Foreclosures

#1
I have attempted many times to get lists of forclosures in my area from various websites and other places claiming to be free. However there always winds up being a fee for the list. Does anybody know how I can get a list of forclosures in my area for free? Thanks for the help. I hope this is in the correct section.
 

thecat

No Alternative
#2
the list is worthless, since it is generated at the beginning 'lis pendens'
phase it is like the first quarter of a basket ball game. the best thing is
to look in the legal section of the news paper for 'notice of sale', this is
like the third period with 3 mins left.
if you want to bid at a foreclosure be aware of several things;
1) make sure its a first mortgage and not a second, otherwise
you are buying a second position subject to the first, and you can bet
the payment demand clause of the first will kick in after you take
possession of the premises, especially with rising rates.
2) there will be lots of competition at the bidding process, and
some 'players will demanda payoff' to stop bidding against you
depending on the county, its usually 1000. a head. btw the
person being foreclosed almost always sends a shill to run up the
bid. why? because any surpluss funds above the judgement of foreclosure
go to the person being foreclosed.
3) if you buy at bid a second mortgage instead of a first, and the
first starts to foreclosure you will be 'cut off' by that action. your only
remedy is to petition the court for 'surpluss' funds.
4) you will need to bring lots of 'certified checks', because if you
are successful you will need 10% of the winning bid to be deposited
with the referee. the balance is due in 30 days, no if's ands or but's, if you
have to get a mortgage to close it won't happen in time and your deposit
is forfeited.
5) just because you are successful at the bid, this does not give you
possession, and while you basking in your glory the people in your
new investment are already trashing it. remember people are envious
fucks, they will be taking out the central air/heat, kitchen cabinets
ect. and before the slip into the night they turn the water on or
put concrete in the toilets, damages that may be more than any percieved
profit on your part. its their way of saying thanks, asshole.
6) remember the best deal could be a fixer upper from you friendly
over compensated realtor. during the heat of bidding people have
the illusion that they are getting a deal, because it is a foreclosure,
right? wrong, most if not 90% bid to market value.
7) if the premises are occupied especially with kids, no judge wants
to look like a bad guy, so he will be in no rush with your eviction.

about 10 years ago i bought a house in foreclosure. i paid 500,000
for a home that was worth 750,000. i said man what a deal i will flip
this and go to the next one. to make a long story short the judge would not evict with the kids starting school. so 8 months later i took possession
of a shell. the owner had removed the kitchen, furnace and ac unit.
he had punched holes in all the walls, took all the plumbing fixtures and
pored concrete mix down the toilet holes. i had to replace almost the whole interior of the house. this cost me an additional 250,000 AND on
borrowed money. i sold it last year for a 100,000 profit, if you want to
call it a profit, the 'time value' of money ate all the gains and some, so
be carefull and wary. a deal may not be a deal after all. btw i have filed
more summons and complaints so far this year than all of last year.
foreclosures will be up, and the best 'deals' have yet to come.
good luck
 
#4
i'm a free market capitalist pig - but in my opinion, buying residential foreclosures is scraping the bottom of the barrel. you are asking for bad karma.

you're better off selling heroin and crack to pregnant teenagers in the gheto.
 
#5
I'm in the mortgage business. Any foreclosure deals are very fucking iffy. Figure by the time you take a look at the property every cheapsake slimeball in this scumbag racket has already looked it over and passed. That includes the realtors, the attorneys, mortgage guys, title hacks, etc. I agree with the first poster. Better to take a flyer on a fix er up.
 

thecat

No Alternative
#7
title hacks, etc. I agree with the first poster. Better to take a flyer on a fix er up.[/QUOTE]

im a title guy for 20 years
 
#8
Many(at least the ones I know about in my area) of the foreclosures are from people who are in ill health, financial distress (business failure, out of work etc.) very old and out of it, or other unfortunate events in their life.

The last one I saw was where a local pol foreclosed on a property where the guy was out of work for two years, the wife was very sick and they both, along with their young son watch the sheriff and a bunch of guys carry all their belongings to the curb while the neighbors ran off to the hardware store to buy a load of tarps to cover whatever couldn't be quickly moved into the neighbor's garages to protect the stuff from a coming rain.

