Foreclosure.com
Find Foreclosures in your city today
Investing in Real Estate
Once you have decided to become an investor in Real Estate you will quickly realize that there are a wide variety of channels available in which you can generate substantial long term profits.
Many investors usually begin as a LANDLORD by simply buying a single property and renting it out for a profit while using the numerous available tax deductions to reduce or eliminate most, if not all of the tax on the rental income. Usually this leads to purchasing many more properties and fixing them up to either RENT WITH OPTION TO PURCHASE, or to FLIP as soon as possible by selling them at a nice profit to an interested BUYER. There are more than a dozen variations to this which includes buying TAX CERTIFICATES, TAX DEEDS, SELLING OPTIONS TO PURCHASE, and much more.
In every case however, it immediately becomes apparent that the biggest problem has always been the ability to locate property quickly and buy it at the lowest possible cost so you can enjoy handsome profits for your time and efforts. The largest amount of profits are always realized by how skillfully you bought the property vs. how you sold it. There can be little to no profits earned if you paid too much for the property in the first place.
Basic Property Searches
Naturally there are many free sources available to locate properties for a first time investor.
Newspapers – List properties for sale by owner, and for sale by agent, as well as upcoming foreclosures, auctions, sheriff sales and estate sales. These are good sources, but the information is minimal and is always changing on a daily basis, making it an extremely time-consuming effort to track and update the market supply each day to a point that you are able to actually identify a suitable target and determine a proper purchase price. In many cases, these properties are identified only by their PARCEL NUMBER, and not their actual address, causing you to have to cross reference this from county records.
Posting Public Notes and Signs – Many beginners post notes seeking properties in supermarkets and coin laundry facilities but this has a very limited value. Some place “BANDIT SIGNS” in public right-of-ways, but in most communities this is now outlawed and the investor (whose phone number is on the sign) usually finds them self served with a ticket or fine by the county. Others use Craigslist or hire a person (called a Birdog) to drive around and look for properties for a fee. Care must be taken not to offer a commission on any actual purchase, because it is violation of Real Estate laws in all 50 states to do this, unless that party is a licensed agent or Broker. County attorneys are constantly screening these type of ads for violations.
Working with a Real Estate Agent – Is a reliable way to get quick and accurate results for the area and price range in which you are interested. Agents and Brokers have access to the Multi-List Service for their state (MLS) and can locate and provide all the information and data on any property in their area. You should realize that properties in the MLS system are usually priced at the current market value (CMV),leaving you very little room for profits on any future resale. You must be very serious about making reasonable offers however, or the agent will quickly lose interest in your project. There is a lot of background paperwork involved for the agent in making offers and they must save and archive all paperwork for 5 years.
Property Search Networks – Are organizations that put all of the data and variables together in a single place for an investor without having to go thru hundreds of hours each year assembling these items themselves. Most of the properties found within these networks are in a distressed position and are listed in these networks before they become available in the MLS system
Foreclosure.com – Is the nation’s largest investor networks for distressed properties such as short sales, bankruptcy listings, sheriff sales, IRS lien sales, upcoming foreclosures, bank-held property, estate sales, auctions, HUD properties Rent-To-Own Properties and tax deed sales. They offer nearly 2 million of the latest, most complete listings in a single place, with a single click, and updates on a twice a day basis, rather than weekly or monthly like many other services. No other website comes close to providing the same high level of timely and detailed information along with a wide range of photos for each property. For serious investors, this is the place to come to find low priced property within their area and price range.
Features available in Foreclosure.com
Nationwide Coverage in a Single Plan – Unlike other services who sell subscriptions on a single county or state level, Foreclosure.com includes listings for all states nationwide at a very small monthly or annual price.
Very Detailed Searching Abilities – Many Public databases and non-MLS networks have a limited ability to search only by city Name or zipcode which is very restricting and does not allow a person to easily locate the property and area in which they are they are interested. Forclosure.com really rises above the competition by allowing you to search by state, city, nearby metro area, county, zipcode, price range, number of bedrooms, the type of sale, land size, and much more.
Very Detailed Listings – the most complete information available on the following:
- The complete address (instead of just a parcel number)
- The asking price of the house and date it was built
- The style of the home or lot (single family, condo, townhouse, mobile home, lot)
- The number of bedrooms and bathrooms
- If it has a garage or basement or pool
- The size of the lot and other amenities
- The total square footage of the home
- Whether it’s in pre-foreclosure, foreclosure, or bank-owned
- Any other known history of the property such as exterior construction, type of roof, etc
A Built-In Mortgage Calculator – is included on the bottom of each listing so you can see an estimate of what the monthly mortgage might be. You will also find a complete list of lenders and the type and rates of various mortgages they each offer.
So What Types of Property Can You Find in The Databases?
