Real Estate and Mortgage Secrets

Foreclosure Haven't Hit Rock Bottom Yet! You've been warned

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:08:00 -0700

If you've watched and read my blog over the past few years, you would've seen that I called this mess a long time ago.

I know and predicted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be hit hard.
I called the booming market being a false bubble.
And I predicted the huge foreclosure increase.
And they all came true... Unfortunately.

Now what?
The mess is a crisis and is not behind us by any stretch.
It will in fact get worse before getting better.
All depending on what the market perceives the bailout to be - Helpful or Harmful.

I believe the bailout will pass this week.
I also believe that the financial markets will survive this mess, albeit, hurt real bad.

What to do?
Look for deals in high density residential areas.
Be sure to see it on the zillow.com heat map.
Make sure you're buying from a REO department of a bank.
Make sure to offer them at least 20% below lowest home prices in the area.

This is the recipe for success.
When to buy?
I would start looking for some awesome deals now and to continue to the first quarter of next year (2009)

Keep reading my blog for more insight to what's coming to the economy after the elections.

Visit Home Foreclosure Investing Blog to read Experts discuss Investing Strategies and tips guanateed to improve ones forclosure buying skills.

John Beck Free and Clear Program Review

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Sun, 8 Jun 2008 14:31:00 -0700

John Beck Free and Clear Real Estate Tax Investment Review

I've been watching lots of late night and early Sunday commercials for John Beck's Free & Clear program and I wanted to review it and see of its truly what they claim it to be.

So I went ahead and ordered it. Spend about 2 days reviewing the material and I gotta' say, its pretty comprehensive.

There are pluses and minuses to this program.
For example. You won't be able to get a house in a highly populated or desired area. Those homes will be sold in the Real Estate market in a heart beat.

Secondly, if there are lenders on the house, they'll easily bring the back taxes current because a bank will not lose their loan over a small $248 tax default. Yes, accidents do happen and banks do mess up. But mess up is not a business model I am looking for.

I look for duplicable business models where I can consistently find tax dafaulted homes and buy them for pennies on the dollar.

Having said all of that, yes it is entirely possible to make money with this system. And you'll find properties in the process where the seller or the bank won't let it go to tax sale, but they'll gladly sell it to you for favorable terms.

The Free & Clear Real Estate System is fairly cheap at $39.95 and he enrolls you in the monthly newsletter where he'll bill your credit card for $39.95 if you chose to continue. I canceled because I didn't need the monthly updates. But I found the information in the first copy very well put together and useful.

A very cheap way of buying and owning homes!!!!
Go for it. You can pick up a copy from this link here
http://tinyurl.com/4r3sbr

Ed

Visit Home Foreclosure Investing Blog to read Experts discuss Investing Strategies and tips guanateed to improve ones forclosure buying skills.

Find Bank Owned Real Estate Foreclosure Listings

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Mon, 5 Mar 2007 23:50:00 -0800

Find Bank Owned Real Estate Foreclosure Listings And Homes For Sale

I just saw several new reports on TV and the paper where it details the demise of some major sub-prime mortgage lenders.

Several have gone out of business and several are in serious financial troubles. One such company, just closed their Sub Prime mortgage division due to high deliquency rates and problematic loans.

This means massive opportunity for the foreclosure investor.
You see, one of the best allies you can have in this business is a bank with lots of REO homes for sale (REO = Real Estate Owned by the bank)

They are NOT in the home owning business. They are in the lending business.

So you need to do the following:
1- Find all the banks in your local market
2- Call or visit the REO department of foreclosure departments of said banks
3- Find or make friends with everyone there

Now get on their mailing list and be quick to visit every property they tell you about.
Once you visit the home, run some comparable market values using zillow.com or cyberhomes.com

Both of these fine tools will tell you what the homes in the area are selling for.
Take 80% of the average price in the area and make a short sale offer to the banker.

Short sale offer is when a bank accepts an offer for less than what they are owed on the house.

Why would a bank do that? Simple. They don't want the home. They are NOT in the home ownership business. They are in the lending business. So while you're at it, ask them for a loan too :)

Maybe not.
Let's locate then house first and get the offer accepted.
Next ... once the offer is accepted... start finding a buyer ASAP!
We'll cover this in the upcoming series of blogs.

