You have read in the newspapers and have seen on TV news about the problems in the housing market and all of the home foreclosures.  You may have gone by a home and saw the orange stickers on the door and a sign in the window telling you this is a HUD Home and to contact a Realtor.  But you don’t know anything about buying HUD Home.

First, HUD foreclosed homes are homes that had been financed with a FHA Mortgage Loan and has been foreclosed.  HUD has taken possession and title to the property and put it on the market.

Another thing you should know about buying HUD Home it is not anything like buying a home from a homeowner.  I am going to discuss four points you should know if you are considering buying HUD Home.

1.  You make a bid, not an offer.

When purchasing a home from a homeowner you make the seller an offer through a Purchase Agreement.  When you buy a HUD Home you make a bid.  It is like an auction.  You make the bid on the Internet and you have to use a real estate agent.  The process of buying HUD Home explained in detail on my website  The HUD Home Expert.

2.  You need an experienced real estate agent.

One of the biggest mistakes most buyers of HUD Homes make is using an inexperienced real estate agent.  Most real estate agents are not experienced in buying HUD Homes.  If your real estate agent doesn’t have the necessary experience then find a new one or make sure someone in their office can advise them and check everything they do.  The wrong real estate agent can cost you thousands of dollars.  Ask your agent questions on how to buy HUD home and if they say they don’t know and they will get back to you with the answer, you need to look for a new agent.

3.  You are buying the property in “As-Is” condition.

HUD makes it clear that the property is being sold in “As-IS” condition.  Most HUD foreclosed properties will have what HUD calls a “Property Condition Report” which is similar to an inspection.  In the Property Condition Report HUD will list what they found wrong with the property at the time the report was done.  BUT, and this is a big BUT, you need to have your own home inspection done.

4.  HUD will pay up to 3% of Buyer’s closing costs.

You can ask HUD to pay up to 3% of your closing costs.  The 3% of closing costs has to be in the initial bid you placed on the Internet.  HUD will only pay certain Buyer’s closing costs and this is another reason you need an experienced real estate agent.  For example, you get an accepted bid of $100,000 on a HUD Home and you ask for 3% ($3,000) of purchase price for closing costs.  If HUD will only pay on allowed closing costs of $2,000, then you will lose the other $1,000.  HUD will not refund you the $1,000 they disallowed.

There are a lot of bargains in the market on foreclosed homes, and you can take advantage by doing some research, and getting the right real estate agent.  Although the process of buying HUD Home is different it is certainly worth the effort!

There are so many steps to be analyzed before buying your beloved home. The first thing you need to do would be having a real estate agent in place to analyze the home buying process. There are just too many tasks to keep straight without your Realtor taking care of most of them. For the ones that remain, your Realtor can facilitate you make a list and work through them

1. Get pre-qualified for you loan and control your credit rating. Your real estate agent must help you in the process of taking loan for good credit. The reason this is first is you want to know two things. How much you be eligible for and what your payment will be. You may qualify for a higher payment than you want to have, but your lender and Realtor can help you verify the price range for you

2. Find the area you want to live in. Analze the traffic by driving through the area in both week days and week ends. It is painless to tell those areas that are a little run-down from the areas where the home-owners keep their homes up|.

3. After thorough analysis, you can proceed for further steps. Ask your real estate agent to show the obtainable houses in the area that suits your taste. This will make the search a lot easier. You can just opt for the best home from a mixture of homes short listed by your realtor. Finding your new home can be a pretty quick process if done properly.

4. Once you done with picking your dream home, just drive through that area one more time. Understand their life style and know how they keep surroundings in the area. If everything still seems right, work with your Realtor on getting an offer in.

5. Ensure the house is inspected before closing the deal. This is done after you have an agreement in place, but is a very important step. Ask your real estate agent to find the finest inspector to look after the inspection. You can pull a true assumption if the house is inspected by a third party.

Hopefully, these are the basic steps which can help you out in finding the best home. Never leave your realtor to take care of all these steps alone, be with him and get the right home.