Buying distressed real estate isn’t just for savvy investors — it’s also for smart homeowners.

If you’re in the market for a new home for your family, it just makes sense to shop smart. Why pay full price for a property when you can pay pennies on the dollar?

The secret lies in distressed real estate. The condition of these properties tends to depress the list price. If you can see past a bit of shabbiness to the home’s true hidden potential, you stand to earn a lot of instant equity.

The May 2011 edition of Foreclosure.com’s free educational newsletter, “Investment Exchange,” is now available, which focuses on helping you spot easy cosmetic fixes and other simple issues that are straightforward and inexpensive rehab projects.

Turn your hidden gem into a shining testament to your brilliant real estate investment decision!

Whether you plan to live in your new home, rent it out as an income property or sell it for top dollar, rehabbing distressed real estate is a fantastic option to realize your real estate goals at rock-bottom prices.

To read this month’s free educational newsletter from Foreclosure.com CLICK HERE.

Know for its opulence, larger-than-life tourist attractions and luxurious lifestyles, Dubai and its wealthy residents were seemingly immune to the financial turbulence that rippled across the globe in recent years.

Not the case.

ArabianBusiness.com reports today that the first-ever foreclosed home in Dubai, a modest villa in “The Springs,” was sold by Barclays bank for $332,145, opening the door for similar sales in the future.

In fact, the oil-rich Persian Gulf country has about $16 billion in repossessed real estate inventory waiting for liquidation. It just adopted foreclosure laws as recently as 2008.

While the landmark sale is good news for lenders, which will now be able to recoup their losses, as well as buyers/investors, who have the opportunity to potentially invest in a popular foreign market at reduced prices, there is cause for caution.

Tom Bunker, investment sales consultant at real estate agency Better Homes, explains his concerns:

Read the rest of this entry »

Those who fail to learn from history’s mistakes are doomed to repeat them.

Current and future homeowners would be wise to examine the causes of the real estate bust that has forced countless families into foreclosure and many more fighting to avoid it.

Unemployment, divorce, illness and other unforeseen events are hard to avoid and nearly impossible to predict. But there are several situations for which homeowners can prepare and control.

NASDAQ.com offers “3 Lessons to Learn from Foreclosure:”

Read the rest of this entry »

Foreclosure on the set of “The Real Housewives” reality series is reaching epidemic proportions.

The latest victim is Orange County’s Peggy Tanous, whose $1.6 million Irvine, Calif., home  is the subject of a recent foreclosure filing, according to The Orange County Register.

She filed a financial hardship counter claim, saying that she is having money problems and must be considered for a loan modification before her lender can repossess the home.

If nothing else, the legal maneuver will likely delay the public foreclosure auction, which was booked for May 17, 2011.

As mentioned earlier, this is not the first time that someone from “The Real Housewives” has had to face the possibility of losing her home to foreclosure.

Alexis Bellino was saved with a loan modification, as well as Jeana Keough. Tamra Barney was able to unload her upside-down home via a short sale and Teresa Guidice filed for bankruptcy.

We’ll pass along more information on Tanous’ foreclosure situation as it becomes available.

To read all about these lovely ladies, as well as other celebrity types, and their real estate-related issues click here.