So remember, finding bank owned real estate foreclosures is one of the most effective methods of investing as of right now due to the high number of deliquencies.

Visit Home Foreclosure Investing Blog to read Experts discuss Investing Strategies and tips guanateed to improve ones forclosure buying skills.

How To Buy Foreclosure House w/ Free Listing and No Money Down

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Sun, 4 Mar 2007 00:06:00 -0800

How To Buy Foreclosure House w/ Free Listings and No Money Down

NOW THIS IS A TALL ORDER!

The other day, as I'm fielding calls from several home sellers in serious financial trouble, I get a call from this guy asking me how he can buy a forclosed home with nothing down and no money out of his pocket.

He then goes to asks for some money out of escrow so he can fix the home.

I'm thinking to myself, self, you don't need this :)

He then asks if this is at all possible or a bunch of "BS" (that's his words)

Well. The short answer is YES. It is possible. All of the above is possible. In fact I do it daily.
Yes you can buy a home with no money down and nothing out of your pocket and I help people with this everyday. But one thing this fellow didn't have is a steady job and that, my online friends, is a hard one.

I can't take the chance of selling this house and have it go into forclosure because he didn't pay the payments.

So how is this all possible?
Here are the 3 basic home buying scenarios:
1- You have good credit
2- You have bad or no credit with lots of money
3- You have bad or no credit with NO money

Let's tackle situation #1:
You have good Fico credit history.
What's Fico you ask? That stands for Fair Isaacs Credit which is an evaluation of your credit history. The higher your Fico, the better off you are.

So let's say you have an awesome credit score. Good news. I can get you into one of my homes with nothing down and I'll pay 2 months of your payments while you settle in. In fact you can also easily qualify for some cash out in order to get the house fixed up.

Now aint that great :)
(Just joking around a little)

The second situation calls for Bad or no credit history but with money to put towards the purchase of the home. This is very doable and in fact, we run radio ads all day long and some of the people calling in, will love to assign their homes over to a suitable buyer for a couple of thousand dollars!

YES. For less than a month's rent payment, you can get into a house.

The last one, and this is a very tough one, is when you have Bad credit score and you have no money to put down. This is only doable if you have a cosigner and he/she wants to help you get into a foreclosed home.

Or we can provide you with a free foreclosure listing and you can call or visit the homeowner yourself. The free lists are public records and if you hit enough people, you can cerainly get into a foreclosed peoperty with nothing down.

That's it for now.

Visit Home Foreclosure Investing Blog to read Experts discuss Investing Strategies and tips guanateed to improve ones forclosure buying skills.

Foreclosure Seminars: The quickest way to the poor house!

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Thu, 8 Feb 2007 10:56:00 -0800

Foreclosure Seminars: The quickest way to the poor house!

Yes. That's my opinion. But I've never got anything from an overpriced $3000 seminar that I couldn't or didn't find from a $30 foreclosure book from Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.

You need to understand that there are no secrets out there. Simply information that you don't know YET.

And I want to tell you this.... All the information you need to buy and sell foreclosure houses can be obtained for free from the internet. From my blog and hundreds of other blogs like mine.

However, to save yourself hours and hours of research, sometimes it is easier to find a foreclosure trainaing and information in an inexpensive book --- and definitely NOT an expensive seminar.

Do seminars have a purpose and can they be justified? In some cases Yes.
But if you are just starting out, foreclosure seminars will not be something you need to get started.

Many times, you can actually get much more use from a well produced foreclosure investing DVD and Audio set. Find them cheap on eBay and watch them in the comfort of your home. No pressure and no hype.

Training is essential to your success. Just don't overpay!

Visit Home Foreclosure Investing Blog to read Experts discuss Investing Strategies and tips guanateed to improve ones forclosure buying skills.

Redemption Period When Buying A Foreclosed Home

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Mon, 5 Feb 2007 12:18:00 -0800

Check the Redemption Period When Buying A Foreclosure home

One of my readers emailed me with a horror story.
After investing time and money in buying a forclosed home, the homeowners redeemed the house because the particular state allows a 6 month redemption period.

ALWAYS and I mean always, do your due diligence and know the particular rules and laws in the state or the city where you're investing in.

