Buying a Foreclosure Home
Understanding the process of buying a foreclosure will help reduce the stress on everyone involved and increase your odds of a successful transaction.
Pre-Approval
This is a must! The same as purchasing a typical home, start the loan process before making an offer. This avoids surprises and can save you from paying a penalty for closing late or even losing the Earnest Money Deposit (EMD). Your offer must be accompanied by a letter or verification from your lender. Make sure this is the lender that you will use, once terms are agreed upon, the bank will not allow you to switch.
The Offer
The asset manager/seller will not pay for any inspections. Do not add any built in contract extensions (paragraph 18 of the state contract) as the seller addendum will supersede. Do not ask for the seller to pay for any certificates of assessment, HOA, regime, termite bond or other transfer fees.
Do not add contingencies, “subject to” or “seller will” paragraphs to your offer - it will lessen your chance of successfully purchasing your home. Do not put an offer expiration on your offer -the asset manager will not respond to deadlines. You want a clean offer.
The foreclosure process is much different than your typical sale. With a foreclosure, the seller calls all the shots. Some terms will be deleted from the usual contract, some terms may be added that may not be familiar. Please read this entire contract to make sure you understand it. Addendums are often times added. That verbiage will always supercede a contract, so make sure that you understand the terms, as well.
The biggest piece of advice that I can give is to use an experienced buyer's agent to help you navigate through this process.
Below is the list of area foreclosure lists for Charleston and Dorchester Counties.