Finding Those Good Buys In Bank Foreclosure Listings

photo by respres, Flickr

In the past, it behooved those looking for foreclosure sales to have to search the county records manually to discover which of them held a “lis pendens” or “suit pending” recording against it.  Then many counties went to computer searchable recordings, and that helped tremendously, but now they are printed in every newspaper in the U.S. making such a search incredibly easy to accomplish!

Surprisingly enough, there are still companies that exist that will prepare such a list for you at an agreed upon cost, however most areas have such information readily available on the Internet for free as well.

As in any housing search in the past, you should know what you are searching for.  Do the amount of bedrooms in the property matter?  Bathrooms? School districts? Type of construction?  Neighborhood amenities? Deciding these factors ahead of time will help you narrow down your parameters and simplify your search.

Although there is a plethora of foreclosures available, a few banks withhold the foreclosure information from all but their richest investors.  A personal visit to your local bank may turn out to be highly worthwhile.  Make connections with your bankers, it could pay off richly.

Do not forget to scan newspapers, free real estate guides, and the Internet listings from various realty companies. In some areas, there are so many foreclosures that even banks and lending companies have had to list their properties with local real estate agents.  Stay in communication with the larger active real estate agencies in your area, and you may land quite a bargain.

Disregarding the naysayers in your area who claim that there is absolutely NO money available for loans will also pay off in the long run.  There is always, at least, private money available until there is a mortgage bail out which is already in the planning stages by the government.

Because the current real estate market is so “soft” it is sometimes possible to purchase property twenty cents on the dollar, which means that for every dollar that the property was worth, say a year or two ago, you can now spend twenty cents per dollar to purchase this property.

Some areas are more expensive than that, but some can even be had cheaper from owners who have foreclosed on too many properties and can no longer afford to hold onto them.  California is one of the States where there is a tremendous overabundance of foreclosures.

Rumor has it that there are land barons being made every day, and obviously if you have ready cash, it is definitely the time to buy. That’s how immense fortunes were made following the crash of 1929.  If you know nothing about property today, it behooves you to do careful research, learn all that you can about real estate in general and then all about real estate specifically for your area.  Eventually, though no one can predict exactly when, property values will begin to rise once more, and you will be able to reap the rewards of your diligence.