The real estate market in U.S. has unique features of mortgage loans for home buying, government departments and federal agencies encouraging and promoting home buying, people with bad credit history also getting home loans etc. Such laxity in checking the repayment capacity of the borrower often ends up with the inability of home owners to meet the financial commitments and repayment of monthly installments. Eventually on default of repayment, the lender initiates action for foreclosing the mortgage loan. Such foreclosure properties are listed in the “foreclosure listings”.
The revolution caused by Internet marketing in U.S. real estate is most helpful to the prospective home buyers and foreclosure listings are currently the most sought after sites by the searchers. The reason is obvious. The distressed properties listed in the foreclosure listings offer savings of thousands of dollars in the final price of the properties. Foreclosure process involves three phases. The properties contained in the foreclosure listings are classified under these three phases. The first phase is pre-foreclosure period – that is between the date of default notice sent to the borrower and the actual date of public auction of the property. Such properties from foreclosure listings provide good opportunity for the buyers to inspect the property, assess the value of the same, estimate the cost of repairs and rehabs if any and negotiate the deal directly with the home owner in distress.
Properties that are listed in foreclosure listings which come under the second phase – actual foreclosure by public auction in the county court – can be bid for along with other bidders and the highest bidder get the property. Here also the opening bid fixed for the property will be the amount of outstanding loan and normally lesser than the current market value. Thus such properties of foreclosure listings enable savings of thousands of dollars.
The properties of third phase, listed in foreclosure listings are Repossessed properties – that is they are not sold at the public auction for want of bidders and consequently taken possession of, by the lenders themselves. After identifying these properties from foreclosure listings the prospective buyer can approach the lender, whether it is HUD, Bank or other financial institution, and tender purchase offer with supporting documents. As these foreclosure listings properties are remaining as bad dates, the buyer can surely get great discounts on them and save lot of money in buying.
Therefore the foreclosure listings have become increasingly popular in the U.S. real estate market in U.S. which is otherwise sluggish in sale of other properties of secondary homes and brand new homes coming up for sale. The future home buyers also will also start their search online first with foreclosure listings.
