Buying a House Through GoHoming.com or Altisource: An Epic Journey & Review

The time between when I first saw my future house (from the outside only) to the time the final bid had to be placed through the online auction at gohoming.com was approximately five hours. Five hours does not give a girl a lot of time to do her due diligence regarding the company selling the home, and resulted in a lot of sleepless nights of googling variations of “is gohoming.com a scam?” and “has anyone successfully bought a house through gohoming.com?” after I’d won’t the high bid.

And there wasn’t a great answer, at least not for timed-bids, which is how I won The Liberty House.

So let’s start with the basics. It’s not a scam… it’s a legitimate business, but there’s some risk involved in the auction process, and it’s also a giant pain in the ass. In my case, it was well worth the pain to end up with my dream house, but I think it’s important to go into the process with realistic expectations of the time, due-diligence, paperwork, and risk that goes into buying a property through this company. (Or really, any foreclosure or auction property.)

About GoHoming.com
From what I can tell the “parent” company Altisource Portfolio Solutions (ASPS) goes around and buys up bank-owned properties around the US. Those properties are then listed on one of their sites (altisourcehomes.com or gohoming.com). When the properties are sold, they are filtered through a Sellers Agent (who is probably out-of-state) and they also own a title company, Premium Title, for closing (which is also probably out-of-state, unless you’re in Atlanta, GA.) Also: see my note below about using your own title company, which I strongly recommend.

Here’s a list of the related companies:

  • AltisourceHomes: National brokerage for the listing and sale of REO properties.
  • GoHoming: Online real estate marketplace utilizing both timed and untimed bidding to sell REO properties.
  • Lenders One: National alliance of mortgage bankers, correspondent lenders and suppliers of mortgage services.
  • Nationwide Credit, Inc.: Asset recovery and customer relationship management solutions.
  • REALRemit: Patented electronic invoicing and payment system that maximizes efficiencies and optimizes cash flow.
  • Premium Title: Distinguishes itself through responsiveness, convenience and superior service delivery.

What you need to understand is that this is a legitimate business model in the sense that you can actually purchase a house through them. There have been some reviews/complaints online about possible fake bids, etc. I can’t speak to that, but I can tell you that I chose to “autobid” by setting a high limit, and the final bid I won with was $15,000 less than my high limit. If they were scamming I think they might have tried to drive it up higher.

Regardless, when you bid on and purchase a house through this company, it’s a largely automated process. It means if you’re a first-time home-buyer you need to be really familiar with how the home-buying process works, because (despite being assigned a “transaction coordinator”) there’s no one to ask questions to or to guide you through the process. My advice is to know the process, and don’t trust that anyone (Realtors, loan officers, title company agents, or transaction coordinators) knows what they are talking about. In more than one instance in my experience if I had just blindly listened to the transaction coordinator, it would have been a mess, and everyone else who worked with me– while they were all great– were very up-front about the fact that this process was different from most other property transactions.

That being said, in the end I did end up with a house. I paid a bit more in fees than I would have with a traditional sale or REO sale, but I also got the house for significantly less than its appraised value. And all it cost me was lot of work, due-diligence, sleepless nights, and seventeen new gray hairs.

The Basics

As far as I can tell it works like this: A house is listed for a very short dollar amount for a very short period of time. You can probably take a look at the house before you bid on it (and wouldn’t that be a good idea?) but you have to catch it quick. I found my house on Zillow the last day of the bid and wasn’t able to take a look inside beforehand, but I did make a rule that I wouldn’t bid any higher than I thought the value of land and outbuildings was worth, just in case the house was crap and needed to be torn down.

Even though I’m a staunch DIYer, you should have your own Realtor for this. If you can find one that has gone through the process with Altisource or GoHoming.com before, even better. My house had a lock-box on it and my realtor was able to get the code off the MLS so that we could do a walk-through. In this case it was after I won the bid on the house, but you know, I like to live on the edge.

Timed Bid

There are two different ways houses are listed on the GoHoming.com site. A timed bit is basically like the eBay of house-buying. A time limit is set along with a reserve, and you can bid up until the time limit, or within 15 minutes of the last bid after the time limit has ended.

