Found A House, Now What....

pagnotar profile photo

I found a house in the local newspaper in the foreclosure section I like quite a bit. It is in a good area surrounded by good houses.

It is a trustee sale, and the article states that it has an origial principal amount of 89,800 with a rate of 6.5%. It will be undergoing public auction on 2/8/05 and I must close within 15 days.

It has an assesed tax value of 126k, and recent comps are around 160-170k.

So here is my question....What do I do now...

Do I send letters to the current owner and try to settle now, or do I wait for the auction?

When i drove by the property today, there was another investor (i assume because he had out a map, and was sitting in front of the house), so I presume I am not the only one who saw the ad in the paper

I know there are many deals out there, and it is a learning process, so I am not overly concerned with losing this one, but I would like to at least try and use it as a learning process. Any help would be appreciated.

Comments(2)

  • JohnMichael28th January, 2005

    You should make contact with the property owner and see if they are willing to sell!

    If yes, your next set is to do a title search to see what other financial encumbrances my be place upon the subject property.

    My first concern is the comps are stating the market value is 160-170k and the original loan is 89,800 we are talking 56% LTV, I believe your comps are skewed but if not you need to stop talking about this and jump on it.
    [addsig]

  • pagnotar29th January, 2005

    I guess my issue is that I have never done this before. The assessed value is direct from the citys tax assessor, and the oricinal prinipal amount is direct from the noticed filed in the newspaper. The comps I gathered are from www.domainia.com with similar bed/bath combos and square footage. Knowing the market in this area, I have no doubt this property is worth the stated 160-170 (and that is being conservative).

    How should I contact the owner? I did a reverse phone lookup and found the phone number to this property. Should I contact them over the phone or take a more passive approach and send letters? How about stopping by (its a safe neighborhood)? Also, how do I stop the auction from taking place?

    Once I contact the owner, basically I need to work out a selling price and have a sales contract signed. Is there anything else I need to worry about?

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