened alot around here lately is that there was a problem with the foreclosure (paperwork not filed properly,etc.) & the property is being reforeclosed again, meaning they start the process all over again. I recently had a client that had a signed purchase & sales agreement on a cash offer, ready to close & they told us we couldn't close because land court made the decision that it must start foreclosure all over again, including going to auction. Your real estate attorney may be helpful in finding out info, if that is what happened.

Sound fishy was it listed and do you have an agent? If the answer is yes to both get your agent to check with a title company to see if a warranty deed was recorded if not it didn't sell. If you made the mistake of making your offer with the listing agent then call them and ask them the status of the property. They should be able to tell you. The listing agent should be contacted with the question of what the status of the property is. It shouldn't be too hard to find out want the status is. If a property sells it has to be recorded. Get another agent not the listing agent involved is probably your best course of actions.

Now with that said sometimes if there was an IRS tax lien involved they have to wait 120 days from the trustee’s sale if your a trust deed state to record the sale, because the IRS can come in a void it. All this should be easy to find out. Most MLS have requirement to disclose the sale price and date to other agents. If you’re a judicial foreclosure state I have no idea how that changes it.