Visit Home Foreclosure Investing Blog to read Experts discuss Investing Strategies and tips guanateed to improve ones forclosure buying skills.

Property Flipping and Wholesaling

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:06:00 -0800

Property Flipping and Wholesaling part 1

I'm really excited because a good friend of mine has decided to get back into buying and selling of foreclosed properties in the Southern California marketplace.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know I've been predicting the rapid increases in the foreclosure markets across the US.

Well the time is here and it's really geoing downhill from here.

BUT THIS IS NOT ALL BAD NEWS

In fact, I consider this a correction in the inflated foreclosure markets and the rediculous prices people were asking for their homes. Things are getting better and they'll keep on improving for the buyers throught middle of next year.

Anyhow, back to my friend....

He's spending a ton of money on advertising (and when I say a ton, I mean hundred of thousands of dollars) to bring in leads of people in foreclosure and homeownere who have below market properties.

He's asked me to help him run that division and since this will be a multi million dollar project, I've accepted.

And this is GREAT news for my readers because I'll be documenting some of the property sales, fixer upper projects and resale or wholesaling of these homes.

What's Wholesaling?

That's the process of purchaing a home, placing it into escrow or title and then reselling it while in escrow for a profit.

He just closed a deal where the lead was generated from an ad, house was placed in escrow for $370,000 (valued at $550,000) and resold for $420,000 in less than a week.

What makes this very interesting is the fact that no money was invested in the fix up or maintainance of the home. It was a simple flipper or wholesaling of a fixer upper home.

This is a net profit of $50,000 in less than a week (*Net not dedcuting for advertising costs and few minor expenses)

Anyhow, I hope you are as excited as I am about this. I'll place the videos on Youtube or Google Video and throught the eyes of the video, you'll be able to see first hand what I do with a house from the start to finish.

I am in the process of finishing a 9 townhouse project and once that's done, I'll update this blog more often.

Good luck to all.

Visit Home Foreclosure Investing Blog to read Experts discuss Investing Strategies and tips guanateed to improve ones forclosure buying skills.

Housing Market Bubble story on NBC with Brian Williams

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 11:58:00 -0700

Real Estate Housing Market Bubble story on NBC with Brian Williams

Sorry for the short notice.
NBC News with Brian Williams is running an incredibly interesting show on the Real Estate Housing bubble and the future outllok.

This is a "must see" for all real estate investors.

Let me know your thoughts.

Visit Home Foreclosure Investing Blog to read Experts discuss Investing Strategies and tips guanateed to improve ones forclosure buying skills.

Rising interest rates + cooling real estate market = hot foreclosre market!

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 16:55:00 -0700

Rising interest rates + cooling real estate market = hot foreclosre market!

One of the ingredients of a hot foreclosure market is rising interest rates. Well for a while, we had that and now they've stabilized a bit.

So we'll either see an increased sales of current bloating real estate inventory or we might see a small dip in the foreclosure market.

In either case, this is short lived and subject to radical fluctuation depending on the oil market, job market and other economic factors.

I read a rather interesting article by Ruth Simon of Wall Street Journal where she observes:

"Economists expect delinquencies and foreclosures to rise from today’s historically low levels. Nationwide, the percentage of home loans on which payments were past due fell to 4.41 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in the first quarter, after rising to 4.70 percent in the fourth quarter of 2005, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. A variety of websites have sprung up to cater to home buyers and investors looking to purchase properties in or nearing foreclosure. They include RealtyTrac.com, which ranked seventh among real estate websites in terms of unique visitors in May, according to comScore Media Metrix, a unit of comScore Networks Inc. Foreclosure.com, another popular offering, not only runs its own website, but also says it supplies data to more than 200 other websites."

So interesting is the observation by David Benham:

“We run into a lot of problems with foreclosure websites because a lot of the houses can’t be sold” because various legal requirements haven’t been met or the lender hasn’t readied the property for sale, says David Benham, owner of Benham Real Estate Group in Charlotte, N.C., which sells foreclosed homes on behalf of lenders..."

Yes, you need to be very careful when investing and as you might recall in my Step By Step Guide to Finding a Foreclosure I discussed the importance of research and asking questions from the homeonwer and/or his broker.

