Sign In
Create an account and enjoy all the benefits of HAR.com!
Sign In
Sign in using social account
On the first Tuesday of every month, foreclosed homes across Harris County are sold at the Bayou City Event Center. Two different people care about that date: the buyer hoping a foreclosure is the deal that gets them into a house, and the homeowner who is behind on payments and dreading it. I've sat across the table from both, and my advice is the same — by the time that Tuesday arrives, the useful decisions are already behind you.
First, three words that get mixed up. A foreclosure is the lender's forced sale after a loan goes unpaid. If nobody outbids the lender at that sale, the lender takes the house back and lists it on the MLS as bank-owned, or REO. A short sale is something else: the owner sells for less than they owe, with the lender's permission, before any auction happens.
If you're the buyer, here's the honest picture. The auction is cash, as-is, usually sight unseen, with no title policy and sometimes a former owner still living there. Investors who work it every month have systems for all of that. Most Houston buyers belong in the second lane: bank-owned homes on the MLS, which you can finance, inspect, and close through a title company. HUD homes are a third lane, with an early bidding window reserved for people who will live there; every bid goes through a HUD-approved real estate broker, and I'm one of them. In any lane, the discount is mostly condition, not price. A bank-owned house in Cypress or Katy priced under its neighbors isn't a bargain once you add the roof it needs. The buyers who get hurt are the ones who treat the price and the repairs as two separate discounts.
If you're the owner, the clock is longer than the letters make it sound. Your servicer generally can't begin the legal process until you're more than 120 days behind, and Texas adds its own notice periods after that. Call your servicer's loss-mitigation department first — repayment plans and modifications live there. If keeping the house isn't realistic, remember that falling behind doesn't take your equity away. The auction is what takes it. A home listed and priced right from day one can close before that Tuesday and hand you what's left. The cash-offer letters filling your mailbox trade price for speed, so measure them against a real market number before you sign anything.
That's what both sides share: get one honest number on the house, and act while there's still time to use it. If you're on either side of this in the Houston area, I'm glad to talk it through, no obligation. Call or text me at (281) 500-7077.
Erase note
You currently have no custom folders