1. Short sales
You make an offer to the owner, and the sale depends on the lender’s approval. You can inspect and use normal financing, but expect to wait for the lender’s answer and possibly a counteroffer. Keep your loan approval current while you wait.
2. Bank-owned (REO) homes
When nobody redeems after a sheriff’s sale and the lender owns the home, it usually lists it with an agent. You can tour it, make an offer and use financing. Expect the lender’s own contract addendums and an as-is sale: the seller has never lived there, so it typically won’t make repairs or give the usual disclosures. Get a full inspection, and check the utilities, the water and heating systems, and any winterization.
3. Sheriff’s sales
At a sheriff’s sale the lender bids first, then anyone else may bid. In Hennepin County, a winning outside bidder pays the full bid at the sale, plus a $200 fee, with a cashier’s check or cash, and receives a sheriff’s certificate of sale to record (Hennepin County Sheriff). Other counties have their own procedures.
- You can’t get a mortgage for the bid, and you usually can’t see inside the home.
- The owner keeps the home during the redemption period, usually six months (Minn. Stat. 580.23). If they redeem, you get your money back with interest, not the house.
- Tenants with a lease get at least 90 days’ notice after redemption ends (Minn. Stat. 504B.285).
Sheriff’s sales are for experienced cash buyers who have checked title with an attorney or title company first.
4. Title, taxes and liens
Ask a title company to check for unpaid property taxes, assessments, association dues and other liens before you commit. On REO and short sales, title insurance at closing protects you. At a sheriff’s sale, what you get depends on the mortgage being foreclosed and what was recorded ahead of it.
5. How we help buyers
We track short sales and bank-owned listings across the Twin Cities, write offers that fit each lender’s process, and set up the inspections that as-is homes need. Start with a home search or tell us what you’re looking for below.
This is general information about Minnesota law, not legal advice. Your notices, your loan and your lender’s rules decide the details; an attorney or a free foreclosure prevention advisor can look at your papers.
