What are the advantages and disadvantages of buying homes in foreclosure as opposed to the regular way?
I don’t know too much about foreclosure but the ads i see make it seem like houses are such a bargain and if it is, why isn’t everyone buying foreclosed homes?
I don’t know the full details, but the person getting foreclosed upon has a certain amount of time to make a certain amount of payment and they can get their house back. Should that happen in the timeframe after you’ve moved in…you just lost your house.
It’s not always the deal it’s sold to be on TV. If the houses were valuable everybody would be doing it. Banks will usually try to first sell the houses using a conventional method to recoup as much of their losses on the loan as possible. If there is something wrong with the property ( lots of damage, foundation problems, bad roof, flood prone area, landslide area, toxic contamination whatever) they will try to dump the property as fast as they can for any price. But that does not make it a good buy for you – you may have to spend lots of money to fix it or it may not be fixable.
We have a lot of houses in my area that are in a landslide prone area – the owners have walked away and the banks are desperate to dump them because they are a liabaility. No one will touch them with a ten-foot pole. So yeah, they’re cheap, but you can’t fix them and you can’t sell them despite the fact they are in a desirable area. The banks are looking for a dumb sucker to take them on.
Don’t believe those ADs. If it is such a bargain, how come they are not buying them and quickly turn them around. Instead they have to beg you for $20-$40.
Your realtor can easily find you foreclosed home. Or you can find them through your County offices. Just make sure that once you pay one, it is 100% clear (meaning that are not financial obligations that you have to meet above and beyond the sale price).
Foreclosures never come clean. The evicted parties tend to really trash the places. Good Luck