Is it smart to buy a home that you cannot inspect? Could be if the price was low enough to compensate you for the amount of work that might be required to bring the condition of the home to market standards.

Before you rush forward to buy foreclosure home, stop to think about some of the drawbacks and repercussions if you can’t get in the house to inspect the interior.

Who Is Living at the Property?

If the property is occupied, the successful bidder is typically responsible for removing the occupants, who may not be the previous owners. They could be relatives or friends of the owners, renters or squatters. You might have to evict them.

• If you are unfamiliar with eviction processes, you should hire a lawyer to handle it for you.
• Be aware that tenants who are sued for eviction sometimes retaliate.
• A better solution might be to pay or bribe the occupants to leave.

Non-Owner Occupied Homes

When buying  a foreclosed house, it is possible that the house would have been rented out to people of dubious character of even worse it may be occupied by squatters.

In certain situations as soon as the For Sale sign was planted in the lawn, the tenants stop paying rent. Neither the lender nor the seller can collect any money from the tenants. Most the time the deed of trust contains an "assignment of rents" – which means the lender has a right to collect the rent if the owner does not make his payments. Reading the “fine print” if you intend to buy foreclosure home is a must.

Condition of Foreclosed Homes

Because these homes are purchased "as is" from the lender or HUD, there is no guarantee of condition. Sometimes it is possible to inspect these homes prior to making an offer but sometimes, as in the above example of the home in California, access is not granted.

When sellers realize they are about to lose their homes through foreclosure, it’s not uncommon for them to stop caring about the home.

• If something breaks or malfunctions, they aren’t going to fix it.
• If they are angry or desperate enough, it’s possible they might actually destroy the house. An effective way to flood the home is to turn on all the water faucets, plug the drains and leave. Others smash out walls, then pull out the copper pipes and wiring to sell as scrap metal.
• Owners will also sell the appliances and kitchen cabinets.
• Some horrible-excuse-for-human beings even leave animals behind, locked inside without food or water.

Buying foreclosures is not for the faint of heart. It’s best handled by the pros and thus buying foreclosed homes is not recommended for first-time home buyers.