Anita asked:


The real estate market is ripe with opportunity for those that know where and when to invest. Foreclosures are at record numbers and this sector of the the market offers plenty of potential for quick thinkers. Owning real estate has historically been the avenue for building long-term wealth and the possibilities that are present right now are astounding. Investors or even people that are simply looking for a private family home can buy real estate that would have been well beyond their means a few short years ago. If you are ready to take a chance on a foreclosure, consider a few basic principles.

A real estate agent is an important partner to have when purchasing foreclosed properties. Many agents have experience and certifications necessary to help you purchase foreclosures successfully, and this is an important tool. For instance, you may be able to get foreclosed properties through government programs, so look for an agent that is HUD-certified. This will ensure that you gain access to the most possible foreclosure listings. Remember, foreclosures are very popular properties, particularly with investors. For this reason, you need the help of a qualified real estate agent. Your agent will be able show you listings as they hit the market. Many of the online listings are out of date before you can even access them, so an agent is the key to gaining access to listings before they are gone.

When buying a foreclosure for the first time, it is important to make sure your risks are as low as possible. It's often a good idea to purchase a bank-owned property. These foreclosures carry very little risk because there are no taxes or liens outstanding, and the home is unoccupied. Buying a bank-owned property may be beneficial in other ways too. If the lender is very eager to sell you may be able to get particularly attractive terms, such as a lower interest rate on financing.

Once you have a property type in mind and have secured the help of an agent, it is time to start looking for properties. Remember, foreclosures sell quickly, so when one hits the market that looks promising, take action quickly. Make an appointment to see the property, and consider having a real estate assessor look at it with you to help you estimate the value of the property as it stands. Estimate how much it will cost to fix up the property, then consider your entire home buying budget as you make an offer. Keep in mind that you will need to pay back a portion of any liens on the property, which may be quite costly, so research these before making your offer. However, you will not have to pay back all of the liens, so be prepared to negotiate the amount you will repay with the former owner's lenders.

Buying a foreclosed home can be dicey, particularly if you're not well acquainted in the process. If you're not buying a lender-owned property, there are some specific problems that should be avoided. When you buy a property, you are obliged to deal with its occupants, even if they're not the former owners of the property. Uncomfortable situations can result if you plan to evict the tenants, so it's often best to appoint a lawyer to handle the process. Foreclosed homes are often purchased "as is" with no chance of an inspection, and there is no assurance that the property will be in good shape. Novice buyers should definitely avoid purchasing a property that isn't available for inspection. Make sure you are buying the property from its legal owner. Among many other scams in the real estate market, a person may pose as the owner of a property and demand a cash-only transaction, be sure that you are dealing with the deeded owner.

These communities may not offer foreclosed properties, but you may find some extraordinary deals in Arizona: Scottsdale Estates Homes for Sale and Scottsdale Ranch Homes for Sale



Create a video blog

Colin Egbert asked:


Pre Foreclosure Lists: Lis Pendens or Notice of Default

Short sale investors frequently begin their deals by contacting the homeowners in preforeclosure. Yet, many new investors complain that they have no idea how to find these preforeclosures in order to make contact. Once you know how to find these homeowners, you’ll be surprised that so few investors work in foreclosure properties.

Lis Pendens and Notice of Default

When a homeowner’s bank files foreclosure papers, the homeowner is notified with a lis pendens or Notice of Default. They are different papers that mean basically the same thing; the bank is going to take the homeowner’s property for non-payment of the mortgage. A Notice of Default (NOD) is the form used in non-judicial foreclosure states, while the lis pendens is used in judicial foreclosure states where the bank has to go to court and sue the homeowner for their property.

The lis pendens is filed by the lender (bank) as a formal notice to the homeowner that the bank has started the foreclosure process. The homeowner still has the right to sell their property or even refinance that property during preforeclosure. A short sale is after all selling the property, it’s just that you are getting the bank’s agreement to sell the property for less than the mortgage is worth.

Once one of these two forms is submitted by the bank, the homeowner has a certain amount of time before their property goes to the sheriff’s auction. This amount of time varies greatly from state to state. It can be as little as 90 days or as long as 12 months.

You can identify preforeclosures, by looking for the lis pendens and NOD. All it takes is a little research.

