1. Be Patient: There are many foreclosures to buy and another wave is expected this summer now that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA and other banks have lifted their moratoriums.
2. Pick the right Realtor: There are a lot of great agents out there, but there are a lot of agents who just fire off emails of listings, with no knowledge of the real estate they are trying to sell. In order to buy real estate today, you and you’re agent need to work as a team, and be able to identify all the properties coming back from the banks in your area. All of these services provide information on pre-foreclosures and can give you the edge over other buyers as to when the bank has completed its foreclosure process and owns the property. Is the agent representing you in contact with the banks taking back these properties? Does your agent have relationships with other realtors getting the listings? These strategies will help you in getting the property of your dreams. I can keep you informed.
3. Get pre-qualified- be ready: Find a reputable mortgage broker, or bank that is making home loans. This is extremely important and will make your offer stronger. Get a discount if you can buy all cash. All cash offers move to the top of the pile since banks prefer all cash buyers to those higher prices with loan contingencies. I can help you with this.
4. Ask you realtor to pull all the sold sales comparables, and a list of on-market properties so that you can position your offer properly. In some cases, the banks are listing the properties below the market value to create more interest and a bidding war.
5. Keep an eye out for those deals that fall through: A solid realtor is tracking every deal he or she missed for their client and should be ready to pounce on the deal when it falls through. You can find some of the best deals this way. Often, a bank is willing to take less than the property was tied up and in escrow for in return for a quick all-cash transaction. If your loan is lined up and your bank understands the circumstances they may be willing to close the transaction quickly.

So, to summarize, there are a lot of deals in this marketplace and I think there will continue to be over the next year or longer.

Be smart, patient, choose a realtor you work well with, get qualified by a bank early on and you will find that dream home or investment.

Tags: buying tips

This entry was posted on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 at 11:16 am and is filed under buying, real estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.