A Story about Todays Volatile Real Estate Market: Buying a Foreclosed Home
If you have excellent credit, it seems that the process should be easier for you to buy a home especially in the current real estate market. According to the news, this isn’t necessarily true. Banks or mortgage companies may not be easier to deal with than home owners who are eager to sell. Every part of the real estate market has been hit with the changes in the economy. Many banks and mortgage companies have gone out of business during this difficult time. Others are having a hard time staying afloat. Not only have millions of home owners lost their houses, real estate agents are having a difficult time making a living in the current market. A prospective buyer I spoke with told me that his real estate agent won’t even meet him at a property.
The buyer has to drive the real estate agent to the property because the agent wants to save on gas. What a change that is from previous times! One thing that concerned me was the fact that the bank who now owns this particular foreclosed property would not even have the water turned on at that house. Even when the prospective buyer offered to pay the $50 fee to have it turned on, the bank refused to have it done. Since this property has a well, I found it particularly disconcerting that the buyer would not have the opportunity to get a water sample for the health department to check for problems. When you are planning to buy a house that is listed over $200,000, don’t you think that it is reasonable to want the water turned on in that house? According to the real estate agent, this particular house sold for almost $400,000 two years ago and was foreclosed this past winter.