Friday, July 31, 2009

Bank Repossessed Home Auction Takes Its Toll In Michigan

Bank Repossessed Home Auction Takes Its Toll In Michigan
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Albert_Lee]Albert Lee

Many foreclosures occur everyday, and it happens anywhere around the globe. This may be due to unforeseen circumstances that are unavoidable and many homeowners lose their homes to lender-banks. What they don't know is that this may be just the beginning of a financial tsunami in their life.

With many expenses to take care of, many individuals lack money to finance daily expenses. People having bad credit often resort to secured loans. They use their homes as collaterals, and in the event of non-payment, the bank can seize their home. This is a very bad situation, as the entire family is affected. And not only that, you can expect more financial troubles to come after your home is repossessed.

This is already a common situation in Michigan. The months June and July are a period where 92,000 homes in the state entered foreclosure. Michigan was really hit hard, and local residents are helpless. Even if they want to keep their homes for their family's sake, they can't meddle with the government or bank's affairs. They signed a contract, and since they can't fulfill their part, it would cost them their homes. If they only knew that this was going to happen, they should not have used their homes as collaterals, or yet, they should never had the loan in the first place.

Late September is also a hard time in this state where 250 single-homes, all bank-owned, including duplexes and condos hit the so-called auction block. This is because the state's auto industry crushed many families through mass lay-offs. The housing market was greatly affected because the families weren't able to pay for their bank dues. And after this grave event, another mass lay-off is about to occur. Many banks are already making an inventory of their repossessed properties.

Out of the 250 homes, 150 of it lie 60 miles within Detroit. The rest of the properties are scattered all throughout Michigan; and this includes the upper rural peninsula.

Prospect buyers may find it a good deal since the sellers provide and pay for property insurance, which means that winning bidders are ensured to get repossessed homes free of liens, back taxes, and encumbrances.

You can see all the repossessed homes online, and can even place your bids. The estimated price of the homes ranges from fifteen thousand dollars to four hundred fifty thousand dollars. Michigan is largely dependent on its auto businesses, and together with other midwestern locales, they have pounded prospect homebuyers and the real estate market.

Michigan and other Midwest places are undergoing 'auto-wreck', and if this continues, many people are bound to suffer. The state therefore needs to make an action now. They must be able to generate new jobs for their local residents and don't depend entirely on the auto industry. Businesses come and go, and if the state doesn't do anything, many families will lose their homes.

Having a comforting home is important, and it's a basic necessity that should not be taken away. But if the people can't pay for their dues, they banks will not bend it's rules just to accommodate their grievances.

This can serve as a lesson to the people about getting loans and other payables. Although they are victims of the situation, they have responsibility over their expenditures. So while you have the money, save and spend wisely.

For listings of repossessed homes, please visit [http://real-estate-foreclosed-home.info/]http://real-estate-foreclosed-home.info

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Albert_Lee http://EzineArticles.com/?Bank-Repossessed-Home-Auction-Takes-Its-Toll-In-Michigan&id=432045

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Buy A Cheap Government Repossessed Home - 5 Practical Advices

Buy A Cheap Government Repossessed Home - 5 Practical Advices
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Albert_Lee]Albert Lee

There are government repossessed homes that can be found just within the locality. It's not surprising that these homes are cheaper since the place could already be in bad condition. This may need a little renovation so it can look great in a few months.

Below are some helpful and practical advices that will prove to be insightful in buying a government repossessed home.

1. Have a good plan

It is important that you have a plan. Think of the things that you want. Have a plan of the ideal place you want to settle for life. Set some standards before you decide for a house. This would take away confusions and can help you find a nice house.

2. Focus on the Price

After you have decided for a house the second thing to focus on is the price. Taking note of the price is important before you decide for one.

You might be easily taken in by an elegant house without taking note of the price. Be sure that you have sufficient funds to acquire the house for a worry free future.

3. Be practical

Government repossessed homes can be enticing. This is due to the fact that people are in the procedure of bidding out each other.

But if this happens, you can always have the option of bidding a lot higher. This could at least resist the enticement. This could direct you to a trap.

It is important that you think twice before contesting for a higher bid. Be wise enough and don't let yourself fall for an unreasonable price just to acquire the property.

4. Get the service and advice of an expert.

As much as possible bring along an expert when it comes to acquiring a government repossessed house. By doing this, you'll be given the proper advice and guidance. Affordable and practical guidelines can be offered to you anytime you need it.

In addition, there can be instances that the government repossessed homes are desired for by some investors. So, you much choose and decide for the sure house that would fit your funds.

5. The Buying Process

Fundamentally, a house that has been repossessed by a government becomes such when the home owners were unable to pay for their mortgage.