  • Registering – Registering was quick and easy, and they didn’t ask for any crazy information like a credit card number, and they don’t spam you with any emails or offers after the fact.
  • Bidding – You can either manually bid or set the system to auto-bid (which means if anyone out-bids you the system will automatically increase the increments by $1000 over the highest bid until your high limit is hit.) There are two nice things about auto-bidding. One of them is that when it came close to the end of the bid time on my house, the website kept stalling and I would get an error on the page that wouldn’t let me get in and bid, which put my blood pressure through the roof. The other thing is that there are 3 screens worth of info you have to fill out each time you bid, but if you auto-bid you only have to do it once.  When you are outbid the system does send you an email, but when it gets down to the wire those emails don’t come fast enough.
  • Bidding information– When you place a bid the system asks you to fill out information that will later be used to populate the purchase agreement (if you win.) This information includes whether or not you want to use their title company (don’t), if you plan to finance the property, etc. Don’t just choose anything to fill in the blank here because if you win and it becomes part of the Purchase Agreement, you’re locked into the terms.
  • Winning (or Losing) – The auction doesn’t actually close at the designated time unless there has been a 15 minute period without any new bids. This lasted an extra hour for me and was incredibly nerve-wracking. So be prepared. If you win, you’ll be sent the Purchase agreement in an email within 30-40 minutes.

The Purchase Agreement

The purchase agreement is basically a form agreement that refers back to an information page (page 2) that has all of the options set by the “seller” or by you through the bidding process. There are also a lot of fun clauses that absolve the seller of basically anything that could go wrong in the closing process.

Some of the highlights:

  • Deadlines – The Purchase Agreement must be signed within 48 hours. We heard from the sellers agent that because the process is automated, if you don’t get your paperwork back in on time, the house will automatically go back “on the market” in another auction and you’ll lose your bid. Luckily you won’t have signed the contract or sent in the earnest money deposit, so you probably won’t lose any money either.
  • No Loan Contingency – Be prepared to pay cash, or lose your deposit (5% of purchase price) in the event that you can’t secure a loan, and let me tell you this… It is very difficult to secure a loan for a previously bank-owned property, especially within 30 days of having a signed purchase agreement. I did it, but I got lucky on the shape the house was in and I still had to clear a lot of red tape.
  • Closing Date – The purchase agreement will specify a “must close by” date. If you don’t close by that date because of something on your end, they will charge you a $300 fee for missing the closing date, plus $150 per day for every day until you close. If you don’t close on that date and it’s their fault you don’t have to pay anything, but neither do they.
  • Earnest Money – 5% of the purchase price must be put down as a deposit (in the form of a cashier’s check) when the Purchase Agreement is signed. This check should be made out to the title company you are using (either theirs or your own). Again, I recommend using your own local title agency for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I did read some reviews that said it was difficult to get the deposit back from the GoHoming title agency (Premium Title) when a deal fell through. Also, in my case I had to escrow some additional money for updates to the house (courtesy of the bank and appraiser) and I would only want to do that with a local company.
  • Liability –  The clause that probably gave me the most anxiety was the part that said basically, “You’re agreeing to pay this price and if something happens to the house (like someone breaks in and steals all the copper pipes) between now and closing, sorry! Not our problem.” And the day after I signed that I went to the house and someone had been inside and left their work gloves and flashlight in there. Not to mention the siding and copper pipe that had been clearly torn off of the garage and propane tank. I asked the Sellers agent if there was any way to “protect” the property until closing–either by changing the lock box code, not allowing other agents on the property, etc.–which they would not agree to (and why would they as it was my ass on the line, right?). They did let us put a “sold” sign in the yard prior to closing, however. Above and beyond that, let’s just say I’m resourceful and found ways to make sure the house was protected prior to closing, and I’m sure that if I hadn’t done that I would have found a lot less copper plumbing in here by the time I moved in.

