Foreclosed homes can represent a deal for homeowners, if you know where to look. These houses are usually owned by banks looking to get whatever they can to defray their loss on a defaulted mortgage. If you’re looking for foreclosures in your area, there are numerous options, such as spending approximately $1 for a local newspaper and searching sites run by banks and the national government.
Newspaper
Foreclosure is a state statute and a matter of public record. Because of this, foreclosure filings must be completed depending on your county’s rules, which usually means your lender will file the paperwork from county court. For a time period, your home’s auction sale has to be advertised publicly as a matter of record. That typically means the county will advertise the sale of your house in the paper for a period of 2-3 weeks, which makes the paper a fantastic source of information on foreclosures.
Real Estate Agents
Real estate agents have access to something you don’t: MLS, or the Multiple Listing Service. This really is a nationwide community that lists homes available for sale, such as foreclosures. The catch is that you need to be a real estate agent to use the MLS. But it does not mean you can not get a list of local foreclosures, either. Talk with a real estate agent if you’re in the market for a foreclosed house. The agent might be prepared to supply you the latest list if you are prepared to let her act as your agent throughout the sale process. It makes it possible to get a house below market cost and helps the agent get a commission.
Websites
Plenty of sites purport to possess nationwide listings of foreclosures. Some are free and some are not, so it’s important to do your homework before you commit to a subscription list support. One free website is Realty Trac, which searches 90% of the nation to locate foreclosures for its own listings. Realty Trac’s website boasts that its listings feature 1.5 to 2 million foreclosed houses across the nation. You can search by particular address, city, country and zip code and then narrow the search further by cost, number of bedrooms and square footage.
Banks
With the flourishing number of foreclosures in the USA, many banks are taking a proactive way of getting listings into people, according to Bloomberg Business Week. For instance, Bank of America, among the nation’s biggest banks, allows you to hunt for what it calls”Bank-Owned Properties” on its website. Bank-owned is a fancy method of stating the land was foreclosed and the bank now owns it. On the Bank of America website, you can search for properties by zip code, city, county or country, and narrow the search by cost, number of bedrooms, number of baths and the type of property.
Government
At times the government can help, particularly when the home’s mortgage was ensured by insurance provided by the Federal Housing Administration, funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development or funded by the Veterans Administration. Home Sales is a clearinghouse for government-owned houses and land and lists FHA, VA and HUD houses that have gone through foreclosure. You can search by country, then by city, number of bedrooms and number of bathrooms.