10 smart moves for buying a foreclosure

If you're shopping for a foreclosed house that you want to flip, lie down until the urge passes. Your checkbook and credit report will thank you. But if you're looking for a home to live in, buying a foreclosure might save you some money.

Foreclosed homes typically cost 10% to 15% less than comparable homes in the same neighborhood, even after you've made all the needed repairs. Savings of 20% or more are not unheard of. Just follow our 10 smart moves for buying a foreclosure to make sure you get the best deal and avoid costly pitfalls: Read More

Local Foreclosures Doubled in 2008

According to the Watauga County Sheriff’s Office, 76 notice of foreclosure hearings were served in 2007. Last year, that number climbed to 381, as of mid-December. The notice of foreclosure is the first step in the process. Not all notices result in foreclosure. Clerk of court Glenn Hodges explained there are some differences in the numbers of notices served by WCSO and the relation to properties within the county. Officers may serve a notice of foreclosure hearing on a resident of Watauga for a property outside the county. Hodges estimated 40 notices of foreclosure hearings for Watauga property in 2007 and 225 in 2008. Read More

Buying a foreclosure

While foreclosures wreak havoc on the finances of their victims, they also can be golden opportunities to buy.

In recent years foreclosed homes have become popular targets for real estate investors -- even novices have been lured by the dream of getting rich quick through foreclosure "flips." How good -- or bad -- an idea is it to buy a foreclosure, given the current housing market? Read more

Buying foreclosures in today's market

According to RealtyTrac, an online listing service, foreclosures were up 60% in February of this year compared with last year. Although states like Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada have been the hardest hit from a real estate standpoint, foreclosures are on the rise pretty much everywhere. This means that buyers who are bargain-hungry have an unprecedented selection of foreclosures to check out, and they range from condos to luxury homes to modest homes. Read more

How to buy a foreclosed home

When you buy a foreclosed home, you're cashing in on a home someone was no longer able to pay for. Foreclosures are difficult--both to locate and to execute the transactions--but the potential to turn them over for a tidy profit may be there. Read more

How to buy a foreclosure

If you're game, find an agent who deals with foreclosures. Your agent can locate properties and establish their market value -- which could be very different from the asking price. You will have to pay for any repairs, so build in a generous estimate of what they could cost. Also, you may need a lot of cash because traditional financing may not be an option. Read more

Should you buy a foreclosed property?

Auctioning the property, which usually happens on the local courthouse steps, is the next stage in foreclosures. And if buying pre-foreclosures is tough for the regular home buyer, buying at an auction can be downright impossible. For starters, you have to pay cash — financing auctioned properties isn't allowed. You're also expected to buy the house sight unseen. And on top of that, you're not allowed to get title insurance: If the house has a $100,000 tax lien attached, the new owner will have to pay it off. "The auction is the most risky way to buy," says Foreclosure.com's Geisen. "We don't recommend it." Read more

Six tips for buying a foreclosure

Foreclosures not only represent a great professional investment opportunity, but can also be a fast way to acquire your first home or a cherished vacation property. In order to buy successfully and avoid common foreclosure pitfalls, it helps to know a bit about how these unique sales work. Read more

The safest ways to buy foreclosures

Not all foreclosures are previously owned homes. Some foreclosed homes are new. These homes are not as easy to identify and rarely appear on national lists. In some areas, the slow economy has left many builders of new midscale and upscale homes at the end of their construction-loan periods without finding buyers for their homes. Read more

The top 6 mistakes of foreclosure buying

Nothing illustrates the devastation of America's housing bust more vividly than the abandoned properties now blighting the nation's communities. In the third quarter alone, foreclosure filings were reported on more than 750,000 properties in the United States, a 71 percent increase from the same period last year, according to RealtyTrac. But for real estate investors, one person's tragedy can be another's good fortune. Read more

Tips for buying foreclosures

With the current chaos in the real estate market, it seems that there are foreclosures everywhere.  If you’re interested in buying a new home or an investment property, foreclosures offer a great way to get a rock bottom price on a property.  Buying a foreclosure property,  however, can also have some inherent risk.  The risks associated with buying a foreclosure stem from the lack of normal protections you would get from buying a conventional house. Read more

5 Recommendations for Navigating Today’s Mortgage and Housing Markets