wondering about Nh Bank Foreclosure
I'm getting ready to close on a big, wonderful home in
southern NH. It was foreclosed upon this spring
or summer.
I never thought much about buying foreclosed properties,
but now I'm a tad concerned. The previous owners had
this house custom built at the height of a housing boom
in the area -- it cost them a good deal of money ($350K+).
It looks like they just didn't have enough $$ after that
to finish the inside (no tub in master bath, 1/2 finished
room over garage) or maintain the outside (paint badly
peeling, masonry never finished off, wood rotted all
around, scrub and weeds where a lawn should be).
When they left, they ripped out every single movable
object, leaving a couple nice gaping wallboard holes,
and took every single light fixture. They let kids
scribble on the wallpaper and trim in crayon.
In short, these were not happy people.
Need I be concerned about them coming back for
"visits" when they see a young couple moving into
"their" house, fixing it all up and changing it??
{I have no real reason to suspect that these poor folks
were just in over their heads but are otherwise
emotionally stable, but I guess you never know.]
Would anyone advise talking to the neighbors, to try
and find out what happened?
Thanks for any and all advice & comments from others
who have bought foreclosures, and those who've been
foreclosed upon.
_In my experience this is quite normal for foreclosures in general. Many
families will be living in a sonn-to-be foreclosure for about 1.5 years
before they are forced out. In that time - nothing gets done. No
vacuuming, no painting, no repairs, no nothing.
_We bought our first house 6 years ago - a foreclosure too. The
previous owners did'nt trash the house, but left an incredible mess
everywhere. Fortunately, the real estate agent had everything
professionally cleaned just before we moved in so that was not a
problem.
We never knew who they were until we took our (new) puppy to the local
vet. When he heard our address, he started telling us about the
family that used to live in our house. He knew them well: they had
three Great Danes! (Maybe at this point I should mention that ours is
a rural property, with stables and a few acres of land!)
The only visit we ever got was from one of the daughters (they
apparently had three children). Seeing us in the front yard one day,
she very politely introduced herself, and asked if she could tour the
gardens, to see if anything had changed (of course, we obliged!). On
that day, we also learned that her parents, now divorced, lived only a
few blocks away.
In fact, the only problems we ever encountered (aside from the
occasional wrongly addressed letter for which we now had a forwarding
address) were related to the house, as there was no one to answer our
questions: how did the garbage disposal work? how old was the septic
tank? how expensive was it to heat the house (VERY, as we later found
out) ? There are still some gadgets in the house we know nothing
about: do they work? what are they supposed to do ? Every time we
get a tradesman in, we learn a bit more: the plumber discovered that
the shower could be turned into a sauna, and the electrician informed
us last year that we had central air.
All in all, we have never regretted buying a foreclosure: the house
is bigger and better than anything we could have ever afforded, and
the discoveries, although not all good ones, keep life interesting.
Your prospective house sounds wonderful - even without a tub! I know
that if *I* were to pass up such an opportunity, for fears of
something that will probably never happen, I would never forgive
myself! (I would however, have the house thoroughly inspected,
especially the rotting wood you mentioned. You want to make sure that
they didn't scrimp on the something basic... like the structure.)
_in some states - the people foreclosed upon have the right to
"redeem" the property by paying off the remainder of their old
mortgage plus any forclosure expenses