Question
I have a question about trying to purchase a second house without going about it the traditional way (I have little cash for closing costs or down payment). I was walking my dog the other day and I like to take him off the beaten path down a gravel road, when some lady drives up and asks "What was I doing down here? and if I knew this was a private road." I told her I was looking at a vacant lot at the end of the road, at which time she reveals to me she is the gossip queen of the street and proceeds to tell me everyone’s life story within a 50 mile radius. She said the lot that I was referring to has been for sale for about 10 years and that the house across the street from it (the one I’m interested in) seems to be recently abandoned by the owner. She knew the fella who lived there and said his kid used to tear up and down the street and blah blah blah. He apparently left a few weeks ago and has not been seen since. I went over and looked the place over, it was empty (I even closed some windows that had been left open). It was rather rundown, only cosmetically I hope, and the yard and property was very overgrown. Overall however it was a nice house, with what looks like a little over half an acre on a quite dead end road.
I would like to buy this house without selling my house I live in now so that I could fix up the new place; live there and rent the former property out. I was wondering if I could track down the owner and possibly give him say 10,000 (arbitrary number) and then take over his payments with him signing over the title to me. That must sound like a long shot but I thought if (big if) I could track him down it might be worth the effort. The next avenue that I thought might hold some promise was, if some how they kept public record of who owned the house and who the original mortgage was through. Then I could contact that bank and see if I could work something out with them. I’m not sure if any of this is realistic but I figured here would be the place to ask. If anyone could help I would be greatly appreciative, and if you need more info from me I would be more than happy to provide it. Thank you.
Checkout the subject to forum. It might sound familiar to you after you start reading some posts.
Roger
your local court house (records division) will be able to tell you who the house belongs to and possibly the bank that holds the mortgage. I wouldn't offer any money upfront. First just ask if he would be interested in taking the house off his hands. Might be able to just take over the note(give him only what he owes)At least thats where I would start then you can go from there.