Purchasing a HUD home is a sometimes good way to get a good home for a good deal.
Like in the other answer they are pre inspected and like any home purchase must or should be inspected by an Inspector of your choice once you have the home under contract.

Sat Apr 19 2008, 16:00

Leslie,

I have purchased a HUD house and have enjoyed living in it very much. It was "as is" but I knew that going into the deal and had a home inspector check it out for me too. I have had to fix a number of things in the house and spent quite a bit of money doing so but it was all worth it to me. I have looked walked through over 100 HUD homes as I searched for the one I live in now and as I see others come on the market. I have very much wanted to be a teacher so that I could get the incredable deal that you will get on a HUD home. 50% off of the price!! And if you have a good inspection done so you know how much repairs you will need to do then even though there are some risks the 50% discount more than makes up for it. There are risks in buying any house, even ones with a home warrenty. I really love my house. There have been a number of HUD homes that were beautiful "move in" condition. Of course the price is higher too but...at a 50% discount for teachers and police officers, if I found a house I liked in an area that I was happy to live in and then had my home inspection to make sure there was nothing HUGE wrong like the foundation etc...I would be jumping for joy to buy the house. Happy house hunting! You should get paid A LOT more money as a school teacher! But, since the pay scale for teachers doesn't seem likely to change anytime soon at least you get some bonus benefits that the rest of us don't get. I hope you get a Great Deal on a house and have a lot of equity when you sell down the road.

ps. there are hud houses in the middle of kansas and north dakota...they don't have to be in Urban areas. They have simply been insured by the government and it is the responsibility of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to sell these houses. There are some good realtors that will sit down with you and explain all of this to you. You can also go to http://www.hud.gov/ which will give you enough reading to explain everything to you or drive you nuts because of so much information (depending on you of course). Take care.

Sat Apr 19 2008, 10:26

There are no more risks in purchasing a HUD home than a bank or lender owned property. Probably it is less because HUD does a preinspection and if something is really wrong they do disclose like structural problems or non working furnace, etc. The process is done with a realtor who must bid for you online. It really is not time consuming in that bid deadlines when a HUD property goes on the market are usually 10 days out, then if they do not choose the bid they have daily bids. Owner occupied are given preferences. HUD usually requires a closing within 45 days from acceptance. All the folks I've dealt with as HUD administrators are very helpful and are accomodating when it comes to turning on utilities for the inspection process. Yes the homes are as is but so are most of the lender/bank owned properties.

Sat Apr 19 2008, 05:52

Leslie just because it is a HUD home does not mean urban. That is a government program foreclosure. The risk are the about the same with any foreclosure in that you buy it as is. Although the great thing about the next door program is that you get it for 50% of the price. So if you find a 100,000 list foreclosure you can buy it for 50,000. We just had a teacher here in our office sign on one at that price. Talk about instant equity. But, choose wisely and be prepared it is a time consuming process. Find a Realtor in your area familiar with the HUD process.

Good luck and happy house hunting.

Larry Story
Coldwell Banker Triad

Fri Apr 18 2008, 17:40