HUDs, HUDs Everywhere & Other News

HUD Foreclosures
Wow. For those who didn;t know, HUD always releases their latest foreclosures on Fridays (at least in Texas, and I believe this is a national thing). Last Friday was no exception. So I logged onto my HUD provider's web site and looked at the latest crop in my farm area. Interestingly, there weren't any, which I thought was odd as there is usually at least 1-2 every week. On Sunday, I decided to log onto the web site again to check up on some information about one of the houses that goes to "All Bidders" on Monday. When I get there, I notice there are FIVE new listings. Huh?!?! Upon further examination, I notice the initial bid period on all these new properties ends THIS Wednesday. Double Huh?!?! The properties themselves are in a bid period called "Lottery Round". From the processor's web site, "Lottery Round" means:

Before Government properties are made available to the public, they may be listed in the Government Lottery Round. As part of its effort to assist communities with their housing needs, HUD has designated Revitalization Areas, and offers a limited number of properties in specific direct sales programs. These programs include the Officer/Teacher/Firefighter/Emergency Medical Technician Next Door Program or Non-Profit Program. To assist families displaced by Gulf Coast Hurricanes, HUD is currently offering properties for sale at a discount to (1) evacuees currently leasing homes from HUD and (2) other evacuees interested in purchasing HUD-owned homes located throughout the U.S.

So, it appears these homes will go to "All Bidders" after this Wed, but could go to "Owner Occupied", too. Guess I'll find out. Another interesting bit of news ... there were 1,448 HUD foreclosures listed in the state of Texas this week - 1,448! This is by far the most I have ever seen. Matter of fact, I had never seen more than 1,000 until just a few months ago. Seems like more and more people in this state are having to foreclose. :-(

RE Agent & Broker
I stayed in touch with both my new RE agent and loan broker. My broker is trying really hard to get me 100% NOO financing, but with my slightly high debt-to-income ratio, I'm sure he is having a hard time. If I can get 95% or even 90%, I'd be content. What I don't want to do is have to put 20% down and use money I have earmarked for possible Sub2's in the near future. I also gave my agent heads-up about a couple of the new HUD listings. One in particular is a gold mine. It's almost identical to House #1 as far as the financials go. It's listed for $95k, but is worth about $125k. I ran through an owner finance scenario, and figured I could make anywhere from $30k-$50k, depending on varying circumstances. My wife and kids and I all took a Sunday drive to go look at it and several other HUD foreclosures. My mouth was watering even more when I peeked into the windows of that particular house and noticed how clean it was. It was built in 2004, so all the fixtures, W/H, HVAC, etc., should be in top working order. It even still had blinds on the windows (which were all up, thank goodness). The only bad thing I saw was the carpet needed replaced throughout, which would set me back a couple thousand $$$'s, but that was it. I'll talk to my agent today more about it and other things. My broker emailed me late Sunday saying he hoped to get word from "his guy" about getting me 100% NOO financing in "the next couple of days." I sure hope it's sooner rather than later.