Buying Foreclosed Homes

**Bluegar** · 05-25-2008, 02:25 PM

I'm in the market to buy a home. I really know nothing about homes, but i know I would like to buy a home at a low price. So I'm thinking about foreclosures. How would one buy a foreclosed property?

Thanks

**jamesww** · 05-25-2008, 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by Bluegar

I'm in the market to buy a home. I really know nothing about homes, but i know I would like to buy a home at a low price. So I'm thinking about foreclosures. How would one buy a foreclosed property?

Thanks

You can go about it in one of two ways.

1. You can do 100's of hours of research to learn where to find foreclosures and how to determine wheather they are a good buy or not. One thing you need to know if you are going to go about it by this route is that not all foreclosures are a good deal. In fact you can end up spending more for a foreclosure property in the long run than you would for a home already in tip top condition. No matter how you go about your foreclosure hunt and purchase you need to find excellent trust worthy contractors. This can take alot of time and effort on your part. Best place to start is to contact friends and relatives for contacts and then ask these contacts for examples of their work.

2. The second method is to find an experienced realtor that specializes in foreclosed properties. These people can be excellent sources of information on how the foreclosure process works and can give you referals to contractors with the best reputation in your community. You can find a good agent by doing searches on MLS websites that allow you to do a search for foreclosures. Find the agents that represent lots of these listings and ask them the following questions.

How much experience do you have in helping buyers purchase short sales and pre-forclosures?

What procedures do you go through to make this process understandable for your buyers and how do you implement them?

If you post the answers to these questions for each agent that you find in your search I and several other agents on this forum can help you determine who your best options are. Then out of these agents you should determine which one is the best fit for your personality.

**Bluegar** · 05-25-2008, 07:47 PM

Originally Posted by jamesww

You can go about it in one of two ways.

1. You can do 100's of hours of research to learn where to find foreclosures and how to determine wheather they are a good buy or not. One thing you need to know if you are going to go about it by this route is that not all foreclosures are a good deal. In fact you can end up spending more for a foreclosure property in the long run than you would for a home already in tip top condition. No matter how you go about your foreclosure hunt and purchase you need to find excellent trust worthy contractors. This can take alot of time and effort on your part. Best place to start is to contact friends and relatives for contacts and then ask these contacts for examples of their work.

2. The second method is to find an experienced realtor that specializes in foreclosed properties. These people can be excellent sources of information on how the foreclosure process works and can give you referals to contractors with the best reputation in your community. You can find a good agent by doing searches on MLS websites that allow you to do a search for foreclosures. Find the agents that represent lots of these listings and ask them the following questions.

How much experience do you have in helping buyers purchase short sales and pre-forclosures?

What procedures do you go through to make this process understandable for you buyers and how do you implement them?

If you post the answers to these questions for each agent that you find in your search I and several other agents on this forum can help you determine who your best options are. Then out of these agents you should determine which one is the best fit for your personality.

I know nothing about houses. I've been renting this whole time but people are telling me you can get a big big discount by providing liquity to the banks. So I'm like well if I get get 50 or so thousand on a 300,000 house (the price I'm thinking) why not? Or is getting 50,000 discount a little too big

I'm guessing I probably should find a realtor who specializes in foreclosures

**portland real estate** · 05-25-2008, 10:58 PM

buying a house for 50k off of a 300k asking price is definitely doable... but in most cases I think it is easier to accomplish this by buying an REO (meaning bank owned) or short sale (meaning the bank is trying to avoid foreclosure) that is already listed with a Realtor.

when you go to a foreclosure auction you are likely to be competing with other very savvy investors as well as the bank itself, and the timeframes are often short and they may have strict requirements regarding the availability of funds. on top of it, the rules for this process are state specific and by no means simple, and thus I would highly recommend finding a local Realtor who is willing to educate you about the process.

**jvcus17** · 05-26-2008, 03:45 AM

hi i think you posted in the wrong section anyway it's nice to meet you..post your concern to another section so that it could have an attention in it..

**Mijas Real Estate** · 05-26-2008, 07:11 AM

Hi Bluegar,
Welcome to the Real Estate Forum, i'm sure there will be plenty of members able to help you out with your goal, but you will find you will get the answers if you look through old threads or post a new thread in the relevant section.
Good luck out there

**TJ2007** · 05-26-2008, 07:30 AM

These days you ought to be able to buy a home that will be valued around $300,000 that needs some rehab for $180,000 maybe less depending on what market you are in....

realtors or investors clubs are probably a good place to start.

**jamesww** · 05-26-2008, 07:33 PM

Originally Posted by Bluegar

I know nothing about houses. I've been renting this whole time but people are telling me you can get a big big discount by providing liquity to the banks. So I'm like well if I get get 50 or so thousand on a 300,000 house (the price I'm thinking) why not? Or is getting 50,000 discount a little too big

I'm guessing I probably should find a realtor who specializes in foreclosures

In my market you can get at least a $50,000 on a property selling for $300,000. If you let us know where you are located we might be able to get you connected with an agent that would do a good job representing you.