I bought one although my info may be dated as my purchase was summer ’09. I already had seen the house previously and tried to purchase thru a short sale. no one at bank could sign off. so I dropped out of that after a very long time.
then it came up later as a foreclosure. it was listed by the “bank” servicing company with a realtor. there were instantly many lowball offers (about 13 I was told).
then it got bid up. I was not the high bid but bought the house.
It was a very one sided transaction. no negotiations were allowed on the contract itself and it was an “as is” sale. they were to provide me with a sellers insurance policy ( which I think they ended up charging me for). phony insurance was a waste of time and denied every claim.
the closing was very strange. they sent a notary out at night to get the docs signed. bank insisted on using their “escrow company”(that did not pass the smell test but ok, their title company (that they owned under a different name. I never met the escrow agent wh owas ain a different city. she never returned any phone calls when I had questions. total turmoil.
it was almost impossible to get a loan at that time but somehow I did. the one concession I received was an extention in time to get the loan. more bank turmoil.
I would think things are somewhat different now, especially as there are so many groups purchasing notes in bulk sale.