buying forclosed home...need advice
 

Hi guys I live in Michigan under the Dictatorship of the "Jenny". she has crushed our economy to the point it looks like rats leaving a sinking ship. I have the opportunity to double the size of my house buying a forclosed home. one of the ones I'm looking at needs $40,000 in finish work and details. its on 10.7 acres and is in Saline schools which aren't bad. my problem is I would have to sell my place to buy the new one. I am very warey of the market around here even though a neighbor sold out in 3 days.
one of the other things I have to ask is how effiecent are radiant floor heat systems? this thing must have $50,000 in heating and cooling in it and its just daughting to look at as compaired to my current home. its about 2400 square main floor and its a full walkout with poured under floor heat in both the basement and 3 car garage with 12 foot ceiling , plus it has a 32 x 48 garage out back. all for $294,900.00. mine is worth about $275,000 on 8 acres 15 miles away in Chelsea.
tell me what you guys think

Re: buying forclosed home...need advice
 

Take the upgrade and rent out your existing house till the market picks up. That way you will still build equity in your existing house while you rent it out or see if a real estate company will do a contingency sale (kind of a unicorn in todays market). Just some thoughts.

Re: buying forclosed home...need advice
 

Unless you have the funds (meaning you got money) make the offer on the new place based on selling yours. Many people won't accept that kind of offer but you will never know till you try...

and radiant floors work great...

Re: buying forclosed home...need advice
 

radiant floors can be problematic. If you get a leak you are in big trouble. If a freeze or poor workmanship in the install of the pipe in the concrete occured big bucks to fix.
Get a good inspection for leaks and quality construct if possible:beerchug:

Re: buying forclosed home...need advice
 

What are property taxes like in your area? per square footage

Yes, run that radiant system for a while before you purchase and put it through its paces.

can you afford both mortgages at this time? If you can, then rent the current home out and make the new mortgage out of pocket.

Acres, lucky dawg :beerchug:

Re: buying forclosed home...need advice
 

the house was built over the course of a couple years I'm guessing. the builder owned it before he skiped to texas. as for the heating system the bank people had it up and running when I walked it the other day. the odd thing is the fact the main floor of the house is forced air with radiant in the 3 baths. the giant Byrant furnace has the boiler built right in the heating plenum. I was looking at the things like kitchen cabinets and they are nice. but the guys cheaped on counter tops as I think he was running out of cash while building. can you say "Formica"? everything else is top notch right down to the commercial size fridge(48" wide) the main thing its 4 bedrooms vs. the 3 we have now. as for Taxes its listed at $6,800 right now based on `06 tax rolls.

one odd question. the thing has trucks and trailers and equipment sitting around the barn. what does the law say about that when buying?

Re: buying forclosed home...need advice
 

Just an FYI I did the home builders inspection course a couple years back and just didn't take the time to get the licence. I have a couple buddys I asked about the system in the HVAC business and they said its great system if its done right. I figured some of you have them so I would ask the horse so to speak.

Re: buying forclosed home...need advice
 

If you want email me, I specialize in seller foreclosed homes, have sold nearly 2000 of them.

Some things you have to worry about with radiant heat is freeze damage. If you know when the home was vacated by the prior mortgagor, that is helpful but if you dont, its a crap shoot as to if the system will be intact and operational. Dont think that just because a property was winterized means the system is operational.

Most banks wont accept a home sale contingency. In other words, I wont buy the new home till my current home sells.

My email address is erameridianreo@comcast.net Just make sure you put your screen name on this site in the subject line and reference the hummer forum.

I'll help you out as best I can.

Mike

Re: buying forclosed home...need advice
 

sent you a email Mike