• Wall Street Journal: Home Buyer Credit Gets New Life http://ffs.cc/a/piooy6 TM #
• Deal of the Day, Elm Street edition: 6 bed/4 br 4,200 sq. ft. “Deal” in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. http://ffs.cc/a/vhoh4i TM #
• Met some amazing brokers at the Sotheby’s International Realty Manager conference in Jersey City. LY #
• Deal of the Day, World Series edition: 4 bed/3 br 2,350 sq. ft. Philly fixer upper. Pot. equity = $12,100 http://ffs.cc/a/6u6r5k TM #
• Free email newsletter: Hot real estate markets in the U.S. in 2009 and beyond — http://bit.ly/3NQYPl TM #
• Deal of the Day, Last Frontier edition: 5 bed/5 br 5,380 sq. ft. Alaskan refuge. Pot. equity = $359,925 (97% under!) http://bit.ly/xkfa8 #

Sticking with the spooky Halloween theme, Foreclosure.com recently held a pumpkin carving contest at our new corporate headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla., among our employees.

It’s an annual event, which we often coordinate to have a little office fun, boost morale and freak out our white collar corporate neighbors.

So this year we thought we would share with our readers two of our winning entries, one of which is actually industry appropriate and won “Most Creative.”

Check ‘em out after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

HGTV’s FrontDoor.com compiled two season-appropriate, and very different, lists:

Tricks

1. Every foreclosure is a bargain — Just because a house has a cheap price tag, doesn’t mean that it will be a good investment.
2. Buying a foreclosure property is like buying any other property — Foreclosure deals usually involve multiple parties and specific laws. Seek out a foreclosure expert.
3. Going into foreclosure is better than paying a mortgage you can’t afford — Foreclosure has major legal, tax and credit consequences and should be a last resort.

Treats

1. Homeownership is affordable — There really are well maintained foreclosure properties out there, some for as little as 50 percent below their market value.
2. Banks are motivated to get rid of their inventory — Banks want to get non-income-producing properties off their books as quickly as possible, which translates to competitive pricing for consumers.
3. The right foreclosure can be a good investment — Whether a foreclosure purchase is destined for renting or flipping, the right property can be profitable.

Remember you can find your treat on Foreclosure.com. Our nationwide database of more than 2 million distressed real estate listings is FREE to search for seven days. Cancel at anytime.

No tricks!

To check out the complete article head over to FrontDoor.com.

Remember that you can check out when the REDC foreclosure auction train will pull into your town right here (Click the link to see complete nationwide schedule). To search for other foreclosed homes in Tennessee and elsewhere throughout the nation click here.

Gregory Holm (a photographer) and Matthew Radune (an architect) plan to freeze a foreclosure home in Detroit, Mich., and demolish it in spring 2010 to draw more attention to the alarming default situation that has plagued “Motor City” for several years now.

“Ice House Detroit” — one of more than 13,600 active distressed properties in Wayne County, according to third quarter 2009 statistics from Foreclosure.com — will eventually be razed and donated to the community when the unique project is complete sometime in 2010.

The two “artists” came up with the idea of spraying a house with water and freezing it while studying architecture at Rice University in Houston, Texas. It just so happens that Radune feels Detroit is the ideal canvas for their work.

Here’s a snip from Yahoo!:

“It’s a project that couldn’t be done in the same way in New York City and it wouldn’t necessarily make the same sense. Detroit was a place where we could make it into more than architectural installation.”

Holm and Radune have yet to select a specific abandoned house in the region. Once they do they will take photographs of the transformation of the house, which will be featured in a book and possibly a documentary film.

We’ll keep you posted on their progress as it becomes available. In the meantime, feel free to check out their “Ice House Detroit” Web site right here.