Anyone ever buy a Fannie Mae Property?

[thestartupman]

Anyone ever buy a Fannie Mae Property? How much less than asking price did you purchase it for? Any drawbacks? Would you ever do it again? Anyone ever have problems dealing with Realtors, or Fannie Mae when trying to purchase? How long did it take to get the deal closed?

[kimmom2five]

Our new house that we bought this year was a Fannie Mae property. We paid asking price but they paid $5000 towards closing. We did also use a VA loan so I don't know how that altered the process since this was our first house. It took 45 days to close on the house from the time they accepted our offer. The only problems was that the house was sold as is. The selling real estate agent did pay to have a plumber get the hot water heater working( we couldn't get the pilot light to work at the home inspection) Our process didn't seem difficult although as I said this is our first home.

[mellba]

We bought a Fannie Mae house April, 2010. The house was priced at $67,500. It had last sold for $130,000. On our agent's advice we bid $57,000. They countered at $65,000. We countered at $63,000 and asked for closing costs and an allowance toward appliances. Someone else put in a bid, so we bid $65,000 and got it. They paid closing costs and gave us about $1,400 toward appliances. I think our agent thought we could have got it for less, but I didn't want to take a chance and lose it. The house was as is, but there was nothing wrong with it except no appliances and some light fixtures were missing. We could have moved right in, but we did a lot of cosmetic things first. Everything went smoothly and our agent did all the work. His commission came from the selling agent. We paid him nothing. We closed three weeks and two days after our first bid.

[Old Vet]

I bought a Fannie May house I payed less than half of what it was listed for. It was vacant for about a year and I had them put a roof on it. You never know until you make a bid on it whether they will go for it.They also payed the closing cost and a survey.

[thestartupman]

Old vet, how many years ago did you buy the place?

[empofuniv]

We bought a FM home in earlier this year. In Coolidge AZ, 6 hrs from San Diego.

It sold in 2007 for $255K, was in escrow in Jan of this year for $157K, but fell out of escrow.

It relisted for $75K.

We'd already been working with a realtor and she knew the listing agent for this property. Our agent told us it had 3 bids against it and one was slightly above list, but she couldn't find out how much above.

This house really fits for us and we bid $79K cash for it even though our agent suggested less. I wasn't willing to lose this house by just a few dollars.

We pd $490 for a pre-purchase inspection (we wanted the inspector to work for us, not the bank) and decided to go for the house.

There is a add-on room that may not be permitted, but we are OK with the room and haven't really dug into the history of it.

FM accepted our offer, we filled out zillions of pages of questions and sent in all paperwork.

They went back on their acceptance of our offer because I was honest when I answered that I was still employed in CA and would be moving to the home in 2012.

They said the home had to be owner occupied w/i 90 days and called me an "investment buyer" and put our home back on the market.

My realtor had me write a "letter of intent". I basically said that I was a federal employee with a projected retirement date of 30 Jan 2012, and that dh is a retired federal employee w over 32 yrs of service. Informed them that dh could move there w/i 30 days and that during his time of military service he had been deployed many times and that during his time as a Dept of Defense employee had several times been stationed in other nations on unacompanied tours, therefore being seperated was not new to us. Told them that this was our chosen retirement home and we were eager to start the next stage of our lives in that home.

They re-accepted our offer. They paid all closing, and the house became ours in an as is condition.

We started this house buying journed in April and got the keys on June 24th.

DH spends a week to 10 days in AZ, back to San Diego for a week or so, and then back to AZ with another truck load.

I'm currently looking at retiring on May 31.

[Astrid]

Our experience with Fannie Mae properties was a few years ago when my husband and I bought them, fixed them up and resold them.... luckily we got out before the crash.

It is easy to work with FM but you have to find your own financing or pay cash. Also, make sure you find a lawyer that has experience in dealing with these kinds of properties. Lawyers fees shouldn't run you more than around $300. You will also want to inspect the property fully as often the repairs can be huge. A lot of people, when they find out they are being foreclosed, will trash the place. If you don't check it out, you might find the repairs will cost you more than the house is worth. Most often it is no more than cosmetic though. Also, make sure you check all right of ways and covenances. A relative of ours bought a FM home which had been built on the previous owner's family property and the family member refused road access to the home as it was on their land. Not a good situation. They are still in court 5 years later.

Check regulations in your state and make sure you do research on the property (that's why you need a lawyer). If you do your due diligence, you can find a great piece of property for a steal.

[tikaani]

i've bought a couple of FM fc's. i usually offer 10% of what they are asking.

[thestartupman]

Tikaani, are you saying that if FM wanted $100000 for the home, you only offer about $10000?

[tikaani]

if its a foreclosure and its been sitting a year, yes! fannie mae has a backlog of foreclosures and have been trying to get rid of them. until recently many they tried to dump them through auction services but have noticed more realtors trying to sell them of late. i have bought two properties and only put in offers of 10% and they did eventually sell them to me at that price but that was directly through fannie mae.

[MO_cows]

We bought a foreclosure last year, it had been on the market for a long time. We offered $12,500 on an asking price of $16k or $17k. It was a cash sale. We had to put down earnest money and provide either a bank statement or letter from the bank documenting we had the money. We opted for a letter from the bank, figured our bank statements were none of their business. They made it clear it was "as is" at that price. We paid for the inspection. We paid for the title search and insurance. They did turn the electricity back on at their expense for the inspection. We closed it in two weeks.

We bought it for some relatives that were in crisis. It was the best house we found for the money and on short notice. Looked at several in that price range and this one was bigger and also closest to move-in ready. They will have it paid for in 3 years and the county appraised it at $67,000 for 2011 taxes.

[Jena]

I have bought a house from Fannie Mae and one directly from HUD. I'd do either again.

Talk to a local realtor and they know your market and what a good offer would be. I paid like 83% of the asking price for the HUD price because that is the lowest offer they would accept (it could be different now). The asking price gets lower with time and I just waited until it got where I wanted it to be.

The Fannie Mae property had been empty for well over a year, but they had fixed it up. They decide what to do with properties on an individual basis, from what I know. It was move in ready. I think they were asking about 120K and we got it for like $113K (back in the 90's). It had sold for over $200K before it foreclosed, but we paid a fair price for the market at the time we bought.

[mekasmom]

Originally Posted by tikaani

if its a foreclosure and its been sitting a year, yes! fannie mae has a backlog of foreclosures and have been trying to get rid of them. until recently many they tried to dump them through auction services but have noticed more realtors trying to sell them of late. i have bought two properties and only put in offers of 10% and they did eventually sell them to me at that price but that was directly through fannie mae.

Did you get a general warranty deed? We looked into one, but they were only offering a stop claim deed.

[tikaani]

Originally Posted by mekasmom

Did you get a general warranty deed? We looked into one, but they were only offering a stop claim deed.

special warranty deed just limits a banks liablity. you want a general warranty deed.
i used williams&williams online auctions to buy my properties. those are usually properties the bank doesn't want to deal with due to a: condition left by people being evicted and b: they have to pay to upkeep them. banks hate to pay to upkeep a property they are not making money on. you can also check zillow to see how long the property has been up for sell and what it last sold for. if the property is in a area that has many properties being unsold you have more of a chance at getting it at the price you want. my first property was last listed at 88k. fannie mae was trying to get at least 36k for it at auction. I got it under 5k. the second property I had already figured out their game and got a even sweeter deal. but it did take over 6 months to finalize the deal. keep in mind fannie mae has has many foreclosures on hand and many moving up the pipeline. florida, nevada, and arizona a good places to get properties on the cheap.