Is a pre-Tax forclosure sale possible?

Question

My wife and I have been looking for a new primary for a long time. We found a house that is going to be auctioned next week for a Williamson county tax foreclosure sale. This house is in Texas and the auction is only about a week away.

My question is this: Is there anyway we can legally buy the house before it goes to auction and if so how do we do that? Is this a typical kind of situation for finding a motivated seller?Thx!

Mark Scarola · Answer

Yes @Stephen Gregory it is possible. If you contacted the current homeowner and they were willing to sell it to you. The advantage to you is obviously avoiding the auction and bidding. The advantage to the homeowner is avoiding foreclosure and preserving their credit. You'd be offering them a chance to start over with a grey cloud over their heads. Of course there's no guarantee that they'd be open to your offer.

Stephen Gregory · Answer

thanks for all the feedback guys! I really appreciate people taking time out of their day to help me out.

Unfortunately, we didn't go through with the deal. We found out that they owed uncle Sam $70 in back taxes which we would have to pay. Then on top of they had absolutely no equity in the house. They still owed Wells Fargo for the same amount the home is worth...

Thx again!

Brent Fleeman · Answer

@Stephen Gregory before you do this check with you local tax assessor for there rules. In Ga I can buy the property at a tax auction but the original owner has up to 1 years to reclaim it, if they are willing to pay the interest and penalties on the said back taxes they would be able to get it back and any upgrades done to the property would be free to them, good luck hopefully it won't be the same case for your state.