And using paid foreclosure listing services does in fact speed up your research. But errors do occur. So always do your due diligence.

Good luck and happy investing.

Visit Home Foreclosure Investing Blog to read Experts discuss Investing Strategies and tips guanateed to improve ones forclosure buying skills.

Step By Step Procedure in finding a Foreclosure Home

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 22:23:00 -0700

Step By Step Procedure in finding a Foreclosure Home

Yesteraday, I get a call from my friend who was begging me for help in finding him a reasonably priced home in Southern California.

As if there is such a thing out here :) Just kidding!

Anyhow, here is the exact steps we took and it really was about 2 to 3 hours of work and we found 7 possible canditates. If you want a foreclosure home, even if you don't have a list of foreclosed homes, all you do is follow the system below.

1- Identify an area where you want to find the home
2- go to Craigslist.org and look for pre-foreclosed homes in your area
3- Write these down for further research
4- Now go to the online version of your local neswpaper and do some searching
5- Next go to Yahoo Real Estate and do some searching around in there
6- Now, if you have a foreclosure listing service like this one, then do some additional research
Note: We are just gathering addresses, names and phone numbers up to this point
7- Now, you have several homes to dig into. You've written the names and addresses, prices etc. You need to hit the phones.
8- Call the homeowner or the real estate broker and start asking questions. Don't get too personal. I know this is scary for the beginners, but I promise you, it will get easier as you do more.
9- Ask the following questions:
a- Minimum asking price
b- Are the taxes current
c- Would they carry a second or third
d- Would the seller consider a "wrap around"?
e- Would the seller consider an option to but?
f- If the property is in foreclosure, when is the sale date?
g- Is the enough time to close the deal?
h- Any other information that you think might be helpful
i- Write good notes!
10- Now that you have gathered additional information on each home, you need to check for property values. For this, we use Zillow.com which I blogged about here.
11- So go to Zillow.com and plug in the address and information for each selected property.
12- For a little more information on the high priced home sales in a city, use the "heat map" feature in zillow.com
13- Now we are almost ready to make some moves here
a- we have researched homes
b- we have called the homeowner or the RE Broker and asked questions
c- we researched the propert values in a given neighborhoud
d- now is the time to make our offers
e- make offers at a maximum of 65% to 75% of the average prices in an area
...PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO SQUARE FOOTAGE OF THE HOMES
14- If you fail, start the process from step number 1.

This is exactly what I would do if I was starting out. If you are more advanced, then by all means, get some additional paid tools to speed up your research and success.

Happy investing :)

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.

What do Foreclosure Investing, Donald Trump and Kareem Abdul Jabbar have in common?

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 11:22:00 -0700

What do Foreclosure Investing, Donald Trump and Kareem Abdul Jabbar have in common?

Well, I don't except for The Learning Annex.
Seems like once a year, Donald Trump gets a team of people together and they all talk about investing in Real Estate as well as stocks and other wealth building strategies.

I am always amazed to see what some of these fine people know about investing and making money in the real world. After all, some of the speakers are celebrities who have never worked in the real world jobs!

However, having said that and having attended several of these seminars put together by The Learning Annex, I can assure you that these are good seminars.

The advise offered is solid and you can't go wrong with The Donald.

In fact, if you register, try to dig for a discount code which allows you to get in for $99 dollars.

Trump gives you awesome investing and real estate advise. So get the code and have a fun day of learning. I think the code is donald99 but I am not a 100% sure.

Happy investing.

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.

House Flipping on the Decline as Home Prices fall

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 09:03:00 -0700

House Flippers, beware as foreclosure investing becomes more risky with declining values and increasing inventory.

When available real estate inventory increases at such rapid pace, you might end up sitting on a property for much longer than in the past. This eats your profits and can quickly turn into a negative investment.

In a recent article by Amber Lester titles "Flipping houses loses its appeal as market cools" she covers some details of this same exact scenario.

She states:

"The news from the real estate world has been bleak since interest rates started rising, with investors or “flippers” taking a big hit. Flipping is the practice of buying a home to resell quickly, sometimes renovating it before sale. The past few years had been good to investors, who were able to buy fixer-uppers and sell them within days to shoppers caught up in the feeding frenzy. Now, with houses sitting vacant for months, flippers are starting to retreat."

