Property Foreclosures – Checklist For Beginners
Whether you’re looking to save money on the purchase of your own home or you want to make a profit as an investor, property foreclosures are a lucrative way to satisfy either objective. To assist you with the foreclosure buying process we’ve created this checklist to help you on your way.
Identify and research your chosen area.
When looking for property foreclosures you want to choose an area that has mass appeal. You want to check things like the schools in the area, the employment rate and crime statistics. Find out what the public transport service is like as well as the kind of recreation facilities and local community services are available.
Get your finances prearranged before looking for property foreclosures.
Knowing how much you can afford to spend on a foreclosure will enable you to focus on those homes that you have the funds for. It gives you the confidence to be able to negotiate for the home you want to buy from a position of strength. Go to your lender and organise a pre-approved loan before you start looking.
Find the foreclosure property.
There are a number of ways to find property foreclosures in the area you have decided to buy in. You can look through the public records at the local county courthouse, you can find them in the pubic notices section of the local newspapers or you can go online and look through the database of online foreclosure lists. Foreclosure.com is the listing site we recommend as it provides data from property tax rolls and lenders files in addition to the basic property information. They also offer a free 7-day trial so you can use it to see if there are properties in your chosen area at no cost to you for 7 days.
Decide in which phase you wish to buy property foreclosures.
1. The pre foreclosure phase - is the time period from when the homeowner gets the default notice (which is the beginning of the foreclosure process) up to the time that a public auction is held to sell the property. You can approach the homeowners with an offer to buy the property during this phase. This transaction is between you and the homeowners, with the homeowners making the decision whether to sell or not – the lender has nothing to do with this type of transaction.
This is not to be confused with a short sale where you approach the owners and their lender with an offer that is less than what is owed on the property, the final decision rests with the lender, not the homeowners.
2. The foreclosure auction phase - where you go along to the auction and bid on the property. The home goes to the highest bidder.
3. The REO phase - where the house isn’t sold off at auction and the lender then puts it in the hands of a real estate agency to manage.
Each foreclosure phase has its advantages and disadvantages and there are plenty of articles on this site that discuss property foreclosures in more depth. This article gives you a basic checklist on house foreclosures but If you’re serious about buying a foreclosure property we can recommend an affordable home study program that covers everything you need to know about the foreclosure buying process.
After listening to the audios and going through the kit that has all the documentation and forms you need you’ll know exactly what to say and do when buying property foreclosures. You’ll avoid the mistakes that plague those new to the foreclosure buying process. To have a look at this user- friendly, step-by-step program click here: www.foreclosuresrealestate.org/go/foreclosures.
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