I will say this up front - I can't make this post short. If you're not into reading long posts, move along, 'cause this might (and most likely will) get ugly and there'll probably be come colorful language to boot. 
So, on that note, let's take a journey into "real estate hell," shall we?
<rant>
All this BS started back in July of 2011. My wife and I decided we wanted a vacation property out in the mountains, and since West Virginia wasn't too far away from where we live we decided to start looking there. We were always big fans of Berkeley Springs, WV and stayed in cabins there quite a few times. It's quite beautiful out there. After mulling over it for over a year, we decided buy. I just have this thing for the mountains, I can't help it. 
During this process, keep in mind that the wife and I were looking for a house/cabin in the sub-$80,000 range. We knew we'd be looking mostly at forclosures, and knew they'd need work, but we were ok with that as long as the work wasn't "major." We are the type of people that aren't afraid to get dirty and do some work. Also, keep in mind this is a vacation place - a "weekend getaway" for us and friends and whoever else we'd like to bring along. Not looking to rent the place, just to go and hang out whenever we felt like getting away from it all.
House #1: So, the first place we found that we wanted we decided to put a contract on it. It was in Gerrardstown, WV. Mostly nice area, some very nice neighborhoods there. Anyway, the first house we found was awesome - all it needed was some yard work and one water pipe repair (it was pvc, which means a 20 minute fix, max) - or so we would have believed. We put a contract on it, it was accepted. Keep in mind this is a Fannie Mae property. Also keep in mind that Fannie/Freddie were started by the gov't (that should've been a red flag right there!) to help people get into houses. Little did we realize how UNTRUE that is.
So, the contract was accepted, we went out a few days later to get the septic inspected and do a home inspection. As soon as we showed up the neighbor rushed over and proceeded to explain to us that the drain fields for the septic were bubbling up out of the ground and leaking onto her property. Great.  After some talks with Fannie Mae, they won't do the repairs, and I was not spending $8000+ for a new septic on this foreclosure. That property was essentially axed. One a side note: the house still has not gone back up on the market almost a year later. Turns out they found out there was a lien against the title of the house - so even had the septic system & drain fields been ok, we still would've been screwed. REAL nice, eh? you'd think Fannie Mae would do their research before putting it up on the market, right? Yeah, riiiight.
House #2: This one was a nice little place that had an addition that was added a few years after the house was built and was leaking a bit from the roof, but a quick inspection made it evident that it was only some bad flashing that needed to be repaird where the addition's roof met with the rest of the house. Easy enough, right?. Went to put a bid in on it - was out-bid by someone else. What's fishy is this: in the state of west virginia, the selling realtor can also represent the BUYER - can't do that in the state I live, but in West VA, that's the case. And that's what happened - the other offer was higher than ours, but I believe the selling realtor told HER buyer what our offer was and they bid just a bit higher and got it. Shit. That was a Freddie Mac property.
House #3: we found what could almost be considered a "tiny house" - it was an A-frame that was only 659 sq. ft. A loft, a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom and a single bedroom - but it was secluded on a BEAUTIFUL piece of property surrounded on 3 sides by a reviene and streams. Perfect for the wifey and I and our son as a quick weekend getaway. We really didn't need much more. The place was listed for $25,900 - it was a tiny little A-Frame house that had some issues, but nothing that we couldn't have taken care of. Offer made & contract accepted, we went to do a house inspection. We had to turn on the water at the street, do our inspection, but upon returning to turn the water off, the "pit" where the water meter rests was full of water! The damn main water line was leaking! County came out, said since the leak was AFTER the meter it was the owners responsibility. There goes house #3 - no way was I buying a place with a leak in the main water line - and Freddie Mac (yeah, those idiots again) REFUSED to fix it. Probably would've cost about $2000-4000 to fix. Instead, what do they do? Yeah, they sold it for $15,000. WAY less than they could've got had they just fixed the shit. Completely defies logic, doesn't it? Well, it doesn't stop there...
House #4: This place was a HUD house (Housing & Urban Development). HUD houses you have to put in a bid and wait for their deadline to see if yours is accepted. Our was. Problem is, the house didn't appraise for what we offered, and the bank won't lend you more than what a property appraises for. That house was immediately scrapped and we moved on.
House #5: this one was literally a heartbreaker. We found a BEAUTIFUL forclosure, a cabin (exactly, and I mean EXACTLY what my wife and I were looking for) on 2.5 acres of property. PERFECT condition, price was $69,000. My wife and I wanted it, so we put in a bid. Turns out there's multiple offers, so we had to bring our "best offer to the table" and hope we were the highest bidder. We bid $77,000 - that's how serious we were about wanting this place. $8000 over the asking price. So we put in the offer and wait... and wait... and wait.... FINALLY a week later, my realtor had enough and called the selling realtor. Get this: we had the highest bid out of the 4 bids total they got on this place. You think they would take the highest bidder, right? WRONG! We had the highest bid and they gave it to someone else! Fuckers! Another Freddie Mac property, and another deal that defies all logic...
