Can someone tell me how to go able looking into buying a foreclosed home? One would be to live in and others would be to remodel and sell for market value to bring in some money. I'm wanting a specific house to live in though. A three or four bedroom, two baths with a basement that can be fixed into a den.

By Anonymous on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 - 09:33 pm:

Questions like how can I check into buying the house before it goes up for auction. How would I find out who to contact about the home that is being foreclosed? What's the process of buying a home that is being foreclosed on before it goes to auction? I know someone that bought a house at a forelclosure auction before, but he wasn't able to see the house ahead of time. But I want to be able to check the house out before buying it. The reason I'm going anonymous is because I don't want anyone in my family to know that I'm thinking about getting into this yet.

By Dana on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 - 09:48 pm:

I bought my house as a foreclosure. I was able to view the homes up for auction first. I went to two, and got my home at the second auction. I say it is THE WAY to purchase. I saw so many really nice homes going for such great deals.

I bought mine to live in, not flip.

Also, you can go straight to the bank and ask them for the homes in your area. I don't know how it is spelled but it is pronounced "OREO" files, like the cookie.

Some banks have the info avail online. I think Bank of America does.

If you do auction, ONLY do auctions where they have a brouchure of all homes, photos and addresses. And then go LOOK at all of them. I almost didn't even get out of the car to see the house I bidded on. But figured "i'm here, might as well look" and I was shocked at how big and nice the home was. It looked small and dreary in the photo and at curb. So always look. And if you have the money and time, absolutely have a home inspection first.

Good luck, it's a lot of fun. And absolutely, possitively KNOW your limit and DO NOT go beyond that amount. It is so easy to get caught up in an auction if you end up at one.

By Anonymous on Wednesday, March 5, 2008 - 10:08 pm:

What kind of loan do you get if you were going to flip it? Do you have to make monthly payments on it or is it where you can pay it off once the house is sold?

By Kaye on Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 08:33 am:

I believe you have to make monthly payments on all mortgages. The biggest difference with a flip mortgage is you don't get any tax exemptions (like homestead). However I just feel like I need to add. In this economy and the housing market crashing, flipping homes is a very risky venture. It used to be a great thing. I would certainly really look into that, talk to some realtors about length of houses on the market and such for your area. I know in my neighborhood 2 years ago houses were selling every 2-3 days on the market for at the top of the bracket, most houses sit for 6 month now and are selling for 25% less.

By Colette on Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 09:02 am:

Kaye, that is precisely why we decided to rent dh's parent's house instead of selling it or our home at this time. I can improve the property - landscape, etc, and write most of it off - but even doing that until I get a steady tenant it's going to be a while before we break even on the renovations. Be very careful if you think you can flip a house quickly. Make sure that you can afford to renovate and pay two mortgages. Envision the worse case scenario and make sure you can afford to do this. Talk to a lot of people, realtors, financial advisor, etc. before getting into this.

By Anonymous on Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 09:49 am:

That's very discouraging news. I guess this seemed easier than what my cousins make it out to be. I was hoping to be able to flip a house or two to bring in some money so that I can support myself. I guess I'll look into it to buy a house though, so that I can get a good deal on one. But finding what I want may be difficult.

By Anonymous on Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 10:05 am:

What about taking a couple of months to fix a house up then selling it at an auction instead of waiting for it to be sold by a realtor? I don't guess I'd get as much money for the house though. What about checking out some investors in the area and surrounding areas and buying a foreclosed house and see if one of them will buy the house from me for around say $5,000 to $7000 more than what I bought the house for. They be able to fix the house up and sell it and still make a good profit off of it. These are just some ideas that I've thought about for a while now and am ready to begin checking into it.

By Kaye on Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 10:16 am:

All I can say is to look into and pay attention. Really a few years ago flipping houses was a great way of making money. But we are struggling with our economy and trying to pretend we are not in a recession. That is why we are getting those tax checks, to stimulate the economy.

Honestly we are pretty finacially frugal people. I think it is too risky to mess with the housing market. And in my opinion people who do that are people who are already pretty well off, not looking for a way to support themselves. Investments are really more for the long haul, not day to day money.

By Karen~admin on Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 10:33 am:

Ditto Kaye. With the mortgate loan crisis, flipping houses is not a very secure way to make money right now. In south Louisiana, there are so many properties on the market, some have been for sale for over 12 months - older properties, new homes, repo'd homes and a LOT of flip homes.

There is an over-abundance of homes for sale nationwide. Property values have been affected, mortgages and insurance are a factor. And you DO have to pay your mortgage note on your flip house while you own it - the bank doesn't care if you are flipping it or not, they give you a mortgage, you have to pay it. There's a huge chance that you'll be stuck with an extra mortgage payment when you attempt a flip right now. I think the moment has passed for making money flipping, at least for now.

However, if you can get a home for yourself at auction, you might just end up with a sweet deal.

By Reds9298 on Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 11:01 am:

Ditto the others - very risky at the moment, so I hope you really think about it before jumping in. The housing market is TERRIBLE. Our realtor recently told us that homes (here at least) are selling for year 2000 prices - not fun news as we are putting our house on the market next month. I'm so glad that we didn't buy a rental property a few years ago now, or we'd have to 2 places to get rid of in this bad market. Flipping a house used to be a great way to make some cash over a year's time, but at the moment I think it's a huge risk.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

By Anonymous on Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 06:19 pm:

Thanks for the advice on this. I really haven't paid much attention to the market. So I think I'll wait to see if things improve before getting involved with this. But hopefully I'll be able to get a good deal on a home for myself. I just don't really know where to begin looking. I've looked up foreclosures in my area online and several are listed, but I don't know how to contact someone to find out about it. The websites require you to register to find out the details about the property and I don't want to do that right now.

By Kellyj on Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 09:19 pm:

Also, you will lose part of your potential profit to taxes, closing costs and realtor fees. So even if you could turn it around quickly for 5-7,000...a lot of that money is potentially eaten up by other hidden costs.

By Anonymous on Thursday, March 6, 2008 - 10:30 pm:

We bought a home originally to flip. Then we decided to make it our dream home and put our current home on the market. We've been paying two mortgages for almost a year because our current home has not sold and our new home is not ready to live in. The only upside is that the money is not totally wasted as we would have had to pay rent for somewhere to live while we are building.
Very risky market. If you have the means, this is a good market to buy property cheap, hold on to it for a few years and then sell at a big profit - but you have to be in it for the long haul.