Vacation home/HUD

[glinka]

Found a great deal for vacation home. Problem is it's a HUD property. Agent and banker have told me beware of HUD. It seems like they want to impede the sale. The property only costs $40,000. I have $17,000 in cash but thought I would get a mortgage and only put $8,000 down. I have also thought with all the headaches working between HUD and the bank I would just take the rest out of IRAs. The problem there is taxes. Any thoughts as what would be best?

[Senator]

Why is a HUD property any different? Some allow a home owner to buy for a few days first.

That is part of being a real estate investor. Keep saving until you can afford the entire property with cash. A $40K property probably needs works. You will need more than you think.

[Helios]

Sometimes housing agencies will finance their takebacks. Use your cash for updates or changes.
It depends on how badly they want the property off of their books, which often explains the reduced price and buyers advantage.

[Slow But Steady]

Twenty years ago I bought a house from the RTC. (For those who don't remember, the RTC was the agency set up to fix the savings and loan crisis.)

The process was agonizingly slow. That may not be a big problem for you, but we needed a place to live, having already sold our home.

It was a nice house in a good neighborhood, but it had been both abused and neglected. (People who have been kicked out just don't care.)

There were other problems in addition to the ones we could see, so in effect, we paid more than we expected. We bought a home maintenance policy that covered some, but not all, of the problems. This would be one of the unusual cases where such a maintenance policy may be a good buy.

To summarize: Make sure you go into the deal with your eyes wide open.

[glinka]

Decided to take $19,000 equity loan on present house and pay $21,000 cash. That way we won't have to be held up by mortgage process that banker and realty agent seemed to question. Did inspections today and there are electrical and plumbing problems that are not terrible. This is the right property for us. I could be wrong but it seems like HUD is geared more for investors than people who want to keep a house they buy.

[DrRoy]

If it is the right house and you have the financing, then hopefully it will not matter that it was HUD once you are the owner.

[Bamaman]

Congratulations. Please just recognize that buying a vacation home is making a commitment to a different lifestyle. You've got to be prepared and able to go back and forth between your residences year round to do needed maintenance.

Fortunately, my lake house is 18 miles across town. And I even have a tough time getting over there to cut grass due to other commitments.

[Bigdawg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bamaman Congratulations. Please just recognize that buying a vacation home is making a commitment to a different lifestyle. You've got to be prepared and able to go back and forth between your residences year round to do needed maintenance. Fortunately, my lake house is 18 miles across town. And I even have a tough time getting over there to cut grass due to other commitments.

If your lake house (vacation house) is only 18 miles away, why don't you sell your primary and just move into the lake house as your permanent house? Just seems odd to me. Curious about your reasoning.

[foxfirev5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigdawg If your lake house (vacation house) is only 18 miles away, why don't you sell your primary and just move into the lake house as your permanent house? Just seems odd to me. Curious about your reasoning.

I got a little chuckle out of the first post. Our lake house is only 17.4 miles down the road. The lake house (1040 Sq Ft) is too small and the house in town is too big (3000+). However to find one just right on the lake would cost us more than both. Besides that, in the summer the kids, grandkids, friends etc stay at the lake and we can go home anytime. As long as the carrying costs are equal to about a week at a resort per year we're good. When it gets to be too much we'll sell.

[Bamaman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigdawg If your lake house (vacation house) is only 18 miles away, why don't you sell your primary and just move into the lake house as your permanent house? Just seems odd to me. Curious about your reasoning.

We are selling our primary residence, but the lake house at 1,800 square feet is not large enough for our needs. We just bought a 5,000 square foot, 5 bedroom, 5 bath house with two 2 car garages. It was a foreclosure purchased for far, far under market value, and it's something to be proud of.

We paid less for the new house than our little lake house would pull on the retail market because prime lakefront deep water property with a 6 mile sunset view is very desirable.

We are so thankful to live in the Mid South where housing is extremely nice, and priced right. Another great thing is that because my wife is on Social Security Disability, we have no property taxes.

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bamaman .....Fortunately, my lake house is 18 miles across town. And I even have a tough time getting over there to cut grass due to other commitments.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigdawg If your lake house (vacation house) is only 18 miles away, why don't you sell your primary and just move into the lake house as your permanent house? Just seems odd to me. Curious about your reasoning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxfirev5 I got a little chuckle out of the first post. Our lake house is only 17.4 miles down the road. The lake house (1040 Sq Ft) is too small and the house in town is too big (3000+). However to find one just right on the lake would cost us more than both. ....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bamaman ....the lake house at 1,800 square feet is not large enough for our needs. ...

We had a similar situation.... 1000 sf lake house about 25 miles from our 2700 sf main home and shuttling back and forth. Inevitably, the tool I needed for the task I was doing was at the other house.

Our solution was to demolish and rebuild the lake house (now 2000 sf + 2 car garage with 350 sf loft above that is DW's hobby room) and sell our main home and move out to the lake.