The #1
Real Estate Investing
Community

Thu, Jul 24, 2008 
TCI Shopping
Featured TCI Properties
Builders Own HOme
Traverse City, MI
Price: $244,900
Topics 'N Comments
Forum Topics
* Insurance
* BEWARE Of The REO Bulk Portfolio’s And Note Selling Business
* Deposit Money And Hud
* Interesting News From Citimortgage
* Buying Out Of State?
* NNN Sale-leaseback Opp. - Need Help!
* GRM And The Confusion That Follows...
* 6 Month Lease Extension Form
* Do You Have Any Experience With Either Of These Tampa Prop Mgmt Co's?
* Searching For Judgements Prior To Bidding

Comments
* A CL 100 is a wood...
* What's a CL-100?? ...
* Sorry, but your...
* Ed, you lost me when...
* Sources are: NAR, 50...
* "Buying real estate...
* Try http://www.Red...
* We work just the...
* My response to the...
* I think this is the...
Contact Us
703-778-5755
Login Problems?
Sales
Support
Feedback
Recommend Us
History and Purpose of TCI


Advertise on our site
Advertising Login
Sell Your Product Here!
Official PayPal Seal
Send this to:                            

Purchasing my first Forclosure...

Tuesday, April 11, 2006 @ 01:14 PM EDT Printer Friendly Page  Printer Friendly Page
Send this Story to a Friend  Send this Story to a Friend

Contributed by: Jonathan Cochran

Jonathan Cochran Properties

Read more archived articles about Foreclosures

Three years ago, before I had even started thinking about the opportunities in Real Estate, I realized that I needed to stop paying for a place to live for nothing in return. So I decided to purchase my first home and start gaining equity on my money. A friend of mine referred me to a Realtor that he had used and I called her up. She showed me a few place that were within my price range, but I ended up finding a neighborhood that I loved driving around one weekend. I let her know
 
Advertisement
about it and sure enough she found multiple places within the neighborhood.

The property that I liked the best was considerably less than many of the other properties in the neighborhood (imagine that). After asking the reasoning for the low price, my Realtor informed me that it was a foreclosure and I would be dealing directly with the bank if I wanted to purchase this home. Needless to say, I purchased the home thinking I received a great deal on a foreclosed home...

Now that I have been researching and dealing with Real Estate for a little while, I realized that I received a decent deal but it could have possibly been better. When a someone goes into foreclosure it is a court process that they must go through. The sheriff may come and seize the premises, change the locks etc... The property then goes to sheriff sale where it will be auctioned off. You can usually find these listings on your counties sheriff web site which is usually listed off of your counties main web site. The county will use the proceeds from the auction to pay off the liens on the property. The mortgage is always the first lien to be paid, so most of the time the bank that lent out the money for the home will be at these sheriff sales. This is because they want to make sure that they are going to get the money that is owed to them. To do this, they will usually bid on the home until it reaches at least the amount that they are still owed. This will insure that they either get the home or the money they are owed on the home. Depending on many factors (how many properties the bank currently has, what size the bank is, etc) the bank may bid even more because they know that they can sell it for even more of a profit or stop there because they do not want to hassle with it (employee and legal fees can add up fast for them).

The later is what you want to hope for, this is where you can get a great deal on a property. You may also want to look for a home that was last purchased many years ago, this could mean that more of their mortgage is paid off and the bank is owed less money so they will not bid as high (this is just a theory and will not always play out).

So it is possible that I could have gone to the sheriff sale and purchased my home for even less than my "Great Deal" via the bank. The downside of foreclosures is that you can not get in to see them a lot of times. Also you are usually purchasing them "As Is", so anything that comes up after you purchase it is your problem. And finally you will usually need 10% of the final purchase amount the day of the auction. I am planing on purchasing my next home at the sheriff sale, so look for an upcoming article on my experience with that.

I am by no means a foreclosure expert, so If you find any errors in my column please let me know so that I can provide the most accurate information to my readers. I will be sure to give you credit in my article for any updates that are provided.



Note: Check out Hayden Homes Online

Word Cloud:
deal amount look home been properties realtor purchased money with owed dealing mortgage could usually always great bank these stop because real even this home. where about neighborhood goes have than counties first what ago, less article many know received forclosure... after most sheriff property. them realized years more want foreclosure within place they will purchase property sale find purchasing thinking sure also

 
Username or Email

Password

Remember Me:

Join 228,502 other
members FREE!
· More about Foreclosures
· Other articles by Jonathan


Most read story about Foreclosures:
Finding Real Estate Pre-Foreclosures

Average Score: 3.8
Votes: 5


Please take a second and vote for this article:

Bad
Regular
Good
Very Good
Excellent



Printer Friendly Page  Printer Friendly Page

Send this Story to a Friend  Send this Story to a Friend
"" | Login/Create an Account | 0 Comments
Threshold
These comments are owned by the posters. We aren't responsible for their content nor endorse them.

TCI Comment section - where you are the moderator!

If you see an offensive post or advertisement, please use the "As Is" drop down menu to choose a topic rank, then click Moderate at the bottom. This in turn will allow registered users to view only the topics that are most relevant to the article and get rid of the advertisement spam and junk.
Home | Articles | Article Archive | Article Submission | Calendar | Chat | Channel Partners | Freebies | FAQ | Feedback | Forums | Lender Finder | Members List | Real Estate Clubs | Recommend Us | Reviews | Search | Services | TCI University | Shop | Surveys | Properties | Web Links

The Creative Investor web site was created for Landlords, Property Managers and Real Estate Investing community.
Through using our forums, investors will be able to talk about finance, no down payment purchases, debt payoff, purchase strategies and current real estate news.
Privacy Agreement and Terms of Use. All logos and trademarks in this site are property of their respective owner.
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest 2002 by PropBot.com L.L.C.