Buying a Foreclosure in Central Oregon

The first steps in buying a foreclosure

Do you want to buy a foreclosure in Bend and don't know how to get started?  The first step is to get a list of all of the foreclosures available on the MLS.  Visit my Foreclosure Search page to sign up to receive a list of foreclosures in the Bend area matching your needs.  Foreclosures can sell quickly, so its important that you get updates on new listings coming on the market. 

Making an offer on a foreclosure

You found the perfect foreclosure... now what?  All of the banks and asset managers handle their foreclosure listings a little bit different.  But for the most part the process goes like this:

First you write up an offer on our normal, state real estate agreement forms.  Usually the banks will also want a copy of a check for earnest money, and sometimes they'll require it to be a cashiers check. 

You then have your agent submit your offer to the listing agent.  They forward the offer to the bank.  Usually within 1-7 days you'll get a verbal response to your offer.  This will either be a counter offer, rejection, or acceptance of your offer.  After a verbal offer has been negotiated and accepted by both parties, the bank will then send their addendums and contract (this can take several days sometimes).  This is where you need a Bend real estate agent with foreclosure knowledge.  The banks forms supersede the orignial state contract.  Inspection periods may change, dates may change, and other contingency periods may change.

If the buyer accepts the bank contract, they then sign it and send it back to the asset manager with the earnest money check.  The offer is still not binding!  Until the bank signs the contract and sends it back, the bank can still look at other offers (although usually they honor their verbal acceptance).  Typically all contingency periods start once the buyer receives the signed contract back from the bank.

Title / Escrow Companies

Most of the banks and asset managers use a title company of their choice.  This could be a local title company, but most of the time escrow is opened at a title company out of the area, and even out of state.  This can create problems if the agent doesn't know how these title companies work.  In most cases, having an out of the area title company won't cause major problems, but it can cause delays in closing.

Home Inspections

The banks usually winterize their listings from about October to April in the Bend area. This means that the home has to be dewinterized prior to doing an inspection.  While most of the time the bank will do this for you, there are some banks that will require that the buyer pay to have the home dewinterized, and rewinterized after the home inspection. 

The home inspection negotiation process on a foreclosure is a bit different than one on a owner owned Bend home.  Usually you can negotiate with the owners to fix small things that come up in the inspection.  But the banks typically will only address major issues that involve health, safety, or the ability to sell the home.  This may include broken pipes, major electrical, or major roof damage.  The banks usually aren't going to pay to fix small things like dripping fixtures, holes in the wal, missing outlet covers, etc. 

So when you make your offer on a bank owned home in the Bend area, make sure to inspect the property thoroughly before hand.  And keep in consideration that the bank is probably not going to do any repairs.

Closing

The buyers signing usually happens at a local title company.  Then the documents have to be shipped back to the assigned title company.  That company then reviews the documents and forwards them to the lender (if any) for final review.  This process can take a couple more days than usual.  Especially if the title company is located on the east coast.

Your New Bend Home

After you've closed escrow on the Bend area foreclosure, you'll want to make sure to change the locks on all of the exterior doors. Usually banks and asset managers have all of their foreclosures keyed to the same key.  This means that hundreds of keys are floating around that fit your new houses locks.  Change the locks and enjoy your new Bend home.

If you have any questions about buying a foreclosure in the Bend area, please call me.