Foreclosures: Deal or No Deal?
With all the foreclosures out on the market and low interest rates, many people are thinking about jumping into the real estate investment market. This can be a very risky thing to do, if you don’t have the necessary knowledge and money management skills to handle unexpected expenses. Most veteran real estate investors will buy foreclosed homes without having to walk into them, however, they typically have put aside money, either their own or through hard money loans, to help cover the cost of renovating their new property before they try to sell it again. Unlike a well-maintained home that might need a few hundred dollars of repairs that could be covered with a cash advance on a moment’s pinch, foreclosures can come with a host of problems from electrical system failures to stripped appliances or copper piping that cost in the thousands to repair. It’s not to say you can’t get a good deal, but that in this day and age, you have to also be aware that the sales price you pay for a foreclosure can come with additional expenses that you must pay before you can return the property to the market.
Legal Issues
On top of unknown repair issues, you may end up having problems with back taxes being owed on the property or unpaid liens. Once the property is yours, you are also responsible for payment of these issues. You do want to have a careful title search done on the home, but sometimes that doesn’t uncover all the issues with foreclosures. If you aren’t buying the house at auction, and through a pre-foreclosure sale instead, you may even be responsible for evicting the tenants who reside there. Foreclosures are a good area for investing right now, but you have to have some idea what you are doing and have significant cash, in the form of loans, to help restore the property to its marketable self.