Great Winter Buys in Foreclosure Listings

Foreclosure listings expanding at record rates are becoming the real estate buyer’s winter landscape. As we enjoy the last days of the beauty of fall, the housing market is already in the doldrums. Even in much in demand real estate markets such as Silicon Valley, Northern California, inventories of unsold family homes are way up on a year ago. Many former hot markets have cooled, stalled or moved obviously in the buyer’s favor. Adding to the sellers’ challenge of longer days on the market is the unlikely competition from foreclosures; numbers of repossessed properties are double those of a year ago. As press coverage of the foreclosures crisis increases and national concern mounts, greater numbers of folks are learning about the potential of foreclosure property to accelerate their home ownership plans. People of all ages, and for many reasons, are eyeing the increasingly obvious chance to build a nest egg sooner, move to a more desirable neighborhood, buy a vacation home, retire without a mortgage, buy to hold for the cash inflow of rents, buy more space for a growing family or simply to move up by buying a carefully selected foreclosure at below current market value for the comparable traditional home.

In some States lenders are resorting to auction sales by the gross in order to relieve swollen stocks of foreclosed property, some of it rapidly depreciating, deteriorating or becoming a neighborhood eyesore, some of it vacant and a security risk. Regular auctions of larger number of homes of all dimensions are beginning to draw knowledgeable, or determined to become knowledgeable, crowds. Well established foreclosures Gurus stage coaching courses for increasing numbers of would-be successful investors. Eager students get hands-on training and learn the basic strategies of buying in any one of the three stages of foreclosure; learn how to value the target property, how to search title and calculate the equity in a particular pre foreclosure home, how to approach the seller in financial distress and where to look for finance or how to buy without much at all.

The ranks of dedicated online surfers of foreclosure listings are swelling as investor newbies learn the art of “weeding the best leads” or to “cherry-pick “ from among pre foreclosures, auction listings and REO or bank and lender owned property. They learn how to filter their searches, how to read the location demographics. They are learning the importance of taking advantage of many free extras of online foreclosure listings sites; educational articles, definitions, foreclosure law basics, discussion forums and articles. And some have already seen the potential for remarkable value that this winter’s crop of foreclosures listings has when the season favors the buyer.