Loans

I’m not even remotely an expert on securing a home loan and the process is so convoluted that even in my limited experience I could write volumes about it. If you’re not crazy and haven’t bought 3 houses in 7 years (or haven’t bought one since the bubble burst and all the banks stopped having the freedom to use common sense when giving out home loans) here are some things you should know. The general process works (or should work) like this:

    • Pre-approval – You can usually do this online. It definitely requires a credit check and information on your salary, banking history, financial stability, etc.
    • Starting the Approval Process – You can’t start the actual approval process until you have a signed purchase agreement. Once you do you may need some additional documentation (for me it was complete tax returns). As part of this process you’ll be asked to sign a ton of different disclosure documents, one of which is a Truth in Lending Statement. Pay close attention to this one because if they screw it up (and my bank did by not reading the Purchase Agreement thoroughly enough and failing to include the Title Transfer Tax amount) and you don’t find out until the last minute, it could potentially push your closing back. And if you’re down to the wire, that– in turn– can cause closing delay fees with the seller.
    • Appraisal– The property will need to be appraised, and there are a host of things that can go wrong at this stage in the process. The value of the house may not be high enough to get approval for the loan amount you need, there may not be enough “comps” (sales of comparable value in the area) to get a good estimate from, you may need an additional appraisal, etc. You may also need to factor in (as I did) paying to have the house dewinterized and rewinterized because all major utilities will need to be on for the appraisal to go through.  I’ve had issues with appraisal on every single purchase or sale of a piece of property in the last three years, and frankly, even though I bought The Liberty house for significantly under the appraised value and put another big chunk of change down on the loan, it’s still a small miracle that this all worked out.
    • Approval by Underwriting – Once the bank has all of your paperwork and the appraisal (which will usually make it to the bank within three business days of the walk-through) an underwriter basically gives the yay or nay on the loan. I actually had to provide more documentation, and a letter stating I was a licensed contractor and had the funds to make some additional small repairs to the house (which they then made me escrow the cash for) before they would approve the loan.

Closing the Sale

The 30 days between signing the purchase agreement and the closing date felt alternately like an eternity or not nearly enough time, depending on whether I was trying to defend the house from looters or cut through all the underwriting red tape. Here are a couple of things you should know:

  • Check, re-check, and check again on all of the things that will need to be complete before you can close. 30 days is not a lot of time to get all of these things done. In my case it included checking to make sure the title was free and clear of liens and back-taxes (it was not, which meant another week of paperwork), getting a well and septic inspection that was required by my county, and, of course, getting all of the loan paperwork in. I made sure all of this was in the works the day after I signed the purchase agreement, and some of it was still being finalized an hour before closing.
  • About working with GoHoming specifically, the paperwork needs to be in to them 48 hours before closing. My loan officer didn’t do this, which means I was sitting in the closing office with nothing to sign, had some last minute changes, and then had to go back the next day to re-sign everything. So make sure everyone knows when the paperwork should be where and that they actually get it in on time.

Hidden Costs of Buying At Auction

When you purchase a house “traditionally” (as in, not a bank-owned or auction house) there may be some items that are the sellers responsibility, such as a septic inspection or paying the transfer tax on the title. When you buy a house through GoHoming.com, it is all your responsibility. Here are some of the costs I incurred in this process above and beyond what I would typically expect when purchasing property (ie Home Inspection, Loan Application Fees, closing costs, etc):

  • Using my own Title Company: $1200 (Worth. Every. Penny.)
  • Well & Septic Inspection: $1500 (Included pumping out the septic since there was no permit on file for the property)
  • Dewinterizing & Re-winterization: $1000 (Yeah. Still salty about this.)
  • Title Transfer Tax: $800

A Little More About My Experience

While buying The Liberty House certainly wasn’t a whim (I knew for almost a year I’d be buying or building something eventually) it also happened, uh, swiftly, and I wasn’t quite mentally or physically prepared for it. Putting 5% cash down on the house with the very real possibility of losing it, along with the general anxiety of working with a Transaction Coordinator in India (who did not inspire confidence by repeatedly referring to me as “Stanley”, which is clearly not my name), and dealing with this company that I couldn’t find much information on, and a loan officer who had a slightly different definition of the term “responsive” than I did… well, let’s just say for the month of February I averaged about two hours of sleep per night.

In all those hours I wasn’t sleeping I was obsessively re-reading the purchase agreement, alternately calling the bank, my realtor, or the title company, and sticking pins into a little voodoo doll I may or may not have made of the appraiser.