My take on this is to be very careful in the foreclosure flipping market and be sure of the turn over times and inventory volume before jumping into a deal.

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.

Fannie Mae Could Lose Upwards of 22 Billion Dollars Dues to Foreclosures

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 02:46:00 -0700

Fannie Mae Could Lose Upwards of 22 Billion Dollars Due to Foreclosures

Gilchrist Berg, founder of $2 billion Jacksonville, Fla.-based hedge-fund firm Water Street Capital, said in a recent letter to investors that Fannie Mae could lose $22 billion to $29 billion if, as he expects, the housing bubble bursts and foreclosures increase.

Disaster in the works will translate into HUGE potential for the prepared investor. I am not implying that we should take advantage of people. I am simply stating the obvious. There will be alot of homes going into foreclosure. So get prepared and invest wisely. The "cycle" is here!!!!!

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.

Foreclosure Stopping via Partner Investor Method

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 23:31:00 -0700

Foreclosure Stopping via Partner Investor Method

I always tell my inevestors as well as homeowners that we MUST be in a win win win situation or noone will be happy.

That's what I call foreclosure stopping via partners investors.

You get a partner investor when you ask for help from a foreclosure investor.
Alot if times we stay together for 2 to 3 years until your problems are over.
You then sell the house and we split the profits.

So when stopping your foreclsore, think about a partner investor instead of a bank or a lender.
Banks have a very straight-forward lending guidelines and will make life miserable for you especially if you have credit issues.

On the other hand, an investor does not care. All they want to know is that their money is safe and the house will insure them against losses.

Good luck

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.

Orlando Florida Foreclosure and Pre Forclsoure on the Sharp Increase

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 19:05:00 -0700

Orlando Florida Foreclosure and Pre Forclsoure on the Sharp Increase

I was researching various counties and municipalities for some below market foreclosure deals and came across alot of data pertaining to Hud foreclosures, preforeclosures, and fannie mae foreclosures in Central Florida as well as sorrounding areas.

I haven't had time to crunch the raw data and figure out what's causing this or what to make of it.
All I know is that if you are looking for beach from foreclosure, lake front foreclosure property or oceanfront foreclosures, Central and South Florida are a definte must in your research.

Florida has probably suffered in property values due to recent hurricanes. However, it is still a very viable investment opportunity for a foreclosure. Free home listing report can give you a fast start in your search for a preforeclosure.

You can always buy a report and find a beach foreclosure front and ahead of all the competition. All it takes is research and perseverence.

Good luck and happy investing

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.

Foreclosure Home Listing Free Sources Revealed

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Sun, 3 Sep 2006 14:15:00 -0700

Foreclosure Home Listing Free Sources Revealed

By far, the number one question I get is where do I get listing of Foreclosure Homes for Free.
Well, I've covered parts and pieces in the past, and I personally have some free foreclosure listing resources that work well and have generated more home listings than any paid source.

Having said that, there are some meritts to a paid service and if you seriously want to get into foreclosure investing business, then I suggest you take a look at some paid foreclosure listing services as well. You owe it to yourself to have all the investing tools in your arsenal.

OK, now to the free services.

First thing you need to do is familiarize yourself with my earlier post titled "How to Buy Preforeclosed Properties"
The reason I mention this is to help you realize that most of your success will come from homes that are not YET owned by the bank (REO)

When you find a preforclosed home, you are in a better negotiating position vs if you were dealing with the Bank's REO (Real Estate Owned department)

So what do I do to find foreclosed homes?
One of my personal favorite methods is buying property for delinquent taxes!
Yes, this is not a foreclosure investing method, but it is very profitable and the list is freely available from your county assessor's office.

My next favorite method is VA Foreclossure Home Listings. The listing is free and you can obtain it directly from here.

Next, I visit craigslist.com for listing of foreclosure home.
This is absolutely free and craigslist is probably one of those hidden gems not too many people know about.

Also be sure to check out Yahoo's new real estate listing section which is all revamped and improved.

This will keep you busy for the next 2 weeks!
But I have additional sources which I'll blog about next week.
Good luck.

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.

