Right of redemption risk; Homes for sale in Huntsville

Homes for sale in Huntsville; Right of redemption risk Downtown Huntsville AL
I’ve sold several houses in this neighborhood and like the area. I will be happy to meet Joy and take photos. To speed things up I can make a youtube slideshow of the photos and diagram and just email the link.
Example;
Regarding your questions;
(1) We put up a reasonable deposit to secure the house—here that is typically about a ½% of the purchase price or less; say $500 or so.
$250 to $500 will be fine for earnest money.
(2) Get a home inspection done by a professional home inspector—we’ll pay for it as long as it isn’t excessive
I have a couple of home inspectors that I like. We can expect the cost of the inspection to be in the $450 range including radon testing. I always reccomend radon testing and this neighborhood in particular is prone to elevated levels. If the inspector does find elevated levels we can require the seller to have mitigation done. That usually costs under $3,000.
(3) Arrange for 3 bids from reputable construction crews to fix what is critical to rent the house—in other words get it “rent ready” so we can turn it over to you to rent for us until we actually move to Huntsville.
From the limited photos it looks like painting and carpet or refinishing floors is needed. For a rental it might be best to go with an inexpensive carpet and then refinish the floors when you plan on moving in.
(4) Secure financing in advance of the trip if possible—I don’t see a problem in this area, but in today’s economy—who knows! Our credit rating is up there in the 800 range, but I always put this in as a condition just in case a sale won’t close.
Financing has gotten to be more difficult even with lenders I trusted in the past. I have had several recent closings where the lender didn’t request vital information until just before closing. In one of those cases, the loan was declined the day before closing. While it wasn’t my buyer, the lender was one that in the past has been great. I had a closing last week where I was impressed with the lender and loan originator. Please contact Misty below and see what she can do for you. If she can’t help I have a few more contacts.
Misty AndersonRetail Sales Manager
MetLife Home Loans, A Division of MetLife Bank, N.A.100 Washington StreetHuntsville, AL 35801
Direct/Cell: 256-990-1956Office: 256-690-5776Fax: 1-855-269-5209manderson5@metlife.comwww.lo.mlhl.com/manderson
The house is offered by GMAC finance and is probably a foreclosure. Lender will require a foreclosure bond to protect them from the unlikely possibility that the person who lost the house redeems the house within one year of the foreclosure sale. We can expect to pay around $1,800 for the bond and can ask seller to cover that cost.
You do need to be aware that there is some small element of risk for you of a redemption , especially if you make a large down payment. I have never heard of a property being redeemed but is is a possibility.
Alabama has a statutory right of redemption, which would allow a party whose property has been foreclosed to reclaim that property by making payment in full of the sum of the unpaid loan plus costs and necessary repairs within twelve (12) months after the sale.
We might be able to track down the person who lost the house and ask her to sell the right of redemption for a couple hundred dollars. We would need to make sure the lender would accept the sold right of redemption first.
We may also contact GMAC for financing. It will give seller a higher comfort level. I don’t have a personal contact for GMAC but here is the general number.
GMAC Mortgage Corporation
Tel: (256)536-1126
101 Bob Wallace Avenue SouthwestHuntsville, Alabama 35801United States
(5) Once I have that information, Louise and I (or one of us) will fly to Huntsville, do a final inspection and approve or disapprove the purchase of the property.
We will need to make the offer contingent upon your seeing and approving the property. That contingency will make the seller nervous and we will need to set a time frame to remove the contingency. In general we set a 10 day window for the inspection and response. We can usually get the inspection report within 3 days and the radon testing results in about 3 days more.It may be that you can start planning your trip so that it happens within 10 days of having an accepted contract.
The house has been on market after foreclosure since 08/09/11. The person who lost the house had it on and off the market from 09/07/10 to 06/24/11 priced from $147,000 to $142,900. It looks like the previous owner bought the house from a realtor in 2006 for $128,000. Homes for sale in Huntsville It’s a pity she didn’t try to short sale the house to avoid foreclosure.
The link below is to the current and archived listings. There is some additional photography that may be a help to you.
NALMLSReports/ListitLib/show_report.aspx?ID=71146000000
Looking at MLS data for the neighborhood since 07/01/10 there was only one sale at $81 per square foot. It sold in $85 days.
/NALMLSReports/ListitLib/show_report.aspx?ID=71146045812
The link below is to a summary of MLS activity for similar homes in the same middle school district since 07/01/10. The average sold price was $87 psf. The subject house is listed at $71 psf.
nalmls.com/NALMLSReports/ListitLib/show_report.aspx?ID=7114602568425
While there is probably still some negotiation room $71 psf is pretty aggressively prices as long as the condition issues are only cosmetic.
Homes for sale in Huntsville; Right of redemption risk