Buying Fannie Mae-owned homes just got easier.

The largest mortgage buyer/backer in the nation recently rolled out HomePath Online Offers, which gives real estate agents the power to submit bids on behalf of clients who are interested in buying foreclosed — also known as Real Estate-Owned (REO) — homes.

Buyers/investors in Orlando, Fla., San Diego, Calif., and Detroit, Mich., will be the first to test out the new program.

Jim Tiegen, Vice President of Fannie Mae’s REO regional offices, had this to say to DSNews.com about the innovation:

Read the rest of this entry »

Distressed property is often an amazing investment, but before you can enjoy the fruits of your labor, you’ve got to close the deal.

Getting everything all wrapped up is often trickier with foreclosures and short sales than with more conventional real estate transactions. It takes time to get the inspections and approvals necessary to be able to purchase a property for less than it’s actually worth.

Here’s the good news: With a little planning and advanced preparation, you can get to the finish line that much more quickly.

The October 2010 edition of Foreclosure.com’s free educational newsletter, “Investment Exchange,” is now available, which is focused on getting you up to speed on closing your real estate deals smoothly and on time.

To learn everything you need to know about “Close the deal” click here.

It’s the last hurdle between you and your great deal, so make sure you give this important step all the attention it merits.

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.

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 »

Buyer beware!

It’s perhaps the most important nugget of advice as it relates to investing in and/or buying foreclosed homes.

What you see isn’t always what you get, especially when distressed properties hit the auction block. Whether it’s a structural problem that costs thousands to fix or an encumbrance on the title that is virtually not fixable, foreclosures are inherently risky investments.

The Strand family, which purchased a deed at a foreclosure auction earlier this year for $96,000 cash, found out the hard way.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Read the rest of this entry »