It was not an easy month.  There are so many places that things could have gone wrong (or simply gone unnoticed until it was too late) that I still have a sense of awe– and not a small amount of post-traumatic anxiety– that everything worked out in the end. Even with all of the bumps I went through in the process, the seller’s attorney actually commented to the agent at the title company that off the dozen sales she was processing at the moment, mine was the one that was going “smoothly”.

So would I do it again? For the Liberty House… in a heartbeat. For anything else, I’m not sure it would be worth it. What I hope is that by telling the story of my experience and sharing what I learned that someone else will be able to make the best decision about their own future home.

If you have any specific questions I can answer, leave them in the comments or send me an email. I’m always happy to help someone else find their home!

155 Responses

  1. Also, re: the buyer’s premium. I’ve had an attorney in our area review the wording specific to this and it is NOT credited to the buyer. They did something funny with the wording that I think is confusing, but it basically states that the buyer’s premium is to be added to the sales price and then credited to Altisource out of the seller’s proceeds from the sale.

    They actually changed their forms to make this wording because before that, I had success getting the buyer’s premium waived for the buyer. When I called to fight about the change, they pointed out that they list the version of the contract on each page and that my previous deals were under different versions of the contract which allowed the fee to be waived, but they will not permit that any longer.

  2. And if all this wasn’t enough, I found out a couple months ago that my locally funded mortgage was packaged up and sold to Fannie Mae. Who, has turned over the servicing of said mortgage to OCWEN. And guess who OCWEN is part of? Yep, this whole Altisource, off-shore, India Staffed, collection of idiots. It seems only in death will I ever be rid of this low class outfit. Do a quick search of OCWEN and you’ll find thousands of complaints about the way they do business. The numerous times they have been sued and lost. I’m glad I am over 60 and in poor health. I probably won’t have to put up with their crap very long. Yucc! I typed OCWEN and now I’ll need to go clean my keyboard.

    1. Thank you for taking the time to provide this feedback. It was very helpful and it made me realize that I’m not the only person wondering about this whole process and how it works as well as losing sleep over it. Your home is beautiful. bye Stanley 😉

  3. Hi,
    I’m looking at a house on the now called “hubzu” site… I continues to cycle thru auction after auction starting at diff. opening bids with no bidding happening. Do u know if these houses ever go back to the bank’s hands? I would much rather just deal with a bank.. so do not trust these sites.
    (oh, there was one cycle where there was one bid on house.. and it was at same time that I was inquiring by calling hubzu and the listing agent on the house.. curious)

    1. I am in the process of buying a house i found on hubzu. The closing date was set. It came about but lo and behold the seller wasnt ready. it was put off for 30 more days. less than a week now till closing AGAIN and still no word. you cant call the transaction coordinator. All you get is voicemail. ill keep you up to date on if it went through.

      1. Well, I said I would let you guys know so here I am. As a first time home buyer I have been really nervous with the reports about these guys. I never once got in touch with someone via phone. Its impossible if you ask me. However, Last Friday I became the proud owner of new-to-me 4 bedroom house. For a whole week after my last post i sent emails daily till i got a response. So as for my experience with them- 1 star. Only good thing was i now own my own home. *NOTE: Prior to closing I took my mower to the house and mowed. I left it behind thinking it would be safe. It was stolen. Now get this. The day we closed I was on the roof and the maintenance guy shows up to mow. He admitted they stole my lawnmower! MD Maintenance- somewhere in Georgia. Crooks i tell ya!

    2. Rae,
      Did you ever get an answer to your question about whether or not the house goes back to the bank if no one bids on the auctions? How many times do they try to auction it before giving up?

      1. Denise and Rae,
        I see some of these comments are months old. I’m a Realtor in Alabama and have successfully closed on 2 homes through HUBZU for clients. ALmost had a 3rd except my buyer lost his job the day we were sending back the paperwork after bidding on the home every week for 3 months(that’s a whole other story). In my experience(about 6 months worth) and parts of 3 transactions and also bidding on multiple properties through hubzu it works like this. If a home doesn’t sell, they will start the bid back for another 7-10 days at a lower starting point. The reserve price is typically the price listed in your local MLS(by typically a non-local agent, don’t get me started). I found in my last experience that it seemed about every 30-40 days the list price came down in the MLS.(however the MLS wasn’t being updated until much later (sometimes as much as 2 weeks) from when I believe hubzu was lowering the reserve price. As far as I can tell, the properties remain on HUBZU until sold. We bid up to 85k on a home the reserve was 89 and I expected to be contacted to try and negotiate finally (we’d bid up to 85 for weeks with it being a 99 reserve. Eventually they dropped it to 79 and we got it for 80 about 3 weeks later.