At this point, I'm about ready to start punching babies I'm so goddamn angry.
That last place about ruined my thoughts of ever finding another house out there. Our realtor was stunned almost to tears that we bid $8k over the asking price - were the highest bidder - and we lost it. NO idea how the fuck that's even possible. We're not a credit or financial risk - hell, we didn't even get that far in the process! My realtor suspects someone came in with a big wad of cash and scooped it up but she can't find out 'till all the paperwork is signed, done and the records are on file. Fuck. My. Life. That's all I'm going to say about that.
Now, keep in mind we had been going out there to west va almost every other weekend for almost a year. This stuff is starting to wear my skin REAL thin.
House #6: here's where it gets interesting. So, our realtor finds a place that she thinks might appeal to us. We see the pictures, agree that it's in stellar condition and we're interested, so we go to check out the place this past weekend. Apparently, 3 years ago, our realtor showed this place and it was a hot mess. She said she was scared to even walk inside the place, that's how bad the condition of it was. Well, the person who bought it back in 2010 completely re-built the place in early 2011 (i'm talking ripping everything out of the house down to the wall studs and rebuilding it) and now it was up for sale a year later. He was apparently a "house flipper" - buy it cheap, fix it up, then sell for a profit. I had no problem with that. So, here's the one positive thing that we thought might make this work: It wasn't a foreclosure, it's being sold by the guy who bought it last. GOOD SIGN. We checked out the place and it's in fantastic shape. I think the only thing that needs to be done is some yard work and the deck needs to be painted. That's it. Since I was sick of the whole game and having my chain jerked, I decided to low-ball the offer we sent them by $3000 under their asking price. That was Sunday, April 22nd. Well, just got word that our offer was accepted!! *jumps for joy*
So, with a massive amount of excitement I'm happy to say we finally have a confirmed, signed contract and are set to settle on June 5th on this place:
Now, what did Lou and his wife learn during this experience? Well, a few things:
1) Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and HUD are all bullshit organizations that were supposedly "designed" to help people get into houses but DO NOT. You can make all the excuses for these dipshits you want, and can tell me all about the housing market and how bad it is and why they aren't selling their houses - doesn't change the fact that first-hand experience has made me realize these idiots are not interested in selling off their properties. They'd rather keep them and whine to the government for more bailout money.. "oh, see all these houses we can't sell? Give us more money." The last bailout I saw was for Fannie Mae for 62 BILLION dollars. BILLION dollars. My question is: FOR WHAT?! And when they DO finally sell a place? They're willing to take a hit on the bottom line price when if they would've just spent HALF of what they lost during the sale to fix some issues, they could've made MORE money on the sale. But for some reason, they'd rather lose money instead. I can't wrap my head around their logic at all.
2) If you're in the market for a house, don't look for forclosures in this market unless you're prepared to deal with disappointment and headaches at every single turn. It's a bad idea, and unless you can pay for the entire place in cash or take out a conventional loan (by putting down 20% of the cost up-front - which is hard for most folks to do when they're buying a ~$100k home - do you have $20,000 laying around? I sure as shit don't!), you're wasting your time looking at and making offers on them. Again, Fannie, Freddie, and HUD aren't interested in selling you a house right now. They want to whine to the gov't for more money or they're just sitting back and waiting for the market to bounce back so they can rape people of their hard earned money - sorta like they did a few years ago which is what got them into this stupid mess they're in now in the first goddamn place!
3) Short sales? Ho-ly crap, just forget those. Not only are they a bitch to secure since the seller is selling the place for less than what is owed on it (lawyers get involved, which is NEVER good!) - but, it takes around 90 days to close a short sale. IF you're lucky.
4) While the market certainly is a "buyers market" - doesn't mean you're going to get sold a house under any circumstances. Unless, that is, you put yourself into major debt by buying a $200-300k (or more) place. The "powers that be" in the real estate market have NO PROBLEM putting you in debt to the tune of $1000-2500/month mortgage payments, but god help you if you just want to borrow, say, $50k for a place that needs a little work. Oh no, we can't have any of that shit! "Put people in way over their heads or don't help them at all" seems to be their motto. *rips out hair in frustration*
I have no idea what has happened to the real estate market since I bought my last house (back in 1994). It's almost as if no one wants to sell you shit, even if it means THEY are going to lose their ass sitting on it for a few more years.
</rant>
Ok, I feel a bit better now that I have that off my chest. Bottom line? Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac suck and need to be eliminated. If they were designed to help put people in houses but don't, then why is our government funding these money-sucking, worthless programs?!
Here's a few more pictures of the place. There's also an "almost finished" basement (the wall studs and electrical work have all been done, just need some insulation and paneling to finish it off) but I don't have any pics of it yet. Check it out:
There's always a chance things could go sideways between now and June 5th (house doesn't appraise at the price we offered, inspectors find latent material defects, etc.) but it's doubtful. The guy rebuilt this place with a lot of care, and it appears he did it all "by the booK." I'm so excited I could almost explode. 
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Originally Posted by Publius
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