Look, it's never a good thing when someone is forced to sell their home by the court. This happens when a home-owner cannot make their payments to the lender. Generally the lender may give them a grace period. Many lenders have it written into the contract that the borrower can miss x number of payments/year or over the course of the loan.
However, if the home-owner can't make the payments and has no way to make the payments the lender can order that the home be sold so they can re-coup their investment.
Incidentally, when the lender does an appraisal on a home they do so to make sure that, if this happens, they will be able to have it sold for enough money to cover the debt. Not that hard in Canada or in BC since home prices seem to consistently either increase or stay level.
Anyway, back to foreclosures....
Once the home is put into foreclosure its very much like any other residential sale. The home is put on the market, offers are made, an offer is accepted. If that offer has subjects the seller's agent waits until subjects are removed and then a court date is set.
On the court date the Buyers or Realtor® representing the Buyers has to have an unconditional offer (no subjects) along with a deposit and a signed copy of the Schedule A. This is the step where things can go sideways.
Why you may ask?
I'll tell you why.
If the Buyer with the accepted offer is the only one that shows up at court it's fairly likely that the judge will accept the offer. However, if some other Buyers show up with all of the required stuff then the judge determines who "wins" the bid. If you're one of those Buyers you only have one shot to impress the judge
So ya, it's a bit complicated and definitely requires an agent who both knows the process and the market.
As we head into more interest rate hikes (Sept. 2023) we may start to see more and more foreclosures coming. Call me if you're interested in one. It's not always a "deal" like in the past but there are some deals to be had.
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