I’m sure your agent greatly appreciates your loyalty and understanding that the time invested looking at homes together is valuable. Your agent’s office can get HUD certified, unfortunately it won’t happen over night. The approval process can take 1-3 months so the timing won’t work with this particular property that you’re interested in purchasing. Another suggestion is to have your agent speak directly with the listing agent about not being HUD certified. Many of those listing agents will work out an arrangement to submit the bid for your agent allowing your agent to still be involved. It will be a slightly discounted commission to your agent but if it means getting the house, it may work for everybody!

When you say the house goes up for auction on July 11th I’m assuming you mean the open bid period closes and HUD accepts a bid, correct? You will have to have your bid in before then because if there are other offers they’ll be reviewing all offers the day after the open bid period closes. If the house needs cosmetic repairs you will have to be sure and budget for those after you pay for home inspections, dewinterization, your down payment and closing costs. Your agent and lender can help you estimate what those costs will be so you can get an idea if there’s enough money to go around. If you don’t feel there would be enough money for cosmetic home repairs after closing I suggest looking into financing the home with an FHA 203k rehab loan which allows a purchaser to finance the cost of cosmetic home repairs into the loan amount. Like any home loan you would have to qualify for the loan, the home repairs have to be done within a curtain amount of time after close by a professional general contractor but it allows for you to enjoy the home updated within 90 days after close. Keep in mind the HUD home has to be eligible for this type of loan, it will say in the MLS if it is or is not. Make sure you use a seasoned mortgage lender who understands and works with FHA 203k Rehab loans.

Your agent will give you the best advice on the price you should offer by evaluating the market conditions and recently sold comparable properties. HUD homes have been professionally appraised to establish the list price. If the home is in ‘fair’ condition, in an area where homes tend to move quickly you can bet there will be multiple, strong offers so put your best offer forward when submitting your own offer.

Much luck in obtaining this HUD property and please let me know if I’ve answered your questions appropriately!

My husband and I are looking at a HUD home. We have been working with an agent who is not HUD certified but has invested a lot of time with us already. So we are not really sure what to do with that. We want to be fair to her.

We also have NO idea how to make this happen! We love the house but it needs carpet and paint and all appliances. It goes up for auction on July 11th, so we are anxious to move the process forward. What steps do we need to take? And what kind of a bid is reasonable? In short how can we make sure we get this house and stay with in our budget and still have money for home repairs?

Thank You!