Deciding to Use an Inspector

For any foreclosure buyer, the opportunity to use a certified home inspector prior to the purchase of the property should never be undervalued. The inspector can help to advise on issues that would cause you to lower your bid price as well as provide a report which shows the mortgage holder the extent of damage and repairs that will be required, further justifying your price. The cost of an inspector can sometimes be wound into the purchase deal with the lender, but more often it is exclusively out of the pocket of the buyer and can run about $250-500 for average, single family home dwellings.

On the surface, the property may appear to have no major issues, until the inspection is completed. A professional inspector would be able to provide advice on details such as changing the slope of the ground leading to the foundation of the house which will eliminate the leak that consistently shows up on rainy days. Otherwise as an investor with limited home evaluation experience, you might have thought you had a leak in your foundation and hired contractors for water sealing when this would in no way prevent additional issues.

Finding and Using an Inspector

One of the benefits of using a real estate agent is their industry contacts. A buyers agent typically has several preferred inspectors who can help to review your property prior to initializing a bid contract. The web is a great resource to find customer reviews for local real estate agents and contractors. Once you have selected the inspector, your real estate agent should coordinate the time and date of the inspection. The homebuyer is typically at the property while the inspector conducts the property inspection, this is a great time to learn of current home issues or future potential problems.

When the inspection is complete, a full report will be provided to the buyer who can then choose to move forward with the property purchase or rescind the offer based on the findings of the report. Banks that are motivated to shore up their balance sheet, might be willing to renegotiate the purchase price based on the amount of repairs, in order to facilitate the sale of the property. This is not the same level of detailed repairs that can exist between a traditional home buyer and seller, but it is similar in nature based on the report findings. A mortgage lender is not typically interested in retaining a property so in the event they have an interested buyer, they can be willing to negotiate the deal.

The Consequences of No Inspection

What an inspector doesn’t guarantee, is that they have captured every flaw. A homeowner who has purchased a foreclosure that is suddenly faced with plumbing that doesn’t work right cannot take it up with the inspector. In general, a professional inspector is certified by local, state or industry guidelines and is providing a review of the safety, quality and overall condition of a property. Some of the things a qualified inspector may be able to uncover range from small issues cosmetic in nature to serious code violations.

Some foreclosure buyers opt to forego an inspection because of either the cost to them personally, the time it might take that you worry will jeopardize the deal or because you believe it won’t make any difference, you want the house any way. These are very critical errors that can lead to huge headaches. If a foreclosure opportunity is available and provides the option for an inspection, a potential buyer should definitely consider the ramifications closely if they think declining will save any time or money. Knowing more about your property will only help an investor make a good decision on the purchase price as well as helping to keep the priorities in line when it comes to repairs and improvements.

Another popular misconception about HUD foreclosure help is that HUD will step in and negotiate with your lender for you and on your behalf.  This is also false.  HUD has no intention, nor is it their policy, to get involved directly in every mortgage on the verge of foreclosure. In this case HUD foreclosure help would consist of expert advice and guidance from a HUD representative.  Your HUD representative will tell you how to go about dealing with your lender and even point out to you the clauses in your contract that outline the assistance your own mortgage contract will give you when you are facing foreclosure.  But HUD foreclosure help does not include negotiating directly with your bank or lending institution.

The List Of Misconceptions Is Long

One of the more prominent misconceptions about HUD foreclosure help is that HUD will help you refinance your mortgage and get you a new mortgage with a lower rate.  Once again this is false as HUD will not get involved directly with lending you money.  There are HUD mortgages offered through various lenders throughout the country but HUD themselves do not process mortgages and they will not help you get a better rate.

When it comes to HUD foreclosure help a lot of the responsibility for action is on you.HUD will do what they can to offer advice and guidance but the actual action is your responsibility just like your mortgage payment each month is also your responsibility that you agreed to when you first took on your mortgage and bought your dream home and your piece of the American dream.

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So where can you find free foreclosure help like this?  You could search the internet and hope that the people that you find are reputable and are not out to steal your identity.  The internet is a great tool but in a growing industry like the free foreclosure help industry you will find con men waiting to steal your identity and what little you have left of your money and credit.  You can turn to the same people for free foreclosure help that you turn to when a hurricane comes whipping through your region and wipes out your town.That’s right, you can turn to the national charitable organizations for free foreclosure help.

Everyone If Offering To Help

Charities like the Red Cross and the United Way are offering free foreclosure help to people on the verge of losing their homes.  When they are able these organizations will also assist you in talking to your bank in the hopes of helping you keep your home.  If they cannot help you then they can recommend a reputable organization that can help.Many people only think of these organizations in times of crisis.In reality, isn’t the prospect of losing your home a huge crisis in your life?

