HOORAY! :D

Our counter-offer was accepted! Yay! There is a lot of up-front cost with a foreclosure. The buyer is responsible for having all the utilities turned on, and scheduling the desired inspections, as well as researching back taxes, etc.

This time around, we are going for a home inspection, pest inspection, and radon inspection. We didn't bother with radon inspection in our last house, because our previous area was not known for high radon. This new area is pretty radon-y, so we are covering our bases. If we are going to be here a while, we don't want to be marinating in lung-cancer juice the whole time.
I'm nervous about having the utilities turned on. The water will come on on Monday. After work on Monday night, I'm going to pop over and make sure the house isn't filling with water. If it is, I guess I can at least turn off the main shut-off thing. I suppose the house could also be burning to the ground, since the electrical will be turned on on Monday as well... at least the leaking water will put the fire out, haha!
The area we are moving in to requires a type of test called a dye test, which checks to make sure the sewer lines actually go into the sewer. I know. It's weird. But since it's a foreclosure, we have to pay for it.

Basically, a foreclosure is good for several reasons. Usually, you can buy way more house for way less money (which means the mortgage is small, so you give less money to the bank in the form of interest). This is the case for the house we are purchasing. Other good-condition houses in the neighborhood go for 30-50% more than we will spend. That's real money people! You also don't have to feel bad about tearing things out and putting them in the way you want them. Usually everything is crap-tastic and deserves to go.

On the negative side, foreclosures are a lot more work and money up front. There is more work before closing, there are more costs associated with closing, and there is generally more work to do and money to be spent once the house belongs to you. And that's all real money, too, cash-money, instead of loan-money. (If you do it right, the money you have to spend makes sense for the expected value of the house. For example, we will not be putting in a 50k kitchen.)

To us, this is worth it. Since the mortgage will be so small, we will have a lot more cash-money free to hire people to do work for us. Not all of it, though, because I love a good DIY, but there are always things I don't want to or shouldn't DIY.What do you think? Would you tackle any DIY project, big or small? Would you ever consider buying a foreclosure? Do you think the upfront cash-money is worth it, or would you rather pay more mortgage to avoid paying those up-front costs?