Anyone here ever buy foreclosed real estate?
 

Can you really get houses for pennies on the dollar, or is it a pipe dream?
is there something I dont know about this that I should?

It sounds too good to be true that you could buy a house for, say, $150k when it's really worth $300k, because somone couldn't afford to keep paying their mortgage.

I've been to many foreclosure sales. In this economy, in this location, it's 99.999% a waste of time if you're looking for a good deal for pennies on the dollar. Either the owner owes more than the house is worth (over leveraged) or it has so much damage the cost to buy and fix up would be more than you could sell it for and get a decent profit. Anything that did have good 'deal' value would have been snapped up by a real estate agent/investor before it ever made it to foreclosure. However if you're looking to buy and own it yourself, with a lot of research and persistance you might be able to buy something a fraction below market, but you take the risk of buying it 'as is', which means you get anything that's wrong with the property. Luckily for you, some research is free. Just show up at a foreclosure auction and watch what happens there...

All of this is IMHO.

If you have the capital to do it, or a commercial relationship with a lender, look into preforeclosures. I do between 4-6 preforeclosures a month, short term only, main goal is to milk the equity the previous owners built. Information and efficiency is the most important factor, since the market is getting very cutthroat, in chicagoland atleast. I hire college kids to get records daily as soon as they are logged, and feed them to me database format, then automatically fire off a form letter to all potential foreclosures that have atleast 40% in equity in the home. You basically work the figures to your advantage after potentials contact you, key selling points are that you can close on the home in 2-3 days, tops, and you can provide them with a partial amount of the equity they had built.

You may also want to look into REO's.

in a normal market that isnt doing to happen, ie half price or pennies on the dollar. i have seen a few at 10-15% under market value. if you want to have some fun, go to some tax auctions and make some bids on properties with back taxes owing.

You're better off building low income housing and getting an immediate return on your investment than invest in some expensive property and waiting for the price to go up.

hey hows your Forex going lately? I know you were trying it out

I dont think it's going to happen for me in the Boston area. I'm now looking online in Texas and Florida. Those are probably the best deals.

This is FUCKING great advice and a good way to make money in almost any city. :thumbsup

Around here the lawyer snags all the good rental properties before anyone else has a chance.

Yes I said lawyer, singular... there's only 1 in the local area that handles the real estate deals.

:1orglaugh

There was a condo that came up for sale in the last couple months that I put an offer in on, but I was outbid before the bank even received my offer.

You need to be quick.

There's also a liquor store for sale for $70000 (owned by the same bankrupt company that had the condo) that brings in $750 a month rent from the government, with a 5 year lease signed. Government pays all utilities and taxes. Guaranteed money in the bank as soon as you buy it, but with my luck they would decide to privatize liquor sales a year after I bought it.