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The American dream involves everyone owning their own home and with a little foreclosure help you can be improve your chances of heading off foreclosure and keeping your part of the American dream alive.  One of the big problems with foreclosure help is that people often do not seek out foreclosure help until it is too late.  You would be surprised at where you can find foreclosure help if you just admit early on in the process that you are having problems making your payments and you need help.

Believe it or not you can get foreclosure help from the bank that currently holds your mortgage.  Many people have no idea that foreclosure help exists from their mortgage holder and because they do not investigate this option they wind up finding out way too late that they could have prevented foreclosure by just working with their existing loan holder.  The bank does not want your home and the bank does not want you to go through foreclosure.  The bank will use foreclosure as a last resort and to avoid using foreclosure they will usually offer some sort of foreclosure help.  So if you find that you may be getting behind on your mortgage payments then one of the first places you should be calling is your mortgage holder for foreclosure help.You would be surprised at the programs they have available to help homeowners that cannot make their scheduled payments.

Protecting Your Back

Of course the other place you can find foreclosure help is an attorney’s office.  Many people avoid hiring an attorney because they either cannot afford it or they do not think it is necessary.In reality, if you get yourself to the point where foreclosure is a definite possibility, at that point you need the services of an attorney and it is in your best interest to hire the best attorney you can afford.  Foreclosure is an ugly process but a lawyer can help you to protect yourself from many of the legal problems that come with foreclosure.

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Re-Evaluate Your Financial Situation

The first step in basic home foreclosure help is usually the most painful and that is re-evaluating where you stand with your finances.  Sometimes people will set aside a chunk of money every month for fun money or they will refuse to compromise on their monthly grocery bill.  When you are looking for home foreclosure help you need every penny you can get so you will need to look at where you are spending money and try and re-route as many financial resources as possible to your mortgage payment.  Cut back on the grocery shopping and try and live on as much noodles and sauce as you can.  Basic cable is more than sufficient for your personal survival, especially with the advent of cheap DVD players, and dial up is more than enough for your internet connection.  Get your bills under control and you are on your way to home foreclosure help.

There Needs To Be Light

Any home foreclosure help program is difficult to stick with if there is not light at the end of the tunnel.  If you are resigned to eating $2 noodle meals every day just to keep your home and that is the way it will always be then you will more than likely give up and head towards foreclosure.  One of the ways you can see light at the end of the tunnel is to pay off as many of your bills and loans as you can.  Pay off your credit cards and cancel them.  Make enough breathing room in your budget that you can see where you can start having a steak once in a while again.  One of the ways to do that is to bring in extra income.

There are a lot of ways to make a little extra cash every week.  If your job offers the option of occasional overtime then take it.  If you can get an extra job a few hours a week doing something simple like working at the local video rental store then do it.  The internet also offers a lot of money making options.  Find a light at the end of your financial tunnel and you will find this to be the best home foreclosure help you can get.

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Who Owns The Home?

In the case of a real estate tax foreclosure, the government assumes ownership of the foreclosed house or business.The government does not want to keep their real estate tax foreclosure properties and are looking to dump them as quickly as possible for whatever price they can get.  This is your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen.

One of the advantages of having the government own the home (however briefly) is that they list real estate tax foreclosures all over the place.  A foreclosure or property sale is a matter of public record.  Another advantage is that the government is eager to sell.  However, the government is not too interested in making any deals. 

Make A Checklist

Most real estate tax foreclosure properties are sold “as is”.  That means if the home is in crappy condition, you will be responsible for fixing it up.  This is different from traditional home sales, where the owner usually has to make repairs as part of the deal.  This means you have to hire a home inspector to give you a report on the real estate tax foreclosed home.  Don’t trust anyone else’s home inspector.

Many real estate companies in the area often work with the IRS in order to sell real estate foreclosed homes.  You need to check with them about finding out just how much property tax is owed, and what other fees are.  Other fees can include transfer of home title.  You also need to find out what the current assessment on the property is so that you know if you can afford the property tax.  Never assume you can sell within one year of purchase.

The real estate company may also be able to give you a free history of the real estate tax foreclosure property, but usually you have to pay a fee for that, too.  You need to see when major repairs were made and if the home was damaged by an natural or unnatural disaster.

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As you work with your HUD representative you will also be given mortgage foreclosure help about your mortgage contract itself.  Within each mortgage contract is mortgage foreclosure help that is designed to assist the borrower in times of trouble.Remember that the bank does not want your home and, as we have seen by this recent crisis, it does the government no good for you to get foreclosed on either.  So there are clauses in your contract that allow you to work with your bank and hopefully avoid foreclosure.Remember that you can investigate all of these options yourself.  If you feel the need to consult a lawyer for this type of mortgage foreclosure help then you should do that, but if you can read a contract then you can find this information for yourself.