Find Preforeclosures at the County Recorder’s Office

By law, the banks can’t release information concerning preforeclosures to those involved in short sale investing and real estate investing. So, the average investor has to look for these preforeclosures somewhere else. That place would be the County Recorder’s office. Any and all public documentation usually ends up in the County Recorder’s Office, also known as the County Clerk or County Record’s Office, this documentation includes copies of the NOD and lis pendens. These transactions are considered public record, including foreclosure filings, so you can simply head down to the records office to research preforeclosures that are suitable for a short sale deal.

Most County Recorders don’t put together lists of foreclosure information and their homeowner’s contact information for the convenience of the investor. So you’ll need to spend some time researching the records.

Short Sale Tips for the County Recorder’s Office:

If you search through the records looking for the NOD or lis pendens documents, you should have an easier time in your research.

By going down to the records office you are likely to get a head start on other investors, since not many people are willing to spend hours on their own research.

Take your reading glasses. You’ll be looking through a lot of documentation.

Going to the County Recorder’s Office is a FREE method for getting preforeclosure information.

Many County Recorder’s Offices have gone through the effort to put their documents online. This makes it so much easier when doing your short sale research. It never hurts to check online before heading down to the local records office, just to see if they have a website set up. Not all of these websites will provide you with the information you need. However, they should allow you to compile a list of names and document numbers that you can look up later on in the records office.

Short Sale Tips for Preforeclosure Research Online:

Try looking for a website. Many County Recorder’s Offices have websites where you can search through all of their documents.

When searching through a County Recorder’s online database look for the NOD or lis pendens as you would in the actual office.

Using a County Recorder’s website is also a FREE method for finding preforeclosures.

There are a couple of other ways you can find those potential short sale deals. You can subscribe to a preforeclosure listing service, either online, sent through email or as a newsletter in the postal mail. You’ll be one of possibly millions of other investors seeing these same properties so there may be competition for good deals. You can also scan the newspapers on a regular basis. Many counties publish their current preforeclosure properties in the classifieds. This is a last attempt to notify the homeowner that the property is going to a sheriff’s sale.

A short sale begins with contacting the property owners, but first you’ve got to find them. By researching both in the County Recorder’s Office and searching online you’ll be able to find more preforeclosures than you can handle. If these two avenues still fail you, you’ll also be able to find those properties through other means, like newspaper classifieds and subscribing to foreclosure lists.



Website content

Omar Johnson asked:


Most likely the last thing on a real estate investor's mind these days is flipping a house. The housing market is soft and inventory homes are at a national high. MSNBC recently reported that if all homebuilding were to stop in the U.S., it would take more than 10 months for the nation's inventory homes to sell out. Times are tough for sure, but that doesn't mean there is not money to be made.

Flipping houses is a money-making strategy investors have been using for decades. It generally involves purchasing a home and reselling it for more then the purchase price. During the housing boom in past years, flipping was exceptionally easy. Investors could pick up a new or used home and flip it in a matter of weeks for a substantial profit. At that time, the market was sky rocketing. Houses were easy to sell and profits were even easier to make. Now that reality has set back in and the market is trying to straighten itself out, this type of flipping doesn't hold as many as promises as it did in the past.

Investors, however, can still make a profit flipping houses. Now more then ever there is an opportunity to pick up homes for a bargain and make a return on them. Real estate that has a tax lien or is in foreclosure can be picked up way below cost. Homes can also be purchases at estate auctions and resold for a profit.

Along with purchasing a bargain home to flip, investors can also go the fix it up route. This technique requires the investor to purchase a home in need of repairs. The investor then hires someone to make the repairs or makes the repairs on his or her own. By fixing up the home, equity is added thus increasing the value of the property. In turn, the home can be sold for a profit. The main downfall to this method is it takes more time then if you were to purchase a home at discount and simply resell it at market price.

Now there is a nasty little rumor out there that "flipping" houses is illegal. Fact is that simply isn't true. Although there is such thing as illegally flipping houses which in translation boils down to loan fraud, investors are well within their rights to purchase a home and resell it for a profit. Loan or mortgage fraud occurs when an investor purchases a home usually dilapidated and makes some superficial repairs. The home is then sold to naive buyers at an inflated price. These types of schemes rely on the collaboration of an investor, appraiser and mortgage broker.

In 2006, the Department of Housing and Urban Development addressed loan fraud by creating new regulations to detour flipping within the Federal Housing Authority. Now, the seller must own the property for more then 90 days in order for buyers with FHA backed loans to qualify for the purchase.

In short, house flipping isn't the money maker it once was. The good news is, when done right, you can still make money doing it.



Website content