        1. Hi Aaron I just want to ask which bank you used? I had pre-qualification letter I sign a contract for the property and when I go to start mortgage process today wells Fargo told me they don’t deal with hubzu so I cannot obtain conventional loan through them. Any suggestions…

  4. It’s totally fraudulent, totally a scam. Yes, you can buy a house through it, but you’re getting screwed. First of all, they’re stealing that buyer’s premium from you. Second of all, anyone can make up a user name and bid against you. How would you like to bid back and forth on a home and go from $150k to $190k? Even if your max was $190k or $200k, you don’t know if the other people you were bidding against you were just playing a game or actually had intentions to buy. I just won the bidding and I’m not buying the house at the price of my bid because I’m not gullible enough to believe we got to that price fairly.

    1. Also, they totally misrepresented the house I wanted to buy. They mentioned nothing of the major toxic mold throughout the basement, which I believe has to be disclosed. Their online system to get the access code to the house was also faulty and would not give my realtor the code due to his license being wrong for our state (which was not true).

      1. I doubt they’re ever going to sell the house I’m trying to buy because they are liars and scammers, but if they keep relisting the auction, I’m going to keep winning the bidding until they give up. That’s right, there’s no penalty for winning the bidding and not paying. See, that’s why this is fraudulent. Anyone can jack the bids up.

        1. Another thing, this company, Altisource, is in India. Why the heck should anyone in the good old USA be dealing with someone in India to buy a house in USA???

  5. I’ve read about every website comment about the questionable HUBZU.COM auction sales (that was previously GoHoming.com mentioned here). This is the only place I saw these kind of outrageous closing fees charged to the buyer!! Are these also being charged to todays’ HUBZU buyers?

    “Using my own Title Company: $1200 (Worth. Every. Penny.)
    •Well & Septic Inspection: $1500 (Included pumping out the septic since there was no permit on file for the property)
    •Dewinterizing & Re-winterization: $1000 (Yeah. Still salty about this.)
    •Title Transfer Tax: $800”

    Thanks, Larry

  6. Hubzu, Altisource; This site has numerous ethical problems.
    1. I purchased a property on it; then no followup from “coordinator” for many days followed by aggressive demands for documents and a check. I obtained a NY attorney; he initiated the concerns about their aggressiveness, then initiated a concern as they were wanting to represent me in the onsite closing at their office. Both these practices are highly unethical and, for them, risky legally. The attorney reviewed the contract document they sent and said, no way. Not only was the language a mess generally and not a standard foreclosure sale contract, but it placed a high level of risk and accountability on the buyer, which would be me. We backed out of that sale.
    2. They are gouging the bid process by submitting false bids to compete with you; causing you to increase a bid to reach the actual real sale price you will easily listed on Trulia or Zillow.com . If you want to witness it yourself do what I did. I bid on a property with no bids yet and it was close to the final hours for bidding; to my surprise another handle bid immediately following my bid, hit the reserve and won the sale. Surprise me not, it was relisted the next day for another week bidding process. The someone who bid against me and won the sale was most likely Hubzu.
    3. I think the aggression and poor customer service is a significant sign they do not respect the buyer; thus they are working with the selling agent, which are banks, to make it appear you are getting a good deal, thus signing contracts fast without weighing the risks to you.
    Just go with your gut and be slow and mindful in working with them if you choose to do so. You are never obligated to buy anything if you win the bid; be sure you have an attorney read the contract and not simply a realtor.
    Good luck.

    1. When I bought my house last January, there was a clause in the contract that the buyer would be credited with the Buyer’s Premium Fee at close. Section 4.2 f my contract. This never happened so I paid the $3,645 as it was added to the cost of the house and never credited back.

      Has your attorney said anything about that clause? I’m going to have an attorney look at that issue for me.

