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.

Michael Murphy at MarketWatch.com lays out the compelling, and concise, case (bullets have been shortened):

1. Desperate sellers. Not the homeowners, of course. It’s the banks that financed the mortgages that are desperate…. That gives the few buyers out there big leverage.
2. Little competition. … those investors willing to be patient and do the work will reap big rewards down the road.
3. Low financing rates. … getting 4-to-1 to 32-to-1 leverage at a low fixed rate of interest is like having someone give you money … rates for 30-year fixed mortgages are an incredible 4.5%. That’s the lowest in 39 years….

To drive his point home, Murphy correctly points out that the real estate summer sales season is almost over. Most house hunters prefer to get settled before school starts and certainly before the holiday season begins to heat up.

Indeed, the time between Labor Day (Sept. 6, 2010) and New Year’s Day (Jan. 1, 2011) is the perfect time to “seriously consider making a low-ball bid on a distressed situation.”

Get a headstart today with a seven-day trial to search Foreclosure.com for the best deals in you’re area — it’s FREE! Click here.

Whether you buy a flawless gem or a diamond in the rough, your new home is going to cost you extra after closing.

That amount, of course, depends on the condition of the home and your taste. Some improvements are often more practical than others, and in some cases, utterly essential.

Whatever the case may be, we can all agree that spending the least amount of money on the most fixes and/or renovations is always high on the priority list.

That’s where we come in.

The July 2010 edition of Foreclosure.com’s free educational newsletter, “Investment Exchange,” is now available, which answers these important questions and details everything you need to know about “Calculate rehab costs.”

It’s all about priming you for rehabbing your distressed property. You’ll learn how to find great contractors, money-saving “Do it Yourself” (DIY) projects, which problems to look out for and much more.

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

Than Merrill — star of A&E’s hit TV show “Flip This House” who is also among the nation’s most successful real estate investors — was a recent featured speaker during a dynamic Foreclosure.com Webinar entitled, “Make $20,000 While You Sleep.”

And what a pleasure it was to have Than as one of our Webinar speakers!

We learned some great time-saving ways to market distressed real estate. Than shared his personal story with us on how he got started, mistakes he made and how he is making money hand-over-fist while he sleeps and goes on vacations.

Than also covered the importance to have a system and what automation will do for your business.

His enthusiasm was contagious. Along with sharing FREE sites to market your real estate flips, he provided the tactical plan to be effective in developing your buyer’s list.

I am sorry if you missed this education-filled Webinar. The good news is that you can catch it on the On Demand section of our Web site anytime, anywhere! CLICK HERE.

Than was worried no one was laughing at his jokes … I assured him that his Mom who always listens to his presentation would approve!

Check out “Make $20,000 While You Sleep” with Than Merrill today! CLICK HERE.

Check out the best real estate investment training around that ensures you cash in on hot foreclosure deals with easy-to-understand instruction from Tara-Nicholle Nelson in a one-of-a-kind 90-minute Webinar educational session.

“Simple Steps to SMART Foreclosure Buying” is a LIVE Webinar presentation that is set for Wednesday, October 1 at 4 p.m. ET. To catch — and register for — the instructional session CLICK HERE.

In this special session, Tara — Founder & CEO of REThinkRealEstate.com, as well as a successful real estate broker, attorney, author and columnist — breaks down the foreclosure buying process into the essential steps you can understand to get the property — and the profits or discounts — you want each and every time.

Here are just some of the topics that Tara will cover:

• Insider secrets for drama-free foreclosure buying, including online tools for making your life easier during the process
• Mortgage “a-ha’s” — the new rules of the mortgage market and the biggest obstacle to buying a foreclosure made SIMPLE
• Three shortcuts to smart online foreclosure house-hunting, including the 10 favorite sites of real estate insiders and how to use them to find and analyze a smoking deal
• Buyer beware! The five most costly mistakes foreclosure buyers make and how to avoid them
• Doing deals with the bank — insights and secrets to get your offers accepted and your deals closed

Simplify and demystify the often intimidating prospect of buying foreclosures and flipping them for enormous mountains of money — the time is NOW!

Hurry before it’s too late … the market is ripe to find downright unbelievable home bargains. And Tara is ready to take you by the hand and show you step-by-step that the foreclosure foreclosure process as easy as 1,2,3!

Join us LIVE for the “Simple Steps to SMART Foreclosure Buying” LIVE Webinar presentation on Wednesday, October 1 at 4 p.m. ET. CLICK HERE.

Webinars are LIVE educational sessions that let participants see, hear and interact with real estate experts right from their personal computer screens. In fact, Webinars are driven in part by visitor feedback and questions that are posed during the sessions. For more information and course offerings click here.