How to find and buy preforeclosed properties

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 20:41:00 -0700

How to find and buy preforeclosed properties

I often find more ways to find forclosed and preforeclosed properties than time allows for me to follow up on.

Here are just a few to get your juices flowing.
Be sure to check your local ordinaces because a technique that might be 100% OK in Marysville, California might be completely against the city rules in Detroit, Michigan.

1- Look in craigslist.org under foreclosure or preforeclosure keywords
2- Place small ads in local newspapers
3- Place small 3X5 at all local bulleting boards
4- Put some ground signs at all allowed locations and freeway exits
5- Signs on electrical posts or back/front of benches
6- Small ads in large national newspapers
7- Place Ads in free online classified boards
8- Read all the ads in your local papers
9- Networking and Word of Mouth
10- Small business card placed at strategic locations
11- A mailer to local bankruptcy lawyers
12- A mailer to local bookkeepers, accountants and CPAs
13- Talk to all your local banks and their REO foreclosure department
14- Speak to and netword with all local realtors
15- Contact local HUD foreclosure office and get their list
16- Local public listing of notice of defaults
17- Sign on your car advertingin your services

Like I said, this is just a tip of the iceberg and honestly, one person alone will not have enough time in the day to follow up on all these methods.

And if you were to go all out and hire some foreclosure specialists or assistants, then you'll probably not be able to handle the volume of homes in preforeclosure that'll land on your desk.

Start with a small area in your city and expand your efforts as money and time allow.
The larger the radius you cover, the more properties you'll find which will require more time and money from you.

This is not hard. It's hard work!!
Put in the effort and reap the rewards.

Once you implement some of these strategies, you'll find one, two or three methods that will generate majority of your foreclosure investment portfolio. Then only focus on those till you exhaust the well.

My best source and the biggest foreclosed property portfolio came from one person, working in the bank and in charge of their forclosed properties. She told me that I was the only person who approached her for their listings. And for years, I received all the data, analyzed and evaluated them and made offers to the bank.

Most of them were accepted and I never had to pursure other methods as outlined above. And you'll discover your niche as well.

Happy investing.

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.

Free Foreclosure Listings Courtesy Of US Government

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 08:04:00 -0700

Free Foreclosure Listings Courtesy Of US Government

We've seen the rapid rise of foreclosure homes across the US in the last few weeks and months.
So now you need to invest in a foreclosre. Free Government listing and bank foreclosure free listings are available if you know where and how to look.

First place to start is http://www.hud.gov/homes/index.cfm
This is the where you'll find free list of Government foreclosure homes all collected in one place.

However, VA has its own foreclosure lists and you can get further information by searching on www.homesales.gov

Also be sure to check out http://www.firstgov.gov which has a ton of useful information on buying Real Estate and Foreclosures from the Government.

Once you complete your initial search, then you need to research the prices and perfome some due diligence.

All I'm pointing out is the amount of free information available online and you should take advantage of it.

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.

Foreclosure Investment Scam Uncovered

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 22:51:00 -0700

Alleged Foreclosure Investment scammers indicted

I just blogged about this topic a few hours a ago and then read this article in the paper.

In essence, a women and 3 others found people in foreclosure through public foreclosure listing and arranged loans for them.

"Defendants could get 20-year sentence for charges of
identity theft and mail fraud.
By Samantha Gonzaga, Staff writer

LOS ANGELES - A Downey woman and two others on Thursday
were indicted by a federal grand jury for their alleged
part in a $12 million foreclosure scam that victimized
more than 100 Southern California homeowners..."

Except that they allegedely used illegal methods to do so.

I always say: There are many homeowners with financial troubles and in foreclosure and we can help them get out of foreclosure.

Preoreclosure houses are plentiful and ethical investors will be able to profit from this as well as helping the homeowner in foreclosure in the process.

Investing in Foreclosure must be a win win win for all parties and if not, don't do it!

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.

Foreclosure Scams

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:11:00 -0700

Beware of Foreclosure investing and buying scams

Over the many years, I've come across some of the nastiest foreclosure investor scams.
Now, more than ever, the foreclosure investor as well as the homeowner in financial trouble needs to be aware of such scams.