      Laura

  7. WE are in the process of buying. We are trying to wire our earnest money. It was returned. It seems so convoluted. I am thinking that we should back out of this property!

  8. Okay folks, let’s use a little common sense.

    (I can speak with some authority here, as I now own and live in a home I found on the Net, listed by Altisource, had my realtor place a bid at the midnight hour, properly wired the earnest monies, signed a sales contract after some changes, and then fought with the Indians (dot not feather) to get this mess closed. It was very frustrating to say the least, but I bought this house, which was a foreclosure for $71 grand. Put 10% down and another 8 grand into updates and repairs. But I now have a 3.625% mortgage for 64k on a house that appraised before the updates and repairs at $141,000.)

    Clearly, and I mean CLEARLY, this conglomeration of companies does not do the real estate business in a normal manner. Every one of you knows this because you are here reading all the warnings. If you had any dealings with these people without doing extensive research on the Internet, you failed to cover your own a55. You can buy a house from these guys and do quite well, as I think I made an excellent buy. But be prepared to fight tooth and nail at every turn. If you have anger management issues, are borderline depressed, can’t handle disappointment, or have a box full of pipe bombs in your basement and really want to see if they work, this is not the place for you to buy a house. I assure you, it will not go as planned or expected. You will be frustrated beyond description. But if you are determined, know when you are getting screwed and know how to deal with it, can stick it out for the long haul, and are flexible as far as your closing date, then you might be able to grab a house at a bargain price. I sure did. But I was in a position to fight with them and insist and threaten, and not be bullied into their corner. I never had to pay a lawyer a red cent. But I had to use the threat of turning a United States born attorney loose on them several times. Seems that was the only thing they feared.

    OKAY THEN, YOU HAVE BEEN PROPERLY FOREWARNED! YOU CAN’T GET INVOLVED IN A REAL ESTATE DEAL WITH THIS BUNCH AND THEN WHINE ABOUT THEM BEING FROM INDIA, NOT DOING THINGS LIKE YOU EXPECT, ETC. IT WILL HAPPEN AND IF YOU THINK IT WON’T, YOU SHOULD BE LOOKING FOR A HOUSE IN NEVER NEVER LAND.

    THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL PEOPLE……READ IT!

  9. Hey, I just noticed that there is a whole bunch of this thread missing.

    The first post was on April 12, 2012.
    The second post was on June 17, 2013
    (by me with a different name: Bee Emm Ess)

    That is more than a years worth of information or what I like to call: WARNING SIGNS, that is missing. I ask this blog owner to restore the complete thread in order to give researchers every chance to learn what they are dealing with.

    1. The page setup only shows 50 comments at a time. Click the “older comments” link to see more.

      1. Yes, you are right. I never noticed that link. I just hope everyone who ends up here can find all the messages so they know exactly what they are dealing with.

        And thanks Kit for providing the space and your time so those of us that have experience with these people can warn those thinking about jumping in! You are providing a valuable service.

        Bryan

    2. Hi Bryan I just want to ask which bank you used? I had pre-qualification letter I sign a contract for the property and when I go to start mortgage process today wells Fargo told me they don’t deal with hubzu so I cannot obtain conventional loan through them. Any suggestions…

  10. I am reading all the comments and would not touch this site with a 10 foot pole. BUT I have been trying to buy this house that is a short sale… the bank…. wait for it…… OCWEN <> decided to list the house for action on Hubzu. It listed for a week then came down with no bids and is now back on the site. I still have a valid contract with the home owners, yet the bank is pushing me to bid on this site!! I don’t want to and if I do I will low ball to eat up all the fees they put on the buyer. What I am trying to find out is from anyone that has been here… how many times will they keep putting this house on this site??

  11. Everything about the experience is extremely hard and frustrating. I too found and closed on a home from HUBZU, but I also looked at it for three months before deciding to bid. I love the house and the neighborhood inspite of the issues with the convoluted process. FYI – we did not close in 30 days, but they waived the fees. Also , if you read about the extension fees, they are treated the same as the earnest money and are added to your TIL as a credit

    1. Hi Ryan I just want to ask which bank you used? I had pre-qualification letter I sign a contract for the property and when I go to start mortgage process today wells Fargo told me they don’t deal with hubzu so I cannot obtain conventional loan through them. Any suggestions…

  12. Hi all I just want to ask people who close trough hubzu which bank they used? I had pre-qualification letter I sign a contract for the property and when I go to start mortgage process today wells fargo told me they don’t deal with hubzu so I cannot obtain conventional loan through them. Any suggestions…

    1. I used a local mortgage company. Home mortgages are their only business. They write the loans, and then package them up and sell to investors.

