Homes in pre-foreclosure

If you know of a home in pre-foreclosure, can you find out how much the owners owe the bank, make them an offer to pay off the debt and buy the house? Or does the bank still own it and it's not that simple?

Re: Homes in pre-foreclosure

no- it does not work anything near that

if a home is in "pre-forclosure"- it would have to be listed for sale on the open market as a short sale

if they could sell it for more then they owe- they generally would have tried that already

the bank wants to see the house on the open house- it must be an arms lenght transaction to aviod bank fraud

once the seller has an acceptable contract on the property the offer must be submited to the bank to approve it-

the bank will only sell the house for fair market value TBD by the bank

of course you could offer what they owe- but it most likely way more then the house is actually worth at this point- it's not just the principle balance they owe- but back taxes, legal fees etc

plus there could be judgements attached to the title- it's a very complex process- this is a very simplfied version