How can I buy a foreclosed home for a couple hundred dollars? I mean what's the catch?

Question

How can I buy a foreclosed home for a couple hundred dollars? I mean what's the catch?

Answer 1

We have a property here in my city that recently came up for foreclosure that has about $400 left on the mortgage.

You want to know why I didn't buy it?

Because it also has $64,000 worth of tax liens, and another $80K in judgements against it.

The house is only worth about $90K

Now you know what the catch is.  Never, ever buy a foreclosure without doing a title search.

Answer 2

Hmm.. maybe there is something seriously wrong with the house and it needs ALOT of work? Seems kinda fishy, but I would still set something up to at least go look at it.

Answer 3

Aah no doubt you're looking on line at some foreclosure website, right?

In all likelihood, there is another listing for another mortgage on that property, or what you're seeing is the default in the association dues on a property, which is second to a mortgage loan.  So no, you can't buy a house for $200.

Answer 4

If the bank was owed $10,000 (that's the smallest loan a bank would make), they might accept $200 cash just to get rid of it.  If the loan was $50,000, they probably wouldn't. /

Answer 5

Try here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?i...

Good luck

Answer 6

There are private investors that make a living out of buying foreclosed homes and the chance that it would go for a hundred dollars would never happen.  Land is even worth more than that.  The home may need to be gutted and redone before getting an occupancy.  

I think it is a scam to get your money for lists of property in your area.  You can actually just go into a bank and ask for a list of foreclosures that they have.  Often, the bank just wants to get back what is owed on the property, but that would never be just a couple of hundred of dollars.  There may be liens, back taxes, etc. owed on the home which would be your responsibility to take over.

Please watch for the scams.  Best of luck to you.