Buying a Forclosure Home

I'm not sure I understand.  Please explain.  Are you saying you bought it at a sheriff's sale?

At least in Michigan.....notice of foreclosure > sheriff's sale >eventually bank markets the house anywhere from immediately to a year or more later.  and no, you can't call the bank and say, "i wanna buy that house" (i've had ppl ask my husband)

Buying from the courthouse usually requires 10% down and once the rest of the money and settlement happens you own the property. One thing to watch out for is other Liens on the property.  You might pay $300k, but then there might be another $50,000 lien on it that you might be responsible for. You can pay a closing company a few hundred to do a title search or go to the courthouse and try to do your own search.  You also normally won't be able to inspect the property because someone does live there so you are hoping nothing major is wrong with the property.  As far as removing the current occupants I would contact the police on how to handle the situation.

There are people who do that sort of thing for a living and are experienced in knowing what to expect.  As for the rest of us, let the bank deal with it, and I say this as someone who works in a bank and sees our OREO costs each month.  There could be a host of issues from unpaid property taxes, insurance, stolen appliances, they could have ripped out the dry wall (seen it happen), landscaping could be ruined, and so on.  

I'd recommend letting the bank deal with evictions and all the costs associated with getting the home listed.  You aren't going to be able to bid any lower than what the bank will, and if you go higher you're just going to make them thrilled to let you deal with it since they'll be getting paid off on a bad loan and taking no real estate in.  So basically, call around to banks and find out what properties they have for sale and low ball the stink out of them.  If it's been sitting around long enough, and they need to unload some non-earning assets (which nearly all do), then you'll get a good price on a home that will need a lot less work and headache than one you got yourself from the steps.

Seriously???  Is it really that bad in foreclosure homes, or all homes on the market?  Now, how do you test for Meth residue, and how is it cleaned up?

I think you just rent a Lohan-Sheen machine.  I hear they can sniff that stuff out from outside the building.  The problem is, if there is meth residue, the machines are difficult to remove.