Rent-To-Own Homes– These properties are listed in almost all states within Foreclosure.com. In this case, an investor can advertise for prospective families that want to rent a home in a particular area and use this network to locate and identify all available properties that meet that price range. The investor can then make an Offer to Purchase, or Offer to Rent-To-Own (assignable), or a straight Purchase Option (at a pre-determined date and price) to the seller/landlord in their own name, and then turn around and sign up their own prospective SUB-RENTER with the investors own assignable RENT-TO-OWN Contract at a higher overall Rental and Purchase Price. Another technique for an investor is to secure the rights to rent or purchase a property with an Assignable Option and then FLIP that OPTION to another investor at a wholesale price (such as a $5,000-$15,000 flat assignment fee) before any initial closing with the original seller/landlord, earning them a healthy profit with little or no labor in the project other than locating and securing the property. When you can find and buy property at 50% or less of current market value, you can make money without the usual time consuming hours of repairs and management.
Pre-Foreclosed Homes – Are homes that are in the initial stages of foreclosure (a stage called Lis Pendens) and will eventually be foreclosed by a bank thru the process designated by the applicable state laws. The Pros are that the owner (with cooperation of the ) are trying to sell the home quickly (in what is often called a Short Sale) before the impending foreclosure date, which gives you an advantage on offers and price. During this period you do have the right to perform any and all inspections during a predetermined contingency period prior to actual closing. The Cons are that both the borrower in default as well as the bank need to approve the price and terms of sale, It can easily take 3-4 months to close the sale, and you will have to wait for the sellers to move out of the home AFTER closing.
Foreclosed Homes – are homes that were in default on monthly payments and placed on the market by a lender to recover any balance that is still left on the mortgage from the previous homeowner. The Pros are that it will be priced well below current market value, you will need less money to purchase, have a wider range of financing sources, and a higher return on both your initial investment as well as appreciation when you decide to sell or refinance. The Cons are that these homes are usually not in the best shape and will require repairs to sell or rent, making it slightly risky for an initial investor, and there will be a higher amount of bidding competition from other investors and flippers since they are cheaper to buy than homes which are ready to move-in.
Bank Owned Post-Foreclosure – are when a bank has completed the legal foreclosure process and the property is now titled and owned back in the name of the bank. On the Pro side, the house will already be vacant and you will not have to wait for the original homeowner to move out, closing times can be very short, inspections, surveys and financing are allowed before closing, the title will be clear, and it is much easier to negotiate a lower price since the bank now owns the property and it has become a liability to them with the cost of weekly inspections, maintenance, taxes and insurance. On the Con side, the banks cannot provide a complete history or other information about the condition of the home, and it will always be sold in AS-IS condition.
Auctions – exist either when a homeowner is unable to renegotiate a mortgage and the bank puts it up for auction to force the owner out of the property, or a Trustee places a home up for auction on behalf of an estate sale. On the Pro side, the buyer only needs to pay off the existing mortgage and related fees, and there is far less competition on bidding because all auctions require the bidder to pay in cash immediately with no initial financing. On the CON side, The homes are sold in as-is condition with no history or information about the condition of the home, the buyer must pay in cash in full at the time of the auction, no financing is allowed at the initial sale, and the buyer must pay for a realtor or attorney to represent them at the auction, which usually adds about a 5% premium to your final bid price.
Customer Service – While there are plenty of free real estate websites, many do not update their databases on a regular basis, nor do they provide extensive photos, data, or customer service. Foreclosure.com not only provides the most extensive coverage and data available, but also offers excellent customer service. You can reach them by phone, email, or live chat. They also offer a wide variety of training videos and articles on how to use the system as well as the rules and procedures in each state for buying each type of property.
Cost and Trial Period – Like many other networks, the software subscription is not free, but its amazing advanced features are certainly worth the price and save an investor literally hundreds of hours each year locating and buying properties. It also saves your favorite property selections in the cloud so you don’t have to cut and paste a lot of data together from different sources and keep them in a manual file folder while you are analyzing the deals available.
Foreclosure.com provides a full week long 7-Day completely Free Trial Period for a fully open and unrestricted use of their service, which will allow you to use it for a short time to decide if it is useful and cost effective for your investment strategy. If you like it, you can then continue forward on a monthly basis at a rate of just $29.85 per month, and when you have achieved your objective and made your purchases, you can “suspend” or cancel at any time with no fuss or bother by phone, email, or right on their website.
Final Thoughts – As in any business or investment, you must always balance the cost for services against the value of your time. By utilizing a network search system such as this, you can almost eliminate the countless hours required to try to find and track these opportunities manually. This allows you to work smarter and not harder, and makes it a pleasure to pursue your interests. Realtors MLS Systems give you all the available searches and information about properties thru your favorite Realtor, but Foreclosure.com does this for all the other below market value properties before they arrive at the MLS (at higher market prices).
Every investor should give this website a test by using their “free” trial and if it is of value to you, move forward with their very reasonable monthly or annual fees. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Visit their website for additional details and illustrations by CLICKING HERE