Although the pol was " basking in your glory" ..."the people in your
new investment" WERE NOT " already trashing it and remember people are envious fucks,"

Anyone who knows me, knows I am by far not a bleeding heart and although perfectly legal, its just not something with which I would want to be involved.

I don't know how, but there just has to be a better way. (Genius getting down from his soapbox)
 
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#9
cat, you're better off spending your money on old banged out whores. Who knows? next time you bang miki, you might find a wad of cum from Ulyssses S. Grant, or Thomas Jeffersons pubic hair stuck in her asshole.
 
#10
TheCat: Where was this piece of foreclosure property you bought? If you had bought it in a decent area 10 years ago, you should've made a very handsome profit, considering how much average home prices have gone up in recent years. Any decent neighborhood (or even some not so decent ones) in the tri-state area has seen its prices at least doubled.
 
#12
sammyfantastic said:
TheCat: Where was this piece of foreclosure property you bought? If you had bought it in a decent area 10 years ago, you should've made a very handsome profit, considering how much average home prices have gone up in recent years. Any decent neighborhood (or even some not so decent ones) in the tri-state area has seen its prices at least doubled.
Just to give you an idea (on actual sales - not adverts or asking prices) in past 6 years house I sold at 200K went to 450K and house I bought at 300K sells around 650K (recent sellingl prices of nearly identical houses.)

A foreclosure on a similar house to the one I sold went for around 150K, so you would have been 50K ahead if you bought it assuming it wasn't trashed and the legal fees(eviction etc) and carrying costs (took awhile to get them out - the judge let them stay in the house until school ended as there were kids involved - seems like a common theme). I would imagine (I'm guessing) with the market slowing and interest rates rising that there would be larger discounts on foreclosures now - but then the market was very hot then and the foreclosues had many bidders.

Both houses were bought and sold in a week w/o real estate with multiple bids.

Market has signifcantly slowed with many houses put on the market last fall, still on the market.

N/S border area.
 
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#13
To Metrojay

I'm a real estate agent in the lake hopatcong area. If you are looking for foreclosures, go to your local county courthouse. They will have a list. Other than that there are some fixer uppers out there that are listed in the garden state mls. Here's what happens with those types of houses. New jersey real estate law says that agents have 48 hours from the time they take a listing before they have to put it in the mls. During those initial 48 hours, a good fixer upper will usually be bought by a real estate agent or someone they are working with. You also have to come up with an amount of money you would be happy with as a profit. Some people will pass on a fixer upper if they are not going to make a certain amount of money. Let me know if you are interested in finding some, I can help you. Hopefully i have not broken the rules of this board with that last statement.
 

Slinky Bender

The All Powerful Moderator
#14
Having bought 100's of foreclosures, I can tell you tht in general it's best left to the pros. One reason is risk diversification: you buy one and there's a problem, 100% of you investment is "problem" you buy 50, 1 has a severe problem, 10 have moderate problems, 20 have minor problems and in net result is that you do ok.

To thecat: that's nothing. I have one unit which we bought in Winter of 2001 where the guy is still living there rent free over 5 years later. The Court System is a wonderful thing (not).

But also Foreclosure and Eviction practices vary tremendously from state to state and even county to county. You basically have to learn a lot of the process all over again each time you want to branch out into a new area.

One of my best stories on how hard it is to make money on foreclosures: a number of years back we bought a Coop in Brooklyn for $2.50 (no, I'm not kidding; and the only reason it was $2.50 instead of $1 is because when my partner reached in his pocket, he pulled out a quarter instead of a dime, so they called that the 10% deposit). After all was said and done, we sold it for around $32,000....... and in the end lost about $100 on the transaction (foregetting about the time we put into it).
 
#15
slinkybender said:
Having bought 100's of foreclosures, I can tell you tht in general it's best left to the pros. One reason is risk diversification...
Isn't that true with all investments? Mixed bag though - although it reduces your risk on the downside it also reduces your gain on the upside.
 

Slinky Bender

The All Powerful Moderator
#16
That was exactly the point: it's true with all investments, but somehow people forget that when it comes to Real Estate because most people have stock portfolios, but only one house.
 
#17
i was hoping we could restart this thread, i am looking into this market but i have no clue to what i am doing hopefully some of you guys can give some advice to what has been going on currently so i don't lose my shirt..thanks
 
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