Is It Difficult To Buy A Foreclosed Home in North Carolina?

If you are looking to purchase a foreclosure in North Carolina please watch the video below and then give me a call or visit my master page on foreclosures. Myself or someone on my team will be able to assist you in this complicated process. We have helped people buy foreclosures in Chatham County and Wake County and from Pittsboro to Chapell Hill and Raleigh, Cary and everywhere in between.

Is It Difficult To Buy A Foreclosed Home in North Carolina?

Simply put, yes, buying a foreclosed home is much more difficult than a traditional home purchase. For starters, there is very little negotiating to be done with a bank when purchasing a foreclosed home. Assuming a property is listed for a nice, round $100k, a buyer may only offer $70-80k, which wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for a standard home purchase. However, it’s highly unlikely that the bank will accept anything that low. They may return with a counter offer of $95k, just slightly below the original listed price, but that’s the end of it. They absolutely will not go any lower at that point in time.

However, if the property remains unsold at that price, they will slowly over time reduce the asking price until there is an agreement between the bank and a buyer. A $70k offer may have rejected several months ago, but with calculated price adjustments over an extended period of time, the property may actually sell for that amount today.

Foreclosed properties are very often listed for below market value to begin with, meaning there are likely several parties interested in the property at any given time. The bank have no interest in shorting themselves a single dollar in the interest in moving the property quickly. They will take their time, and turn the largest profit possible, without any kind of back and forth negotiation.

The legal paperwork is also different in the foreclosed property world. Rather than using a standard intent to purchase form, the banks often rewrite these in order to give themselves an advantage. These forms are filled with complicated legal language, and it’s vital to have an attorney that can read and interpret these documents

The changes are likely to indicate that the bank will not be responsible or involved in any repairs or known issues with the property, and to limit the window available to back out of the agreement. What is usually a period of several weeks can be shortened to as little as 5-10 days. Being able to secure an inspection quickly is important, otherwise you’ll end up losing your due diligence money if there are red flags found and you choose to back out after the cut off date.