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Friday, February 13, 2009
Foreclosures end up loss for many, a gain for others
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sheena and Otis Wallace looked at five houses a day for two consecutive weeks.
But it really didn’t take Sheena that long to find the one she wanted to call home. Early in the search, she grew attached to a four-bedroom, two-story abode in Dacula. It had a formal living room, dining room and family room, but the wedding coordinator was sold on one particular feature.
“What got me was the sun room,” she said. “My heart stayed with this one.”
And if all goes well, the Wallaces may close on their new home soon. The couple took advantage of the county’s ever-growing inventory of reduced foreclosures. According to Foreclosurefreesearch.com, a Web site that keeps track of such real estate, nearly 2,000 distressed properties were on the market in Gwinnett County this week.
Bargains abound. Practically every town and every corner of the county has foreclosures held by banks as well as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD. Norcross Realtor Clyde Rivers drives a PT Cruiser with a wrap-around banner: “HUD homes — $100 down payment,” it states. He’s a certified HUD specialist — “been doing it more than 20 years,” he told me, mentioning the catchy name of his business Web site, hudking.com.
Naturally, Rivers doesn’t expect people to buy homes like they gobbled them up during the heydays of lax lending and overbuilding. He knows, too, that people, generally, are reluctant to purchase a big-ticket item such as a house or car these days. Experts say that’s the very thing that needs to happen.
The fear of losing a job runs deep. So does the pessimism, mistrust and uncertainty. All cripple recovery.
But even in this climate, there’s a sector of the employment world (nurses, for example) whose jobs remain stable. They could capitalize on low home prices, record-low interest rates and special buyer programs such as HUD’s $100 down program. It allows borrowers with good credit (580 or higher) to buy a dwelling with $100 down. HUD will also pay a much as 3 percent of the sale price to offset closing costs.
“HUD knows their properties are being sold as is, and some — not all — need work,” Rivers told me. “To offset that, [the agency] lowered the down payment, which leaves the buyer able to do a few things once they get in. This information needs to get to the right folks to let them know about the program. A certain number would buy a home if they could get into it with a small down payment.”
Like the Wallaces, who are clients of Rivers. For them, the hardest part about buying a HUD home was choosing the right property. Sheena works from home. Otis, her husband, is a civilian contractor working in Iraq with a cleaning company. When he came home for the holidays, the couple spent most days house hunting.
“We went out every day,” she said. “But my heart stayed with the [house in Dacula] that we had seen the very first week. My heart stayed with that one. I hate to gain from someone else’s loss, but it’s buyer’s market.”
On Tuesday, the Wallaces are scheduled to close on their new home.
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