Foreclosure Information

With foreclosures rising nationwide, prices falling and inventories swelling to significant levels, investors with a discerning eye and knowledge of the foreclosure process can build a money-making selection of distressed properties. There are four basic techniques to follow.

1. Know Your Market - the most important tool in your real estate agent.
2. Scrutinize Each Deal - not all homes in foreclosure are a bargain.
3. Rely on a trustworthy team.
4. A slow real estate market gives you the upper hand as a buyer, but you'll still need to act quickly to get the best deals.

Foreclosure is the legal and professional proceeding in which a mortgagee, or other lienholder, usually a lender, obtains a court ordered termination of a mortgagor's equitable right of redemption.

The foreclosure process as applied to residential mortgage loans is a bank or other secured creditor selling or repossessing a parcel of real property (immovable property) after the owner has failed to comply with an agreement between the lender and borrower called a "mortgage" or "deed of trust". Commonly, the violation of the mortgage is a default in payment of a promissory note, secured by a lien on the property. When the process is complete, the lender can sell the property and keep the proceeds to pay off its mortgage and any legal costs, and it is typically said that "the lender has foreclosed its mortgage or lien".