      The fact that Wells Fargo won’t even look at a mortgage for a Hubzu house should tell you something. Like “BEWARE”!!!! They have obviously had dealings with these yeyhoos and now refuse to work with them.

      If you have an exceptional house at an unbeatable price, and are willing to put up with hoards of nonsense from the sellers, I’m sure you could shop around and find somebody who isn’t experienced with Hubzu and will make the loan. But you see……..the problems are starting already! And rest assured, they will continue!

      1. Thanks Bryan! I am buying a condo in Florida which is about 20k under the market price! Its not that good deal as your was but still I believe is worth it. I will try today with few smaller banks and credit unions to see what happen. Any suggestions on your experience dealing with hubzu about the contract,fees,time frame and etc.

        1. I could only repeat what I wrote above. Buying a house from these yoyos is like joining the Army. You are in for a battle. I would find the smartest realtor around, keep an attorney on standby, and pray…..allot.

          Seriously, if you are not flexible as far as your time frame for closing, walk right now. But if you are flexible, and can withstand tons of mental torture, go for it. But you’ve been warned.

          (Good luck Simeon, and let me know if it goes through. I love to kayak fish the Tampa Bay/Sarasota/St. Pete/Longboat Key/Venice areas and in exchange for my expert advice, I’ll be down in May for a weeks stay with my kayak looking for tarpon. You are close to this area right?)

          1. I’ll keep you posted. Unfortunately I am at the other end of Fl in Fort Lauderdale but maybe we can figure out something. One more question about web tech fee and buyers premium in my case about 3000$. Did they include them in the mortgage price or you pay them on the side with down payment?

          2. Simeon,
            There was some sort of odd ball fee, but I don’t recall what they called it. And it wasn’t 3 grand! If my memory is right, if I used their closing people, they would waive the fee. So I did. If the condo you are looking at is 20k under market, then you’ll still be 17k ahead if you pay their fee. But I would still look into having them waive that fee as it seems “not normal”. They decided to use the web to sell real estate, why should you be charged extra to use the web tech? Have fun. (or just run!)

  13. I wondered if you do link outreach for the blog? Most people urge people to stop with that now
    p.s Don’t take advice from the Warrior Forums haha

  14. Since they don’t give you a loan or inspection period, has anyone lost there deposit from them for not being able to secure a loan or finding out about a major problem with the house and deciding yo back out.

    1. Harry,
      (This all occurred in the fall so if I had not bought the house, I would have had to pay to have all this stuff shut back off and winterized.)

      I needed to get the gas turned on and since it had been off for more than a year, a new set of rules kicked in. I had to have a certified plumber come in and do a leak test using nitrogen before they would turn the meter on. Then all the winterizing that had been done needed to be undone so the well, pump, septic, pipes, toilets, faucets, etc. could be inspected.

      AND………..because I was being moved off property I didn’t want to leave, due to an airport expansion program, the Federal Gov. was paying me to leave. But before they would sign their checks , there were more boxes to check. Example: The airport was paying me about 6k to move out but my new place had to pass their inspections. This house had a bad water heater and kitchen faucet. The seller wasn’t about to fix these things, and the deal was no-go without the repairs, so I took a leap of faith and paid for it. There was a chance I could lose that money, but there was no chance I could buy that house without taking care of those faults. As it turned out, it all fell together, and now I have a house I paid about 1/2 the appraised value for. All the inspections I paid for would have needed to be done anyway, so no big deal!

      But believe me, if the deal had fell through due to their fault, I kept the old water heater and faucet. And they would have been put right back in before I gave their key back.

      I’ve since (all in the first year) had to repair the furnace, replace the A.C., repair the water softener, repair the lawn sprinkler system, yada, yada, yada. With a foreclosure you’ll have this kind of stuff. But in the mean time, my mortgage payments are less than $400 a month for P&I.

