Home, Land, Property Buying and Selling - Forclosure info

Anyone have experance withthose forclosure comps. that u pay for all the listings in your area? Are they worth the $?
Is there a way to get the forclosures in my area(upstate NY)
without these places? Can I just call banks and ask what they have? Although lots of homes are financed w/comps out of state, so dont know how usefull that would be. Thanks for the Info. Rob

I think if the forclosure deals that great then those site would be buying the property not selling the listings.

kinda what i thought. but ya never know.

I've bought a few foreclosures in my time... and always use a realtor. They have listings of all foreclosures at hand. Since the bank/lender has already decided that paying a realtors comissions is necessary to make the sale, then the added cost (so to speak) is not an issue. I never offer what the bank is asking anyway...

It's possible, I suppose to try to work with the lender directly - but they're bankers - not real estate experts.... and seem not to understand the concept of cutting the price to save fees... (In my experience anyways)....

We have been on the internet looking at homes in a few areas, and when you spend a little time looking around you kinda get a feel of what you are looking for is going to cost. That being said when you come across a property that looks to be about 20,000 under what you have been seeing, then chances are its a foreclosure. We had a list of four homes one time we wanted to look at and all four were foreclosed and three were already taken they just haven't had time to take them of the internet. Also my realtor said there are alot of investors out there just sitting and waiting for these forclosed homes to pop up and unless they are in bad shape they are gone withing the week. The one we did look at had the roof leaking and FHA wont have that!

Here in NJ, where I live and have purchased foreclosure sale properties, the 21 County Sheriffs conduct the auctions, and there are NO fees for thier listings; but some "businessmen" download or reprint the free lists, and then sell them as their own.

From my experiences in this growing NJ sale market I believe that what you need to do is to attend a couple of foreclosure auctions, and get a fell for what happens - and why. I believe that you'll see that many properties on the list will, sometimes at the last minute, be withdrawn from sale due to the owner posting a payment, a private sale, an owner bankruptcy or by a court order. Many times the bank holding the mortage will bid. So, what starts out as of list of some 20-25 homes dwindles down to 4-5 before your eyes.

Should you find a property that you want it is imperative that you understand it is being sold "as is" and may have many problems that no one has to warn you about. Flooding basements, leaking underground heating oil tanks, insect damage and general owner neglect or tennant damage are all very common problems in these properties. If an owner could not pay his mortage he certainly did not make repairs.

You must also - and this is big, BIG - do a lien search. Buying that house at foreclosure sale isn't the only money owed on the property. Remember, a foreclosure sale just satisfies the money owed on the mortage ..... there will probably also be municipal and or county or school taxes owed, probably some utility bills for water, sewer, and so on and probably there are also liens from contractors that were not paid or liens from tennants who were forced to pay for emergency work the owner did not or could not provide. LIENS must, MUST be investigated.