Just as the title says, I’m wondering whether it is common for foreclosed homes to be priced at exactly $6500 for some reason. Odd question, but straightforward enough I think!
Never heard of it. In fact, why on earth would a foreclosed home be priced at $6500? Banks want to get their money back, not give them away. Unless that’s just an opening bid price, but again I’ve never heard that before. In my experience, the opening bid is typically the amount owed, to guarantee that the bank gets what is due. And I used to work for a title company, and did plenty of research on foreclosures for customers.
Okay, thanks. I ask because the father of a good friend of ours is some kind of real estate tycoon and the friend said her dad happens to have a property near us which he will sell to us very cheap. I looked it up online, and found out it’s currently listed at $6500 and it’s a foreclosure. I googled $6500 together with foreclosure and got a lot of hits directly on sales, whereas when I tried $7500 I got mostly links that were not directly to sales. Not a very thorough method, I know, but I wondered if there was some special relationship between $6500 and home foreclosures, due to some government rule or something.
Further investigation has revealed that the property “needs some repairs.” How much? Nothing online clarifies. Also, if I understand the location correctly, it’s not in a good neighborhood. So we’ll need to check on this. It’s looking like he may be trying to foist off a very crappy property on us. On the other hand, we are in a very unfortunate living situation right now, and believe it or not, a $6500 house that “needs some repairs” may be better!
It’s listed at $6500? Not an opening bid, but an actual listing amount? That sounds sketchy as hell. I mean, the land it’s sitting on is almost assuredly worth far more than $6500, regardless of where you are. It’s either a scam or there’s some very important info missing.
Oh! Is it possible that $6500 is the fee you pay to the realtor, but you’re required to assume the defaulted loan, which is far, far more?
Also look out for liens. You’ll become responsible for paying them off. One common one is unpaid property tax. If the city had to go in and board up windows or mow the lawn, the cost of that would be attached to the property, too.