How to find HUD houses?

Question

I'm on someone's list who sells HUD houses to investors. But I'm thinking... If they're HUD houses, I could probably get the list myself for free from the government? How do I see the condition of these houses?

Greg H. · Answer

@Patrick Philip

Do a search on BP for a thread Secrets of buying Hud Homes or something like that.  I have posted a lot of information there that will answer most of your questions

Greg H. · Answer

Hudhomestore.com is the official site and it is free

Kuba F. · Answer

It's the price the home is listed at.  You can bid lower, and as long as you're the highest bidder your offer should be accepted provided it meets their acceptance criteria and no earlier bid has already been accepted.

Mike H. · Answer

Hud house lists are definitely available for free. If you want to see the condition, just get a realtor and have them let you in. Here is where you'll find all the hud houses available for sale.  This person that says they're "selling" hud houses does not have any exclusive anything to them unless they're the listing agent or something. But that just means they get a commission if the house sells. It doesn't mean that you can only see them if you go through them.

http://www.hudhomestore.com

Shawn Q. · Answer

I would also recommend scouring those listings pretty carefully. I'm sitting in a HUD foreclosure purchase that was listed as a 3 bed/1 bath which is actually a 4 bed/2 bath. Listing errors like that can mean an immediate positive return.

Mike H. · Answer

Some quick tips. The longer the house sits, the larger the discount. Also, the longer it sits, the more they'll drop the price. Its been awhile since I was really in tune with the formula because our area has been a ghost town for hud houses the past year or so but....

I think you can typically get the house at between 85 to 90% of the list price during the first month or so. Now that discount is based off the net price to hud. So if a house is listed at 100k and you bid 85k net to hud, that actually puts your offer at around 90k to 91k.

If it lasts 2 months, I believe they drop it 10% so that the new list price will be 90k and they will then take 80% of the list price (again, as a net to hud amount). So they would take 72k as the net price to hud which ends up being roughly 77k to 78k as your offer.

And if it sits another month after that, they'll drop it another 10% to 81k and then they'd take 70% of that. 57k net to hud which is like 62k or so.

But don't be afraid to offer less at any time. Every so often they break from their formula and you can get one out of the typical discount ranges.

Ultimately, if you want to find a good hud deal, find one thats been sitting for 3 months and has had two price drops and then come in at 70% of that. As long as they didn't overprice it significantly from the get go (which is sometimes the case), you can pick up some surprising deals.

Keep in mind. In this market there's usually a reason for a house to sit that long. There's usually some characteristic that makes very unattractive to owner occupants and flippers. Busy street, no cabinets, bad roof, etc.

Patrick Philip · Answer

On the HUD site, it says "list price." Is this a firm price that I can buy at, or is this the lowest possible price at an auction?

How to find HUD houses?

Most Popular Reply