The Fool on the Hill

http://narblog1.realtors.org/mvtype/theweeklybookscan/2007/10/book_review_finding_foreclosur.html
Click above to find out about buying foreclosed homes.

I believe in equal time. I have posted several links on how to avoid foreclosure. Now I have posted a link on how to buy properties that are or soon will be foreclosed upon. This information is not only for realtors but for the homeowners who are in this situation. The owner/seller needs to know what the potential buyer is doing to purchase their home. This article also helps the owner/seller know what their options are.

Whoever is trying to buy a foreclosed property, be they a realtor or a "regular" person, the owner needs to know that everybody out there isn't a shark that is circling the scent of fresh blood. Which is not to say that there aren't sharks out there. But whatever the motive, if the owner has a chance to sell before the sheriff bangs the gavel, by all means sell. Of course, if it actually gets to that point, then the owner's credit is already shredded and all the money that they have paid into that home is money thrown away.

So sell, sell, sell! Owners should do everything they can to keep the ball in their court.

Now to the buyers. Buy, buy, buy! Now is the time to invest in your community and to make a bit of money to boot. Buying a home and "flipping" it, which means to sell the home again in a short time, is the IN thing to do right now. But please, please, please, if you are going to flip, do some improvements, updates and add curb appeal to the home before you put it back on the market. Don't just shampoo the carpets and put a big price tag on your "efforts". This only encourages urban blight and does nothing to improve the community.

But although any neighborhood can have foreclosed homes, the unfortunate reality is that it happens more to the middle to lower income families who have stretched every dollar in order to realize the American Dream. And lower income familys tend to buy older homes in older neighborhoods which might not be in the best of shape.

Also, if you plan on flipping, do your homework. Make sure that once you put your money into updating it that the neighborhood will support the price you plan to ask. If you overimprove, that home that cost you a total of $150K will not sell for that if it sits in a neighborhood where the highest priced home is $89K.

With that said, let's all try to work and play nice. One man's ceiling is another man's floor. The concentration of wealth is shifting. Make sure that you don't end up on the bottom of the pile.