The turn in the housing market, credit availability, and economy in general has put a lot of people in a pretty bad financial position. However, it has also made some great investment opportunities for those people that are in the right spot at the right time. This house is a product of a bank that was too loose with its lending and a builder that was too confident in the market. Construction started in late 2005, however, it did not last long before the builder got in over his head and went bankrupt. ANB Financial was the builder’s lender, and so they seized the property during the bankruptcy. In early 2006 ANB hired a new builder to finish the job. This builder was experienced and able; however, the market in this area had already taken a sharp turn for the worse. The second builder did not make it much further before he went under, and had to turn it back over to the bank. So, by late 2006 the house had been 60% completed, and was help up by the red tape of two bankruptcies, and a financial institution that was about the crumble.
Just when you thought the story couldn't get any worse, spring of 2008 rolled around and banks that got too liberal with their lending practices and too confident in the demand for mortgage -backed securities started to fail. ANB Financial was one of the first bank to go, and was taken over by the FDIC in April-ish of this year. The FDIC sold all of ANB Financials’ assets to Pulaski Bank, and kept all of the liabilities to liquidate on their own. This house was one of those liabilities.
Laura and I had planned to build a house this summer, but with the continued downward spiral in the economy and the desire to follow the council of our church leader we decided instead to focus on getting completely out of debt. Knowing that time was on my side, I kept my eye on the housing market just in case a deal to-good-to-be-true presented itself. That is when we found this house.
It is a two story 2546 SqFt house in the city of Rogers, AR. Laura and I spent 2 week researching the house, looking over the opportunity, and even paying home inspectors to tell us what might be wrong with it. After we were satisfied that it really was a good deal, with relatively low risk, we decided to go for it.
Unfortunately, in order to purchase something from the FDIC you have to sign a confidentiality statement, and so I cannot go into detail about the negotiation process and how much we paid for the house. I can only say that it the FDIC was eager to get rid of it, and we are pleased with the price that we settled on. We are currently under contract and will more-than-likely close on the deal in Mid-December. I’d like to start construction just after the New Year, and I think we can complete the house and move in by the end of April or start of May.
Here are some pics. Stay tuned, because I’ll keep you all posted on the progress of this project through the blog.
