Upcoming Foreclosures

How long until a foreclosure hits the market?

Our friends' neighbor is going to foreclose on his house (he has been gone for almost 2 months and already has skipped town). It is early in the foreclosure process because he just received his 2nd notice a few days ago. My girlfriend and I would like to buy the house because we think we can get a good deal on it and were wondering how long until this property hits the market as "lender owned"? Also, would we get a better deal by inquiring about the house now or if we waited until it was lender owned?

Public Comments

1. I do short-sales nationwide and I'll tell you this much. If you wait until it hits the market...you've waited to long. Vacant property is like blood in shark infested water. If that property has been vacant for 2 months, I guarantee you probably at least 2 dozen people have inquired about it or more. Your best bet is to get a hold of the owner, if you can, and see if he's willing to short-sale the property. If you know nothing about short-sales, you can contact the bank and they may work with you. Otherwise, you need to put the property into contract with the owner to lock it up so no one else can beat you to the punch. There are a lot of people out there that say they do short-sales that have no idea what they're doing. Someone like myself can help you, but I charge a fee for doing so. To answer your last question...The property has to go to sale before it can become REO (or lender owned). If it goes to sale, there is a chance that someone other than the lender buys it. In my area, probably 95% of all properties are bought back by the lender. * Whatever you do, if you go to the sale, find out who the agent there is for the lender. Do NOT get into a bidding war with the lender...their job is to jack up the bidding price if they have a prospective buyer. * Also, if you can not work out a short-sale with the lender, you can usually get the property cheapier than what they paid for it at sale. You should always consider the lender's carrying costs, realtor fees, average time on the market for properties in the area and things of that nature when making an offer on REO properties.