This house, located at 1819 Herbert Street in Lansing, according to BusinessLansing.com:

See what $25 will get you after the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

There’s a glimmer of hope for the “Sunshine State” housing market, which is among the five “hardest hit” in the nation.

It was hit so hard, in fact, that investors near and far are now snatching up cheap deals left and right with cold hard cash.

Miami Herald reports today that a staggering 60 percent of South Florida purchases have gone to foreign buyers, pushing pending home sales in July up more than 40 percent in Miami-Dade county alone when compared to the year prior (2009).

Jack H. Levine, chairman of the board of the Miami Realtors, is “encouraged” with the latest numbers.

Here’s a snip:

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a question that countless homeowners are asking due in large part to a soft national housing market.

In California’s Bay Area, for example, sellers are having a hard time coming to grips with arriving at the right asking prices for their homes.

Foreclosures, which can often slice off up to 30 percent on the price of a home, are a big reason behind the mental battle.

USA Today explains the story of Emily Rennie, whose idyllic home near the water’s edge in Oakland, just can’t sell at the price she thinks it’s worth.

Here’s a snip:

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s no secret that foreclosures often offer buyers and investors significant discounts on home purchases.

Today, the brainiacs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard proved it with 12 years of research, revealing that “foreclosure reduces the value of a house by an average of 27 percent.”

MIT economist and study author, Parag Pathak, was surprised with the “large” finding.

Here’s a snip:

“It’s not surprising that there is a discount due to foreclosure. But it is surprising that it’s so large.”

Probate homes, which are those sold after the death of an owner, save buyers about 5 to 7 percent on average. Bankruptcy homes, meanwhile, reduce prices by about 3 percent.

Keep in mind that these are all averages, meaning that you can likely score even greater deals with a quick search on Foreclosure.com.

But we doubt that you would mind nearly a 30 percent discount (at the very least) on your next home purchase.