Buying/Selling a HUD Home

Lately there has been a lot of interest in HUD homes.  I see them coming on, including a recent one in Skaneateles.  Candy Costa, the agent who was handling the listing, told me of a little-advertised class to be taught by Ray Warda of BLB Resources, the new asset management company (since October 2016) for our area.  So I went yesterday morning for a couple hours to the GSAR building and was one of about 60 agents to attend. I have to admit I saw no one I knew from our area.

Ray likes bullets - keep it simple when e-mailing him, he said.  This blog follows that dictum.

• The goal for the talk: "To bring agents from hate to slightly like HUD homes."
• When searching for a HUD home, start with the HUD Home Store first.  Listings will appear there before they reach the MLS.
• After a bid is placed there will be a quick response, usually within 24 hours.
• An owner occupant is defined as a buyer who will make the home his/her primary residence for 12 months.  He/she may not have purchased a HUD home within the past 24 months.
• Closing expectations:    investors and cash buyers - 30 days; 45 days for financed homes;  60 days allowed for financing with a 203K loan
• Extensions may be granted in 15 day intervals for a cost of $10/day
• The down payment can be as low as $100
• http://.BLBResources.com 
• http://FarnettRealEstate.com   (Candy Costa's brokerage) 
• http://Adolfi.com   John Adolfi also handles HUD homes and has for many years.
• http://www.HUDHomeStore.com

Did it make me like HUD homes any better?  Not really.  I find the process very stressful because of the time factor and the little unimportant (to me) issues, such as using blue ink to verify that someone actually touched the paper.  Bidding is done online and with deadlines that can be hours away.  Once a bid is accepted, all the pages must be sent out within 48 hours. I think the closing deadlines are extremely short for owner occupants who finance.  When I successfully sold a home a couple years ago John Adolfi and his staff were incredibly helpful and talked me through it, as well as Martin Carpenter of RE/MAX Realty Plus.  Of course HUDs wait for no one - it was being processed while I was on a rare vacation.  Of course!

The crowd - and I do mean crowd - was attentive and quiet for two hours while Ray took everyone through the process.  We see so few homes in the Skaneateles area that are HUD homes, and there are so many other online bidding companies, it is difficult to practice once the process is learned.  But was the workshop helpful?  Yes.