4 Tricks to Being the Winning Bid for that Foreclosed Property

Buying a new home is already a daunting and stressful undertaking. Making offers on homes that are foreclosed can be even more confusing and often frustrating. Every selling bank has their own requirements, processes, and buyer selection criteria. Nobody (not even your agent), can know all the details of why a bank does what they do.

When the real estate market heats up there can be many people competing for the same foreclosed houses. You may have lost many great homes and just can't figure out why. Here are some tricks that I have learned over my years of working with customers to buy Maple Grove Homes:

1. Surprisingly, many real estate agents have not sold many foreclosed properties. These agents may be great at selling occupied homes or listing your home, but if they don't have the experience in working with banks and what it takes to get your offer accepted, consider finding another Realtor.
2. Banks just want to sell these homes. They want that process to go as smoothly as possible as most banks have 1000s of properties to sell each month. Do not ask the bank to perform any repairs. Typically they will simply set your offer aside and move onto another offer that does not have any of these requests.
3. Never put a time limit on your purchase agreement. Many buyers think that if say the offer expires in x days, the bank will respond quicker. The bank is on its own time frame. As I mentioned above, the bank has 1000s of houses to sell each month. They are not going to pay attention to what one buyer wants!
4. Refrain from using any non-standard language in your purchase agreement. Do not try to use assign to, access prior to closing or seller shall. Again, the bank does not have time to work with the minute details of this transaction. Also be sure to submit all required paperwork from the bank at the time of your initial offer. I check the MLS MN prior to writing an offer for any bank documents.

Whether your are buying your first home or your are a real estate investor, these simple tricks may help you land that home that you always wanted. Use them wisely and keep making offers till you get one accepted!