Where To Look For A Foreclosed Home For Sale

Today I talked with a few people who are in the beginning stages of looking for a home. They all asked about and wanted more information about foreclosures. As the market for these types of homes still increases buyers need to know how to go about looking at and purchasing a foreclosed home.

Currently in the Charlotte market area foreclosed sales make up about one third of all sales of homes. Not as dramatic a number as some would have thought. One of the biggest surprises is the ease of dealing with the bank and the process involved.

i highly recommend if you are going to purchase a foreclosed home hire yourself a buyer's agent. A buyer's agent will work for YOU and look out for your best interest in the transaction. The best part of it is the bank will pay them their fee and it cost you nothing.

With that, there are really three type of foreclosed homes on the market today. The first, and most popular one is the bank owned homes. These are homes the bank has taken through foreclosure and are reselling them to recoup some of their losses.

The second ones are the Governement owned homes through Fannie Mea and Freddie Mac. These are the two government back securites that purchased a lot of the bad loans from the banks so that the banks could start lending money again. They also buy a good portion of the mortgages out there to free capital for banks.

The third one is the HUD homes. These are homes that are owned by the federal government becuase the loans were backed 100% by the government when they took them out.

The process is really no different than if you were looking to buy a home from a seller who was not in foreclosure. The banks and the federal government advertise their homes on the market through a listing agent who will present the offer to the bank. The listing agent works for the bank and acts as the eyes and ears for the bank for the home. They can tell them the market conditions and the overall condition of the house.

The same websites you find the homes for sale by homeowners are advertsing the homes for sale by the bank. The difference is to know what to look for. This is where a Realtor can come in very helpful. You have access to the same information we do. We tend to know certain verbage that indicates a home is bank owned or not. Also, just becasue a home is foreclsoed does not mean it is going to be on the market for sale right away....


Dave diCecco

Realtor/Broker

www.davedicecco.com