Property foreclosures – a golden opportunity
The housing market is in disarray. Some financial institutions are struggling to balance their books – and so are hundreds of thousands of homeowners, especially those who took on variable rate mortgages and are now seeing their monthly payments outstripping their incomes.
Mortgage defaults are a fact of life. If people cannot make their repayments, they’re in default and, under the terms of the mortgage or trust deed, whoever granted the loan is usually entitled to get their money back by selling the house.
This is what foreclosure is all about. It’s what happens when lenders decide to call in their home loans because the borrower has stopped paying and in the current climate, with foreclosures at a near record level, there has rarely been a better time to consider real estate investment as a pathway to substantial returns.
The opportunity for investors is that, typically, lenders are only interested in recovering their debt, which may be significantly below the market value of the house. They may even be prepared to sell at a loss, depending on market conditions.
Or, sometimes, the house owner, realizing the potential loss of his/her home will try to sell it quickly – with the agreement of the bank – to cover the debt and outstanding payments.
Either way, this situation – called a distress sale in the real estate business – creates a valuable prospect, not just for property investors but also for those seeking to buy their own home at outstanding value.
Reasons why you might want to buy a foreclosed home include:
· You’re looking for a margin of safety. House prices are falling generally and you don’t want to find yourself paying over the odds for your new home.
· Your own wealth is limited and may not match the market price of the home of your dreams. But you might find a foreclosed home below market value that comes pretty near to the mark
· It’s a simple but serious investment. Even if the house is not in first class condition, you can fix it up and either sell it for a substantial profit or retain it as a rental.
· It’s a major part of your investment strategy and you stand to make substantial profits through large-scale flipping of foreclosed homes or by building a substantial portfolio of rentals or rent-to-buy homes.
Whichever category you fit into you’ll share some of the same issues and concerns, like knowing exactly how the system works – there are different types of foreclosure and different ways of handling them according to which state they are in; understanding and minimizing the pitfalls – sometimes houses must be bought sight-unseen; knowing the true market value of a house you’re interested in buying; and, crucially, knowing where to find lists of foreclosed and pre-foreclosed houses.
There are several key sources for intelligence about foreclosures, most notably court and county records, local newspapers and online services that will keep you supplied with leads for the price of a monthly subscription
Above all, getting sound professional advice from a realtor or real estate attorney can save you money and heartache. For beginners in the foreclosure investing market, the whole business can seem a little daunting – but, more often than not, the time and determination invested – to say nothing of the money – will pay huge dividends.
The scale of your return will depend on two key factors:
· How much below market value you paid and how much it costs to get it into saleable condition. You hear of people who bought a house for just 10% of its market value but 60% to 80% is nearer the true mark
· Whether you decide to sell the house or rent it out for a steady flow of income; in that case, a capitalization return of 15% is not uncommon