"I use my RE attorney to deal with banks for REO. They at least seem a little more responsive. At least with REO you are not bidding, but having an attorney to negotiate and deal with the bank still seems to make things go smoother." We are in a similar situation. We are cash buyers who recently made an offer on a house that the present seller picked up at foreclosure last year. The seller painted and did lots of cosmetic work but did not replace the 20+ yr. old furnace. The furnace died during the inspection and had to be replaced. Now I understand why. We are using a RE attorney to represent us instead of an agent. We have used agents in the past with little success. They told seller's agents too much about us and tried other tricks that showed how little their allegiance to us was. Funny thing. Even though we are using an attorney, the seller's agent tried to trick us into signing a dual agency statement anyway. Why would they do this when we already have representation? We told our attorney that unless they were willing to split their commission with him, we would not be signing this. Our attorney gave us another form to sign and faxed this off to the seller's agent. Apparently it angered the owner of the realty, because he felt it necessary to go out of his way to call our attorney and tell him not to expect any of the commission money. How lame is that?! One more reason why we are glad we are using someone who we know is on our side.

"Is this called trespassing?" I feel certain that it is. But I don't think I'm going to get any grief for it. It's empty and on the market with a huge pile of trash in the driveway. I walked around it at first to peek in windows and check it out The back door was open (I'm not sure it locks). I'm not saying it's not trespassing. I'm just saying that it's not going to be a problem.

We purchased our home as an "AS IS" foreclosure with a VA loan.. I can tell you that there is no such thing as reduced pricing simply because it is listed as AS IS when it comes to a home loan if that is what you are asking? The lending party will inspect and appraise the house and property at what they consider a reasonable price whether you feel it is reasonable or not regardless of the asking price.. The inspection will reveal in written detail what is acceptable and what is not.. AS IS means as it stands NOW..meaning that the institution that owns it will not put any further work into that property for repairs etc. It's up to the foreclosing owners to decide if they will make any improvements such as roofing, etc. to get the property sold but usually AS IS means no further repairs unless the prospective buyers want to throw money into that property and bring is up to inspection codes before going to closing. It would be foolish to throw your own money into housing that may in the end not be yours.. Keep in mind that YOU will be paying for all inspections and appraisals most likely..we did anyhow.. I will admit freely that the VA and FHA have a very thorough inspection system which is for your benefit and we have dealt with both of these government backed loans. I will also mention from experience that foreclosures are almost certain to have liens of some type on them and ours was not discovered until the title search was completed and that lien must be paid off by the owning/foreclosure institution and that sure held up our closing date. I am sure others have had exceptionally good results with buying a foreclosed property, we didn't, and I will never deal with a foreclosed property again. I see nothing wrong with the concrete flooring as long as it's not cracked, it is acceptable flooring in different parts of the country. I would definitely contact the owning institution listed by way of the realtor and get your answers upfront as to who and what resposibilities are for each party. YOUR lending institution is there to safe guard you and themselves, not so with the sellers. Good luck and happy house hunting and get it ALL in writing!

Jeri, My clients are about to close on a REO, and the process went quite smoothly and we got an answer within 2 weeks. It's a beautiful house, and we got the bank to pay for radon remediation, which is rare. I've been doing BPOs for quite some time. It seems like my pre-REOs were just research for the bank. Most of my current BPO activity is most likely for REO listings that have received an offer and the bank wants to know the condition and market value (interior)for verification. In my market, if you make a "fair" bid, you'll get countered, then it's up to you to decide where you want to take it. Good luck!