Home for Christmas...err...New Years...ummm....maybe by President's Day...

[white_rabbit_1]

Well, after a weekend of looking at houses, we found one that we liked enough to place an offer on. We sat down (Steve, my father and myself) with the realator, James and talked numbers. Not just with the price of the home itself, closing costs, percentage rates, what an FHA loan covers and does not cover, PMI, Home Insurance, attorney fees,

Comments

[methuss]

A short-sale is not a "bank-owned" property. A short-sale means the bank is a 3rd party to the price negotiations. The bank may or may not reject the price you and the owner agree on if it is less than what the property owner owes. The problem is getting the bank to agree on a short-sale quickly is like asking the government for documents on Roswell. It takes a very long time.

"bank owned" means the property has already been foreclosed and is a REO. This also means the occupants are not paying the mortgage any more and are very likely not to be taking care of the property.

If it is a short-sale, then it means the owner is at least 3 months behind on their mortgage payments and either is or soon will be in a foreclosure. Once the foreclosure process starts, it will be impossible to negotiate a short-sale because that means the mortgage company will have to take a loss on the lawyer fees paid to the foreclosure firm.

Also one mor ething to be aware of. The property taxes may be behind....and if you buy it the back taxes are your problem to deal with. Property taxes are a debt that rides with the land, so beware of that.

Luckily, you can check the county assessors office to see if the taxes have been paid. Just google "Cook County property tax" or whatever county the property is in. There is usually a by address search.