Any Real Estate experts here?

[ReaperBJJ]

Ok so my fiancee and I are looking at buying our first home very soon and have been pre-approved by the mortgage company. We've looked at tons of houses already but finally found one that we both love, and at the price it's at it's a steal since it's a foreclosure with no damage or real defects.

We decided we wanted to put an offer in on it after seeing it, but later that day I got a call from the realtor stating that the home is a manufactured home with no title, so it's cash offers only. Is there any way to move forward from here? If there was a way to finance is there any way to get a title for the house later on so we wouldn't have as much of a headache if we wanted to sell it down the road?

I'm new to the home buying process, so I'm kind of unknowledgeble about all this.

[initial_jc]

thats odd, im looking to buy a house that is a short sale.

hope you find out what it may be

[TheWolf]

Not really. No title is strange.

I take manufactured home to indicate trailer which would be a terrible idea to finance as trailers go down in value so when it's paid off it's approaching land value. After being around real estate for a while, I don't recommend forclosure/ shortsales for first time buyers or for anyone who's got a time constraint like "We need to be moved in by our wedding which is june 6th". These houses may or may not be forsale even if their listed. The prices are tempting but you've got to understand that many of the banks that own these houses don't care whether a deal goes down or not. Some manager in dallas,tx could call MN and say "We need to get 10k more on that deal" and yep you're gonna have to pay 10k more regardless if you guys have both agreed on a price or not. A bank could list a house at 175.. take offers for 6 months from buyers. Not respond to a single one because they're just trolling it to see if they priced it to low or high. You've got to understand many times they don't care about you, your motivations, or even providing any customer service. If you submit an offer for 90 days with a deposit, they may or may not respond. They've got 90 days so that gets shoved into someones desk file and hey they're not in a hurry.

After watching 4 friends go through this process they were completely disillusioned by the end. The fastest deal was offer on early feb of last year, closed in mid august. His advantage was he actually worked for Watson reality. Bulldogged the piss out of it and in the end he may have saved 25k over market price. The other deals went down like 8 months long, and 4 offers that expired on time with no up or down decision or return phone calls. Many times short sales have title issues. If it's a divorced couple, one side probably really doesn't want to sell but is being forced to by the other. Almost impossible if the other half has moved out of state. Just takes time. ridiculous amounts of time.

If all you can afford are trailers then I'd suggest renting until you have enough down payment and better credit to afford a house. Oh and buy after your married. One deal fell apart because the fiance was screwing her best friend, that came out 2 months before the wedding. She dropped the future hubby. married the BF, and had a kid 6 months later. Make a lifetime comitment to each other. Let that settle for 6months to a year. Then together make a longterm financial commitment. Can't hurt you to rent for a year or two now anyway.

[ReaperBJJ]

That's a lot of good info, thanks. It actually is not a trailer but a 1344 sq ft pre fab home with a full walkout basement, front and back deck, heated detached 2 car garage, polebarn and 5 acres of woods. The listed price is 47000 and the tax value of the land and home is about 130000 for both. I have been preapproved for 50000 on just my credit, not including the fiancee. I do rent an apartment right now on a month to month lease through her father.

[TheWolf]

Sounds nice. Only way really around it maybe private lending. I dug around on google for a min. Seems MN law titles modular houses as mobile homes. The lack of title on the home could indicate that it is leined and never was settled or it might have been built without permit. Essentially they are selling you a 5 acre wooded tract with a pole barn and 2 car garage as improvements. You'd have to see if the county assessment included the modular home. If it didn't then it might have been placed there without a permit. Thus subject to red-tag. Now I'm no expert but I would imagine with some sweet talking getting power transferred wouldn't result in a red-tag but if the assessment doesn't show the building then I wouldn't tip the county off to it either.

In a situation like this. Cash or private lending will be your best bet. Banks won't touch it. Neither will alot of realtors.

[WanganRunner]

Lack of title is bizarre.

Even if you don't have title to the improvements (i.e. house), you should still have title to the land itself. I highly doubt you'll be able to get any sort of mortgage without title/deed.

I'm no expert in single family real estate, my job deals with office buildings, but "no title - cash only" screams "run the fuck away" to me.

[Okinawandrifter87]

Exitspeeed aka Mel will be able to help out if we can get him in here. Him or his wife is in realty I believe and they have a gorgeous home.

[ReaperBJJ]

Bringing this up again, been really busy with a death in the family and work to get really involved, looked at a few other houses to but still like this one the most. Anybody else? I pm'ed Exitspeed, hopefully he'll chime in.

[S14DB]

The lack of title screams scam to me. You should at least have a deed on the land like stated earlier. Any permanent structure should have a title on it unless it was built without permits.

Is this your Realtor or the owners Realtor making these statements? If yours I would find a new one because they are not helping you much. If theirs I would check the background(company or private, Licensed?) of the Realtor.

