Buying house with “no money down”: experiences wanted
Question: Anyone know of actual house purchases made where the buyer only had to come up with the first months mortgage payment to move in? Where would one start looking for such a deal in Pennsylvania?
Various finance options are discussed in books and on infomercials, but I am interested in real-life transactions.
After all, there are always vacant houses somewhere that have been on the market for long periods of time, whose owners can afford to extend terms rather than continue to pay taxes & insurance.
Answer: In our case, the house was in great shape, 8 years old, 3 bed, 3 bath, hardwood floors throughout, upgraded heating/AC system, huge lot, and also in a very desirable neighborhood. Local rents were a minimum of 750.00 if you could find a rental, and our mortgage ended up being 712.00. So you can see it is a great steal! The VA had expressed the “amount” they wanted to be at 86,000. when other homes in this area go for up to 100,000 (In 93). Never having done this thing before, we were wondering how to bid- high or low…It was a gamble for us becasue we had truly fallen in love with this house (Something you are NOT suposed to do when buying..makes you more vulnerable) and, get this (being a good Georgian you may appreciate it) I was in church on sunday before the deadline and wondered how much we should bid. It came to me!!! (yeah, I can hear it now..) 86,500.!! Well (to make a long story even longer) the Realtor suggested adding $11 onto the bid (his little quirk) because that puts you a little over someone with the same bid, and that one dollar may be the dollar over someone who bids 10. over (Can you follow this logic??? LOL) ….well..this being such a desirable house the winning bid was 96,000!! And the second highest bidder went at 94,000. or something! The Realtor explained that for some folks, winning the bid at whatever cost and being able to buy a house for NO MONEY DOWN was worth the lower interest rate and higher total cost (Someone with bad credit for example?? Or just broke now, but they can make those payments) Because we had agreed in the bidding contract to allow our money to sit on “hold” as a back up buyer…when for some odd reason the first two bids were disqualified due to finances (you do still have to qualify for a loan thru a mortgage co) the house came to us!! WE WERE ECSTATIC! Since we were a back up on this house we had even bid and won another very desirable house bidding! The Realtor’s quote was something like “its not often I get to tell folks they “won” the right to buy a house..it’s even less often I get to tell them they “won” 2 !” We had to decide which home to buy and went with the original one we loved so much. My Advice: Go to church! Bid $11. more then what God tells you! 
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