The Boeglin Team’s most recent experience in assisting a buyer to purchase a foreclosed home highlights the pitfalls that can infect such a transaction.  We successfully closed a transaction last Wednesday evening after nearly 2 months of frustration, delays, and extensions.  In the end, our buyer got a bargain price on a decent home in a nice neighborhood.  But it wasn’t easy to get there.

The transaction began with an “as is with right to inspect” cash offer that was acceptable to the Bank (owner) of the home.  From there, it was a “take it or leave it” approach with a new contract on forms required by the Bank, which clearly protected the Bank’s interests.  If the buyer wanted to buy this property, it was going to be on the Bank’s terms.  In my former career as an attorney, I would have advised against signing such a one-sided contract.  I pointed out the biased provisions of the contract, the buyer held his nose, and signed the Bank’s contract because he really wanted to buy this house. 

From this point forward, it should have been a simple deal.  Unfortunately, there were little things like:

•  Past due utility bills that the Bank needed to clean up
• Arranging for utility services so that the inspection could take place
• A sewage assessment lien against the property of nearly $4,000—which the Bank eventually agreed to pay off at closing
• City of Bonita Springs Code Enforcement liens against the Bank on other properties it owned as a result of other foreclosures—totaling $140,000—that were liens against our home under Florida law and needed to be negotiated and released
• A Virginia title company trying to handle unfamiliar issues involving Florida laws and customs
• Too many foreclosure files for the title company to make this transaction a priority
• A Fort Myers brokerage firm with too many foreclosure listings to give this transaction the attention it deserved

If you are interested in buying a foreclosed home from a Bank, our advice is to not “go it alone”.  Be prepared for bumps along the way, and be patient.  Involve an experienced professional at the outset.  If the home is in or near Bonita Springs, Florida, the Coldwell Banker Boeglin Team would be a good choice.

Tags: boeglin team bointa springs, buying foreclosure bonita springs fl, buying home bonita springs, experienced realtor bonita springs, foreclosure pitfalls bonita springs florida, foreclosures bonita springs

Posted on Sunday, March 14th, 2010 at 12:54 PM and is filed under Foreclosures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.