Advise on land/home purchase

Yes, it is entirely possible. We own the trailer we live in now, no payments. We pay $85 lot rent. I make enough money that my wife can stay home with our boys and we've been saving money for a down payment. (It's not a whole lot though, Daniel was just born and we're trying to pay all that off.) We have enough money coming in from the birds that we can afford a substantial monthly payment, but only if we have to. Payments on $25,000 won't be all that much.

Even if the previous owners do try to redeem the land in April (it's only 8 months), we will be completely reimbursed for any down payments, closing costs, monthly payments and improvements to the property. If they did redeem it, we'd have that money to use as a down payment on the next house. We don't plan on selling the trailer we're currently living in. We'd let my little brother live in it with the understanding that we'd move back in (and he'd be back with my mom) if we had to.

I can't figure that we'd lose out on much, but that's the reason why we're here trying to reap the benefits of your wealth of knowledge.

Questions for tomorrow morning include:
New mortgage or assumable?
Liens? Lien holders?
Title company? Title search? Title insurance?
Septic to code? Last pumped?
Survey? When? Who? Copy? Corners and lines?
Restrictions, covenants, associations?

I'll check the posts again in the morning before we leave to meet the realtor.
Thanks again for everyone's help,
Robert, Donna, Jonathan, and Daniel (Sam the Dog, Fritz and Prints the cats, the ferrets, guinea pig, chinchilla and all the birds)

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Well, we're off to see the land. It's a two hour drive from where we live in Walker County to where the new place is in St. Clair county. My work is almost half way between the two in Vestavia Hills. I have the list of questions with me and I will be taking notes. Thanks again for everyone's help.

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Please remember to let us know how it comes out.

AngieM2

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From my understanding in the state of Alabama you can purchase the previous owners right of redemption so if the foreclosure amount is $15,000 you could pay the previous owners $500 and exercise their right of redemption on the mortgage company. Most of the time the actual foreclosure amount is public records at the court house.

Make sure you don't confuse an Owner's Title Insurance Policy for the Mortgage Policy the bank requires. If you only buy the Mortgage Policy, the lender gets the pay-ff should there be a problem down the road. If you buy an Owner's Policy at the same time, you should get a simultaneous rate which is much cheaper than purchasing both policies separately.

Also, check with your home-owners insurance company as they often cut you off when mobile homes reach a certain age and you may have a problem getting that type of insurance afterwards.

The realtor never showed up. I took a vacation day from work, woke up at six to feed the birds, left home about 8 am and drove two hours to meet the lady at 10. We waited until 11 and then my wife couldn't hold her bladder any longer. We're trying to live as thrifty as possible so we don't have a cell phone. We got home and have 13 phone calls from the realtor, starting at 8:45am. We'll see how it goes.

There's a "Clayton" doublewide that has been forclosed on not too far from the first place. "Clayton" holds their own mortgages and this one is assumable with $1,000 down. It's larger, only 2 years old and sits on 4 acres of land. It's also sloping land, but this lot slopes up the hill away from the main road. There's a 6 acre private lake across the road that we'd have "right of free access" to. (Whatever that is?) What do y'all think of this? It's much, much newer and nicer but almost twice as expensive, $40,000 instead of $25,000.

Thanks,
the Days

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I think you should explain a few things to that Realtor.....

Hmmm,well I have been reading this post and though it sounded okay(the first property) although it is a rather old MH and even the best ones start to suffer problems it seems.

Can you afford the extra $$$ on the Clayton on 6 acres?

You would also have a little more land and no neighbors directly across from you at least(this is always a plus in my opinion ).

The financing would also be easier if Clayton will indeed carry the note.

Good luck.

Look carefully at both and ask yourself whether the second property is worth 15,000 more to you than the first. If so, and you feel you can make the payments and still do the rest of what you need to do then choose the second. Otherwise, try for the first. Make sure you factor in closing costs and interest rate differences.

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Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

The ins I mentioned earleir isn't title ins as someone else cleared up earlier. I think it's some type of liability ins. A good realtor or attorney should know about it. If you are still intersted at the end of the week pm me. My friend who bought the property that way has been out of town but is due back this weekend and I can ask him for details on how this was done.

Sounds like now you have more choices. Don't be too upset if you can't afford the newer home. If you are at all handy you can redo an older MH without too much expense and trouble if the roof is sound. We just redid a 73 SW for my daughter. It looks as she puts it "like a real house" inside with sheet rock walls etc. Now all we need to do next spring is put a new roof over the top and some new siding where some is missing and it'll look like a real house. My home is actually what they call a conversion in this area. A mobile home that was added onto and converted into a regular house. Very few people can tell and those that can are familier with MH's. I have a little corridor that is narrower than in a reg house and they notice that. Otherwise you'd never know.

Sorry the realtor never showed up. After taking a day off that realtor had better work really hard to find you a home and make up that lost pay in good service and negotiating.

Liz

As far as 'right of redemption' is concerned, talk to a real estate attorney about getting a Quit Claim Deed from the previous owner.

A Quit Claim Deed is a document that cedes any rights or claims to a property from one party to another, without guaranteeing clear title to that other party. Because, after all, the first party does not have title to give. But he does have certain legal rights which could eventually be leveraged into a claim on the property and that is what you'd be getting away from him.

This would involve tracking down the previous owner, being very nice to him and offering him a few hundreds bucks to sign the Quit Claim Deed.

-Jack_Cville

Would you be getting the "value" (as in appraised) of the improvements back, or the actual costs of putting the improvements in? If it is actual costs, the trouble with doing it yourself is that you may not be able to bill your time, and are therefore better off hiring it out....

My wife called me at work today in tears. That realtor emailed us saying that 3 offers were placed on the property since yesterday morning. We were supposed to meet her at 10am, remember. She didn't show up. She's having a house built and the builder didn't know where to put all of her kitchen cabinets. My wife was so scared that I'd go crazy and be mean. I just simply emailed the "lady" back and congratulated her on the sale of the property and wished her well with her new home, hoping that she enjoys her new cabinets.

I've sure learned alot with all of this.
Thanks for everyone's advise.
Robert

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Bummer.....

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I believe in God's willingness to heal.

Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)