What is foreclosure?
When a homeowner doesn't make the mortgage payments over a period of time, the lender can begin a legal process to take possession of or sell the home to recover money owed on the defaulted loan.
Buying a “Bank Owned” home is not the same as buying a home from a typical seller. There are some significant differences! A bank owned property or REO (real estate owned) is a term used by the financial industry to describe properties that a financial institution has repossessed by foreclosure, a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, or other means. Here are some facts about bank owned properties that are important: 1)Response time may be longer.
The person acting as a seller and who makes the decision on offers with a bank owned home is, in most cases, the asset manager. It is very common that these asset managers handle hundreds of files at a time. It is therefore difficult to get a quick response from a bank-owned property. Typically, for us it can be overnight to one week. Also, there are certain properties that may require a marketing period before offers are submitted to the asset manager. Typically, this marketing period is up to 14 days.
What this means to you:
Because of this extended response time, an aggressively priced property may give other buyers a chance to submit their offers even if you are the first to submit an offer. This then creates a multiple-offer situation where you are up against other offers.
2) Because of aggressive pricing, there may be multiple offers.
Some of these bank owned homes have such aggressive pricing that it generates a lot of interest. Understand that some of these prices are so low that it creates a “bidding war”. It is important to determine market value in communities to have a better understanding of what potential offers are going to be submitted.
What this means to you:
You may not be able to get that “great low low price” because of competing offers that may drive up the price. If there are multiple offers, you will be requested to place your highest and best offer for consideration.
3) Unlike buying from a regular seller, you most likely will not get a disclosure regarding defects and the condition of the house.
What this means to you:
It is more important to be more alert during the inspection process of the house. There may be items that are not easily detected during the first visit to the house. It is important that there are numerous inspection visits including possibly asking neighbors regarding facts that they know about the house you are putting an offer on. Go into this process knowing this property will be sold "as is, where is."
4)You may need a pre approval from a specific bank before you offer could be submitted.
A lot of listing agents require a pre-qualification or pre-approval from specific bank institutions. It is very common to find a requirement to be pre-approved through Countrywide, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, etc even before your offer can be submitted. They require this because they need reassurance that the offer is backed confidently from a major bank institution.