      So Harry, I had the added issues of another government department being involved, but I had a GREAT realtor who bent the rules when required to get things done. I really do think that in order to get a deal with these off-shore knuckleheads to go through, the stars, the sun, and the moon must all align just right.

      In the end, you must decide in your own mind if the problems and issues you are going to have to deal with are worth the reward of buying a house at far below market value. For me, there is no question. About 45 days of struggle, strife, and elevated blood pressure is certainly worth the outstanding deal I got on this property.

      SIDE STORY:
      The property I had to leave was owned by my boss of 30 years. They had a 3-bedroom brick ranch with a walk out basement and 2-stall attached garage located on their gated estate, which they offered to me at $1 per year rental. They paid all taxes and insurance and major maintenance. It was supposed to be available to me for as long as I wanted. But the airport had been after their property for decades. When he passed away, she took the $$ and ran! I don’t blame her one bit, but that deal sure messed up a sweet setup for me!

  15. What concerns me most is how they include sections like the one below in their “Purchase and Sale Agreement” aka “PSA”;

    1.3 OTHER OFFER, BACKUP OFFERS
    Seller reserves the right to continue to offer the property for sale to others after Buyer’s delivery of this agreement and/or Seller’s acceptance of Buyer’s offer and accept backup offers at Seller’s sold discretion.

    So what’s to stop them from accepting another offer at any time??? Nothing

    I won the auction, they are sending me all the documents to sign and they still have the spot on the site to place a backup bid.

    If I sign the PSA, send them my deposit then they accept another offer, can and how do I get my deposit back?

  16. I’ve read all these warnings (plus the BBB consumer reports) and am trying to exercise extreme patience while pulling out hair over repeated delays on closing, all on their end, as this is a cash deal.
    My question: is there anyone out their who has bought through Altisource/et al in Vermont? Vermont has a lot of specific and atypical requirements for property sales, and their closing agent has not answered any of my attorney’s questions about who is preparing the conveyance documents and whether they know what they are doing. He strongly advised them to get a Vermont lawyer — which they also did not even reply to.
    I would feel a whole lot better if I knew that someone had closed on a house with them in Vermont.
    Thanks!

    1. So… I’m replying to myself, more than a year later, just to let readers out there know: I did successfully close, and am happily at work renovating my fixer-upper home. Yes, it was hell getting through, and the paperwork was very screwed up, and I paid a lot extra to have my own attorney to go through everything. But ultimately, it was worth it. This was a house I could never have afforded otherwise.

  17. Oh boy…..we won an auction back in May and it has been a nightmare to try and close. How does this company get away with this…….sigh

    1. I am currently going through the process and it is exactly like all the horror stories.
      In short: no, they dont know how to deal with any given state’s particular real estate transactions. unlike some previous comments, I get same day responses, but they are unintelligable or dont address the issue raised. I did secure a lawyer and my own title company thank god. They have to deal with Altisource and Premium Title.

  18. Hello,
    So after looking through all of these comments I can’t decide where this leaves me. I found a house on Hubzu- submitted the “winning offer” offer had a 60 day close contingency. The offer was accepted on Friday the Purchase and sale agreement was sent over to be done byt Sunday. My broker and I look over the agreement and they didn’t give us a 60 day close and they say we can’t turn on the water for an inspection / appraisal.
    The house won’t apraise per my lender without running water. (The air pressure test isn’t enough)
    No one got back to us and we had to miss the Purchase and sale deadline.
    Has anyone had any recent luck getting utilities turned on? I’m willing to cover all of the expenses and do a pressure test first.
    Any help would be amazing. I’m just not sure if we should just drop it and give up? I’m in love with the house but if I can’t get a loan that’s obviously a deal breaker. Also just in case it matters, I’m doing a conventional loan.

    Thank you,
    Ashley K

  19. Thanks so much for writing this I am buying a house through Hubzu and that the only thing different than what your company’s where. Everyone is hard to understand and I was starting to think I was getting ready to fund a terrorist group with my meager savings. They are all kind and curious but I was unnerved by everyones foreign dialect to mine..Buying a house in the US I had Assumed I would be speaking to people across town not across the globe. I too have not slept for a month a pray on Monday it will come off with out a hitch.

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