Seized Property & Foreclosure Properties
Seized Property & Foreclosure Properties
With all the headlines of the housing market, there has been an upswing in interest in seized properties and foreclosures. These come in two basic flavors, foreclosed and seized. For the sake of clarity, we will define both.
Foreclosure is the term commonly associated with banks, when they foreclose on a mortgage. This happens when the homeowner or property owner defaults on payment and the bank has to take back the property and sell it off to recover its loan money. Banks hate sitting on repo property, since they are in the lending business and not in the real estate buisness. These foreclosed homes can represent a real bargain opportunity because the seller, the bank, is motivated, very motivated to sell.
A lot of people search foreclosure websites looking for homes that fell into foreclosure. The problem with this is that by the time a home falls into foreclosure, a lot of bargain hunters are already on top of it, forcing the price to go up. What is less known, is that sites like ForeclosuresToday.com provide pre-foreclosure information, which makes it possible to contact homeowners and make deals with them before the bank gets the property.
Seized properties generally refer to properties seized by the IRS and other government agencies, which lead to IRS auctions, US Marshall's auctions, US Treasury auctions, and other auctions. Tax defaulted properties are common too. When a homeowner fails to pay property taxes, the county they live in can seize it and put it on the auction block at a county tax auction.
There are two great resources online to help you find seized and foreclosure properties. One is ForeclsouresToday.com, which includeds pre-foreclosures, foreclsoures and fsbos. The other great resource is PoliceAuctions.com, which has a comprehensive list of government auctions held by different levels of government.
