Washington State redemption periods

[Greg Lovern]

In Washington State after a foreclosure auction, does the former homeowner normally get to stay in the home during the redemption period? Or can the new owner normally evict them and bring in a paying tenant during the redemption period?

[Jay Hinrichs]

Originally posted by @Sam Shueh:

You own the property when titles are recorded officially.

it goes both ways in WA  when I was buying courthouse steps there.  if vacant of course we went in same day as the sale and changed the locks  just had to show up with our receipt from the auction to show the lock smith.

if occupied some companies will just start the eviction and that seems to work.. Me I tried to negotiate with them . and depending on their attitude would decide what to do.

also if I showed up and the house was in perfect shape and not a dump I might even lease back for a year. 

we all need to understand that the family losing the house is usually highly stressed.  and that can manifest itself in many ways.

from anger at you the buyer and they destroy the house on their way out..   refuse to leave and you have to evict.  

or just emotional melt downs.. more than a few times when I showed up at the door the one spouse was unaware that the house was even in foreclosure because the other spouse hid it from them.  I have also had 3 suicide attempts  and one was successful 

so its important to look at the human side of these deals and not just you the investor and whats in it for you .. we were the largest buyers of courthouse steps in Southern WA for years so been through multi hundreds of these deals..