Here is a very interesting article by Christi Lundquist that addresses some of the biggest foreclosure scams and how to avoid them. You can read the article here

I've included a short snippet of her article and strongly recommend reading the entire post on her blog.

Here are some signs that one should proceed with caution,
or even question the transaction. These can help protect
consumers from fraudulent transactions, and help loan
officers and mortgage professionals learn to recognize
fraud, and even help to educate customers in the event
that they need help in the future. Use extreme caution if
you are asked by an individual or a company to do any of
the following: (This advice comes from the U.S. Trustee
Program of the Federal Department of Justice for homeowners
facing foreclosure or having trouble paying their mortgage)

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.

Colorado Leads the nation in Foreclosure Rates

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 23:39:00 -0700

Foreclosure Rates increase in Colorado (Link to Story)
Foreclosures Auctions up 26% in North Texas (Link to Story)

Foreclosure increases are coming from all across the Nation.
What I recommend to friends and family is to:

1- Get on as many free foreclosure listings as possible
2- Subscribe to any good paid auction and foreclosure list service
3- Read as many books and blogs on foreclosure investing
4- Get on a couple of foreclosure forums and groups and study what people are saying
5- Visit some of the houses from the lists you've gathered
6- Talk to the real estate agents in charge or a trust agent
7- Get some area prices by visiting www.zillow.com
8- Make an offer of 65% to 70% of the 30 day value of the property
(See my earlier blogs on definition of 30 day value)
==> Side Note: Most of your offers will be rejected. This is OK. You are gaining experience.
9- Look in the paper and see what people are asking for their homes in the area
10- Look at the rental rates and vacancy factors in the area you are targeting
==> Side Note: The rental research will help you know what you can get for rent in the even you are unable to flip the property quickly.
11- MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A WEASEL CLAUSE in the offers
Side Note: WEASEL CLAUSE: We'll cover that on the next blog posting

Good luck and happy investing

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.

Foreclosure Investing Hightens Because Of Cooling Home Market- According to WSJ

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Thu, 6 Jul 2006 20:47:00 -0700

Foreclosure Investing

Wall Street Journal reports on increasing foreclosure investments because of cooling home prices. You can see the article here.

WSJ reports:

"Rising interest rates and a cooling housing market are whetting the appetite of real-estate bargain hunters and fueling interest in Web sites that list homes in, or near, foreclosure.

Economists expect delinquencies and foreclosures to increase from today's historically low levels. Nationwide, the percentage of home loans on which payments were past due fell to 4.41% on a seasonally adjusted basis in the first quarter, after rising to 4.70% in the fourth quarter of 2005, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

A variety of Web sites have sprung up to cater to home buyers and investors looking to purchase properties ..."

This is the best time to get ready and do your research. There will be many more foreclosures coming to the market. Be prepared and do your research.

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.

Foreclosure House vs. Pre Foreclosure and which one makes more sense

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Sat, 1 Jul 2006 00:03:00 -0700

Foreclosure House vs. Pre Foreclosure and which one makes more sense

If you've been reading online, you've noticed that more and more homes are reverting back to the lenders.

Here's the dilemma for the investors like us:
1- Do we approach and offer the homeowner while the house is in pre-foreclosure
or
2- We only go after homes AFTER they been taken back by the bank and some work has gone into them.

Here is my take...

A home in pre-foreclosure requires alot more analysis and research because there might be all sorts of hidden liens and problems attached to it.

Also, the owners might have been in it a while, incurring back interest and penalties, as well as repair costs and combine that with the fact that many homes in foreclosure are the direct result of the homes being purchased at high prices with little or no money down.

Ok, on the other side, buying from the REO department of the bank.
Well, those days are gone when you could buy at low prices from the friendly banker.

Nowdays, some banks turn over their Foreclosed Real Estate holdings to local Real Estate comapnies and you need to deal with them.

So the decision is, where can you get a safer and a better deal.
From my own experience, I find dealing with the bankers (if they have their own foeclosure department and/or the Real Estate comapny handling the foreclosed properites) is the better way to go.

Banks realize that interest rates are on the rise and they are also privy to data showing decreasing values and increasing inventory and inventory hold times.

No bank wants to hold foreclosed homes on their books and they'll make deals if you can show them a win win situations.