Your Realtor should check on the deed/title status of the property.

[initial_jc]

I recently submitted an offer for a home, which took 2 months to get approved but they want to close in 20 days? seems fishy to me

its a short sale by the way

[punn303]

Just a quick comment.
When you do finally find the home you're gonna buy, hire a lawer to look over you paperwork before you sign. You want him or her to make sure that everything is in your best interest. There's alot of terminology that you may or may not understand. Protect yourself and your investmest, there are some shady agents out there.

[exitspeed]

Originally Posted by Okinawandrifter87

Exitspeeed aka Mel will be able to help out if we can get him in here. Him or his wife is in realty I believe and they have a gorgeous home.

Thanks. Sold the house in Jan. Building in a few years though. looking for a lot now.

Originally Posted by ReaperBJJ

Bringing this up again, been really busy with a death in the family and work to get really involved, looked at a few other houses to but still like this one the most. Anybody else? I pm'ed Exitspeed, hopefully he'll chime in.

Originally Posted by S14DB

The lack of title screams scam to me. You should at least have a deed on the land like stated earlier. Any permanent structure should have a title on it unless it was built without permits.

Is this your Realtor or the owners Realtor making these statements? If yours I would find a new one because they are not helping you much. If theirs I would check the background(company or private, Licensed?) of the Realtor.

Your Realtor should check on the deed/title status of the property.

S14DB hit it on the head actually. Something doesn't sound right. There's no reason for there not a be a title.

I'd also suggest another agent. I mean they should be figuring this shit out for you, not you having to jump online to get answers. Not that it's not a good idea to do your own research, but your agent should have gotten tot eh bottom of this by now.

And if you aren't working with your own Realtor, and you have just talked to theirs, you should really start working with one. You don't pay them anything to buy with them. Unless this is a FSBO deal there's no disadvantage to working with one.

Sorry I couldn't help more specifically. Honestly, that is something I don't think my wife has ever ran into. I didn't ask her but I pay attention to all her transactions and that doesn't sound familiar. I'll ask her later today though and see if she has any more insight.

Originally Posted by punn303

Just a quick comment.
When you do finally find the home you're gonna buy, hire a lawer to look over you paperwork before you sign. You want him or her to make sure that everything is in your best interest. There's alot of terminology that you may or may not understand. Protect yourself and your investmest, there are some shady agents out there.

This is why you need to work with a realtor, all that shit is taken care of and you don't have to "hire" anyone extra.

[ReaperBJJ]

I've been working with my own realtor, however the realtor that has the house listed is from the same company. I only ended up with the guy I'm going through right now because he's a friend of a friend, but quite frankly he's been pretty lazy, it takes him a few days to return my phone calls, or text, and he's even forgot completely about me a few times.

I'm thinking about getting a second opinion and some more info about this place from a small town realtor from the town I grew up in.

[theicecreamdan]

Get a new realtor, there are good ones out there.

Something wrong with somebody who can't respond to a text message in a timely manner.

[holemilk00]

A manufactured home can mean several things, from a "trailer" or mobile home, to a slide together house which comes conventionally framed but in blocks that are assembled on site. It can also mean a home that is built in pieces in a manufacturing plant somewhere, and then those pieces are taken to the home site and go through final assembly. When I say pieces I mean walls and flooring systems are pre-made. The problem with this is some of these homes don't require title, they are looked at in the states eyes as "trailers" so there is no need. The only time a title transfer is required in most states on a manufactured home is when it is sold new, once the new owner sells to someone else there aren't many states that require a transfer of title from there.

[Matador]

Originally Posted by initial_jc

I recently submitted an offer for a home, which took 2 months to get approved but they want to close in 20 days? seems fishy to me

its a short sale by the way

They want to close in 20 days bc they probably have an auction date scheduled for the house.

OP, sounds like you should start looking at some more properties and focus on conventional homes if you're looking to finance. You can look into private money lenders if you're dead set on this house.

[exitspeed]

Originally Posted by holemilk00

A manufactured home can mean several things, from a "trailer" or mobile home, to a slide together house which comes conventionally framed but in blocks that are assembled on site. It can also mean a home that is built in pieces in a manufacturing plant somewhere, and then those pieces are taken to the home site and go through final assembly. When I say pieces I mean walls and flooring systems are pre-made. .

Typically called Modular Homes.

[holemilk00]

Places like oakwood and palm harbor usually save modular home for what we all call double wides, triple wides, and the homes that are in large blocks. There is a house down from my house on the lake that is amazing looking, it came on trucks in blocks that were about 16 feet long and 10 feet wide and a crane put them in place. It went up quick, and once it was done you could never tell. Even the inside of the house is breath taking.

[BustedS13]

Originally Posted by initial_jc

thats odd, im looking to buy a house that is a short sale.

hope you find out what it may be

my house was a short sale. it took almost six months to actually buy the damn thing.

that's all