Face It Head On

Another good piece of advice that your HUD representative will give you is to not ignore the problem.  Don’t act like it will go away if you just don’t acknowledge it.  The problem will not go away until you act on it and take responsibility for your debts.  Once again you can find this free mortgage foreclosure help with HUD and you can go ahead an use the help to possibly keep your home and keep your part of the American dream.

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Get That Mouse Clicking

In order to find HUD foreclosure listings in your desired area, you first need to get to the Housing and Urban Development’s home page at hud.gov.  This will take you a series of links all about how to bid on a HUD foreclosure home and about what is (and isn’t) included in a HUD house.  Most importantly, there is a listing of states for the HUD foreclosure listing in those states. 

Fore example, let’s say you want to see all of the HUD foreclosure listings in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  You click onto Pennsylvania link and you will most likely get a warning that you are leaving HUD’s home page to another web site.  This is nothing to be alarmed about.  Click on to “Go on to web site requested”.

This will take you to the Pennsylvania HUD approved broker, Hooks Van Holm.  Yo see that there is a long list of Pennsylvania towns and cities, but certainly not a comprehensive list of all the towns and cities in the state. These happen to be the only ones with a HUD foreclosure property in them. You scroll down to find Lancaster and click the link.You might also heave a sigh of relief to see that your home town is not on the list (if you happen to reside in Pennsylvania).

Bidding Process

You make the bids for the homes on a HUD foreclosure listing in much the same way you would bid for an item on eBay.  You have a long time to make up your mind and aren’t pressured.You do need to inspect the property yourself and to get a home inspector to go over it.  Never bid on a HUD property sight unseen.

The first ten days that a HUD property goes up for “auction” is reserved for bids from the previous owners (should some miracle occur in their financial lives) or for people who want to actually live in the home.  On day eleven onwards, the bids are opened up to real estate investors or “flippers”. 

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Why A Commercial Real Estate Foreclosure Is Risky

There are several factors that make investing in a commercial real estate foreclosure very risky.  The first reason is that when you compare commercial real estate and home real estate you really are looking at two completely different categories of property ownership.  In residential real estate, primarily it is used as a home and not a place of business.  In commercial real estate, it is wholly dedicated to business.   Now if the property is a commercial real estate foreclosure, then you can bet that whatever business was located there failed and more than likely there is a reason for this.  If the reason for the failure has not changed and you are looking at an investment opportunity in the commercial real estate foreclosure, then you need to think long and hard about what you are getting yourself into.  I would be especially leery of any commercial real estate foreclosure that looks too good to be true because more than likely it is.

The next reason you want to be very careful of a commercial real estate foreclosure property is there probably was not anyone every living there.  At least with a residence you can assume that any damage caused by the people could only be so much as they were living in the property, this is completely not the case with a commercial property.  Years and years of neglect and misuse could be hiding in the establishment as the owner tried fruitlessly to use all his money to keep the business a float.  Obviously since the commercial real estate foreclosure is in effect this was not successful, and you can bet that the previous owner stripped everything he possibly could out of the property.

It is for these reasons I would be really careful before plunking down my hard earned cash on a commercial real estate foreclosure.  You may think otherwise, but I advise caution.  In the end the decision is up to you, whichever way you decide do your research completely.

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Navigating The Free Foreclosure Listing Web Site

The first thing that you notice is how simplistic the website is.  You can quickly and easily select a state to do a search from, or enter criteria in the left hand search box.   This box is completely adjustable so you can target the area you want.  You can select a town, a zip code or simply a state to search.  This will hone you in on the houses that you want to find.  In addition you can select a minimum and maximum price range as well as property type.  For additional options you can search on a specific brokerage firm or agent if you have someone in mind to work with.   If you only want homes with images than simply check the box and those will be your results. 

Once you have entered your criteria in the free foreclosure listing search section, you can now dial in and examine the properties.   In this detail section there is a ton of good information that can help you to make a decision as to whether or not you should look at a property.   The first thing you notice is the obvious picture of the home.While you cannot for sure purchase a house based on this, you can for sure rule one out.  Boarded up, trashed roof, falling in porch, all of these things probably mean it is not in your best interest to look into the house.  Next up is the contact information for the broker who is selling it.  This way you have a point of contact to call and discuss the property.  Lastly it has the price.  This will also give you a good idea of whether or not you should invest in the property.

So as you can see this free foreclosure listing web site gives you all the information you need to start your research into whether or not you should get a foreclosed home.  If you get a chance give a quick look and see what you think.

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