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.

Foreclosed homes aren’t just great deals for potential homebuyers — renters, too, can enjoy the savings.

More and more homeowners and investors are realizing they bit off more than they could chew with their current mortgage commitments. It’s among the many reasons foreclosures are up across the board.

When the payments become just too much to handle, these homeowners and investors have few options other than to sell, rent or simply walk away and lose their homes to foreclosure.

The latter option, foreclosure, is really the worst of the bunch.

But sometimes it happens so fast — in as little as one to three months in several states — that homeowners and investors are left spinning, wondering what just happened to them.

The good news is that these folks are starting to catch on and realize that these are ideal rental conditions. Why lose a home when you can find someone else to move in and pay all or most of the mortgage bill?

Indeed, homeowners would prefer to rent their homes rather than to lose them outright.

Of course, homes in foreclosure are not necessarily always on the market as rentals. In fact, homeowners and investors may not even know that renting is an option.

That’s where you come in.

Read the rest of this entry »

Join us for a LIVE online presentation tomorrow (February 19) at 4 p.m. ET. and get the most out of preforeclosure deals with insider money-making secrets and tips that are proven to work!

“Turn Pennies into Profits with Preforeclosures” is a 90-minute online real estate investing training presentation with industry guru, entrepreneur and instructor, Lance Young.

Get the inside scoop on how to invest in preforeclosures — widely considered the safest, most profitable deals available in the distressed real estate market — with assistance from an investor (Lance) who has achieved enormous financial success thanks in large part to a preforeclosure approach and philosophy that generates positive results almost instantly.

Lance will teach you:

• The five common mistakes beginners make and how to avoid them
• How to find the right real estate agent and have him/her work for you
• How to find the right buyers for your preforeclosure deals
• Where to find the right homeowners in preforeclosure
• What and what NOT to say to homeowners in preforeclosure

This is an ideal educational experience for aspiring and experienced investors alike who want to get the most out of their preforeclosure deals.

To reserve a spot now CLICK HERE. Spots are limited.

Of course, we will also open the floor up to you during an interactive question and answer session. Remember, if the timing is bad and you can’t make the LIVE presentation tomorrow please remember that we will email you the recorded version as soon as possible … there’s no excuse to not sign-up for this great training opportunity!

Webinars are LIVE 90-minute 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.

That’s the focus of our most recent edition of “Investment Exchange,” which is our FREE real estate email newsletter.

In fact, we plan to delve into preforeclosures in great detail over the next three editions of “Investment Exchange” in an informative three-part series. And that’s all because we feel strongly about the massive benefits and financial rewards of preforeclosure investing.

What’s preforeclosure?

During preforeclosure, a property still belongs to the homeowner, but the lender has initiated legal foreclosure procedures because payments have not been made and the loan is considered to be in default.

Purchasing preforeclosure deals — many of which are available for up to 50 percent less than current market value on Foreclosure.com — is a lucrative real estate investment technique that is perhaps the smartest and safest option available to experienced and first-time investors alike.

In the first part of our preforeclosure series, we discuss how to find good preforeclosure deals before the “competition.” From where to find potential investments to how to analyze them, our goal is to give you the tools you need to get on and follow the preforeclosure scent.

One quick hint: It smells like money.

To sign up for the FREE real estate newsletter, “Investment Exchange,” click here.

Even the rich and famous are not immune from foreclosure situations.

Case in point: Pop superstar and cultural musical icon since the late 1960s, Michael Jackson, is in jeopardy of losing his sprawling 2,800-acre Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, Calif., to the lender, which recently filed a notice of default in the amount of $23 million.

We sift through countless distressed nationwide real estate listings each and every day. In fact, at press time we had more than 1.5 million listings currently available on Foreclosure.com.

With this massive volume of accurate data it is hard to point out each and every instance. We’ve been doing it more and more with our “Deal of the Day.”

However, we felt compelled to pass along this latest news of the Jackson foreclosure to illustrate that unexpected situations constantly emerge that can trigger a default notice — and it can happen to anyone.

To check out the listing on Foreclosure.com at 5225 Figueroa Mountain Road in Santa Barbara County click here.

It’s important to note that this property is in preforeclosure. Indeed, Jackson still owns it and the bank has not repossessed it … yet. In fact, he has about 120 days (February 2008) to bring the loan current and stop foreclosure.

On the other hand, an independent investor can also work out a deal with Jackson and the bank in the next few months to purchase the ranch while it’s in preforeclosure. He no longer lives there, which means that it may be possible to settle for far less than the $23 million owed to the lender.

Who knows …. someone could be in for a real “Thriller.” That’s because there is no telling if the elephants, giraffes and other animals, as well as the high-end toys that could be included in a package deal.