Closed our first HUD Repo

All I have to say is finally.  We made our first original offer on this house in February.

Step 1: Our agent sent executed contracts to the HUD office in Sacramento.  45 Days later I noticed the product shows as Active again and call my agent.  He calls HUD and they never received the contracts.  Luckily, he is used to dealing with HUD and saved the tracking numbers.  The property is back to pending.

Step 2: Escrow tells me there property has no home owners association.  Both the agent and myself told them this was not the case.  After two weeks they emailed me and told me they cannot locate the HOA.  I have my title officer track it down and forward the email to them.

Step 3: The escrow company makes me drive to their designated office to get the notary’s done.  They have two options in Southern California.  The lady who is knew to the company proceeds to tell me that every customer she signs is extremely unhappy with the process.

Step 4: We’re now past our agreed upon closing date, so they are going to charge me a per day fee and extension fee unless I send all funds to escrow.  They continue to sit for 21 days while they wait for HUD to approve the final documents.

This process basically has had me re-consider buying other HUD homes. Or at least factor in a bigger margin for the difficulty involved.  The worst part is, the process makes me even less confident in government organizations.

The agent that we worked with on this one deals exclusively with HUD and tells me the average HUD foreclose falls out of escrow 3 times.  He has multiple listings that he has been dealing with for over two years!

Now some HUD Buying Tips

• For HUD escrows you get a minimum of 45 days.
• Deposit is a cashiers check made out to “HUD or Your Name.” $500 for under 50k, $2,000 for over 50k.
• HUD requires their agents to have special training and the offer forms are specific to HUD and not a association of Realtors form.
• The contracts are not assignable.
• Agents go to a web site to submit offers, they are reviewed every 24 hrs.
• They have guidelines, I think they automatically reject anything under 80% of the asking price, but I could be wrong.

PS: Have you noticed more posts lately.  My goal was 10 blog posts this month and I have a week to do 1 more.

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