You are also better protected because once the bank takes over and offers the property for sale, all other liens have been taken care of.

However, don't let this stop you from looking for pre-foreclosed homes in your target area. Everything is fair game in this game.

Happy investing.

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.

Foreclosure Investing Success Steps and Principles

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 23:12:00 -0700

Foreclosure Investing Principles of Success
By Paul Wells

During my years of foreclosure investing I've identified four key principles that have led to my success. This article describes those principles--do you have them?

1. You need to make a commitment to succeed. Real estate investing is simple, but it is not easy. Many, many long hours--punching in numbers, looking at houses, evaluating deals, talking to people, constructing deals, seeing where your profits will come from--are going to have to be spent in order to become proficient at buying and selling real estate. You need to have a plan and execute your plan to succeed. Remember, those who fail to plan are planning to fail. The investors I know around the country who are wildly successful have overcome challenges, stuck with it when times were tough, never gave up, and had a true belief in themselves that they would succeed and that failure was not an option.

Side Note: As author accurately points out, investing in foreclosure homes takes time and effort and don't let those late night TV commercials fool you. However, foreclosure buying is one of the most rewarding businesses I've ever been involved in.

2. You need capital or a way to raise capital. You can buy real estate with little or nothing down, as many people have indicated over the years. However, the person that has capital at the ready is the person that is able to pull the trigger quickly and potentially reap very large rewards. So you need to have money for your real estate transactions in some way, shape, or form. You might think that your resources are extremely limited. Through perseverance, ingenuity, creativity and enthusiasm, though, you can find all the capital you need through what is known as "private funding".
Private funding is the use of individual investors' money to fund your deals. These individuals are far less critical than banks when it comes to funding deals. Private investors look for a lower loan to value ratio than lending institutions do. Of course, it's easier to find willing private investors when you have a solid track record of success in real estate. But there are proven ways to find private investors as a beginner, too.

Side Note: Funding has been one of the least of my concerns. Getting a loan to buy the foreclosure home is easy if the Loan to Value is low enough. First things first... Find that below market home and then the loan will find you.

3. You need to leverage your resources. Real estate creates wonderful leverage for the investor, allowing them to parlay their investment into bigger and better real estate transactions each and every time, through shrewd research and prudent investing.

Side Note: One of the best ways to leverage yourself and your time is to find ways to adverise for sellers. Once you have a systematic way of finding foreclosure homes, then all you do is put deals together.

4. You need to take massive action. This means doing whatever it takes to make tons of offers and create massive activity that drives your investing business forward. If you do not create massive amounts of action in the first six months to get your property funnel filled with deals, you more than likely are going to lose your initial start-up money.

Side Note: Action is the name of the game. It does no good to read and read if you don't actually go out there and find something to invest in. Having said that, always be careful and always seek professional advise especially if you are just starting out.

Paul Wells has been investing in foreclosures full-time for more than 5 years. For more foreclosure investing secrets like the one in this article, subscribe to Paul's Free Foreclosure Investing course here: http://www.FreeForeclosureInvesting.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Wells

Conclusion: Author notes many solid points but one of the things he does not mention is the HOW TO of actually finding foreclosure homes. In all fairness, this was not the intent of his article and I completely agree with all his points. We'll cover the HOW To's in future blogs.

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.

Foreclosure Investors find homes easier with the new Bankruptcy Reform Laws

fixnow@hotmail.com (Unknown) — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 20:25:00 -0700

Foreclosure Investors find investment properties easier with the new Bankruptcy Reform Laws

Gone are the days where a homeowner in foreclosure could stop the home foreclosure process with a simple filing of bankruptcy.

The 2005 Bankruptcy reform law now makes pre-requisites upon the homeowner before asking for an automatic stay.

This simply makes more homes available via foreclosure proceedings and you can get into one by either:
1- Contacting the homeowner before the sale date and explain their options and your services.
2- Make it to the courthouse and buy at the time of auction.
3- Contact the foreclosing bank and make them an offer to buy after the fact.

Every part of the country is starting to show higher numbers of home foreclosures and luck favors the prepared!

Happy investing and good luck

Visit House Foreclosure and Investing Blog to read Forclosure Experts discuss Foreclosure Investing and Strategies on a daily basis.