This is a process that can take longer. The process would take for about several months or until the proceeding is done.

Nevertheless, once everything has been finalized you can now have the chance of buying the property.

All in all, finding a cheap government repossessed house is easy as long as you have idea of what to look for and how.

For listings of government repossessed homes, please visit [http://www.real-estate-foreclosed-home.info/]http://www.real-estate-foreclosed-home.info

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Albert_Lee http://EzineArticles.com/?Buy-A-Cheap-Government-Repossessed-Home---5-Practical-Advices&id=379032

Friday, July 24, 2009

The Benefits Of Investing In Repossessed Home Properties

The Benefits Of Investing In Repossessed Home Properties
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Albert_Lee]Albert Lee

Bank repossessed home investing offers many advantages and benefits to people on the lookout for a piece of real estate to invest in. If you are not familiar with bank repossessed home investing, you may need to study and look deeply into their benefits before you move on with your search for potential investments.

A major benefit that bank repossessed home properties offer to investors may come in the amount of money that can be saved in purchasing these properties. It is common for investors to discover repossessed home properties that are up to 50 percent off its regular market value.

Even if you cannot find repossessed homes that can offer you such heavy discounts, no doubt that you will be able to find a repossessed property or two with at least 10 percent off of the prevailing real estate market value.

Another great advantage of bank repossessed home investing is that the buyer is always in the driver's seat of every real estate deal. The main reason for this is because the bank would be more than happy to unload the house as soon as possible in order to recover their losses and start to make money again. At bank repossessed home investing, the buyer may have a better bargaining power and may be more than likely to get a better deal than with buying other types of real estate properties.

The way bank repossessed home investing works is so simple. You buy available bank repossessed homes for below its market value, make them look attractive if there is a need and sell them afterwards at or above the prevailing market value for such properties. The difference in your buying and selling price and other expenses becomes your profit.

You can greatly benefit from bank repossessed home investing if you are planning to set up an additional stream of income. Another alternative available for you is that instead of selling your newly purchased properties, you can rent them out for a continuous income stream.

This will assure you that you will be getting some income every month of the year. This can really appeal to a lot of people who are looking forward to retiring, but who want to ensure that they will be financially secure in their retirement.

For listings of bank repossessed homes, please visit [http://www.real-estate-foreclosed-home.info/]http://www.real-estate-foreclosed-home.info

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Albert_Lee http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Benefits-Of-Investing-In-Repossessed-Home-Properties&id=451215

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Buying A Cheap VA Repossessed Home

Buying A Cheap VA Repossessed Home
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Anthony_Lee]Anthony Lee

A VA repossessed home is actually a home that has been foreclosed due to the owner's failure to pay the loan.

Contrary to the other types of foreclosure, VA repossessed homes were previously possessed by members of the military or a veteran in the United States. These homes are actually insured under the provisions of the Department of Veteran Affairs or VA.

With steep prices on newly built homes today, buying a VA repossessed home can actually give you more benefits than you can imagine.

Here is a list of some of its advantages:

1. Cheap at its best definition

Nowadays, people can define cheap as something that is way below the current price in the market. With VA repossessed homes, you get a better definition of the word cheap.

That is because VA repossessed homes are usually sold in the market by as much as 50% below the usual price of houses in the market.

The reason behind this is that Department of Veteran Affairs would like to dispose VA repossessed homes as fast as they could, hence, the lower price.

The main purpose here is to get the money back not to actually earn additional profits from VA repossessed homes.

2. Quick home equity

With VA repossessed homes, you get quicker home equities. This means that you can start reaping equity right away because the values of these types of houses are actually less than the actual price in the market.

Home equity refers to the current value of a particular home where the total debts indexed against it are subtracted.

You can start building your home's equity by repairing some of the much-needed repairs. In this way, you can present your VA repossessed home as something worth reaping profits.

3. More benefits

One of the best things about buying a VA repossessed home is that you can get all the benefits that veterans are enjoying, and to think that you are not even a member of the military or a veteran.

With this, you can even start using a VA repossessed home immediately even if you do not have the money yet because one of the benefits that you can enjoy is the no-money-down advantage.

All of these things are boiled down to the fact that buying VA repossessed homes are not just great bonuses to life's simple pleasures. These homes are definitely worth evaluation especially if you really wanted to have a house of your own but cannot financially buy a new one.

For listings of [http://www.buy-cheap-houses.info/]cheap repossessed homes, please visit [http://www.buy-cheap-houses.info/]http://www.buy-cheap-houses.info/.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anthony_Lee http://EzineArticles.com/?Buying-A-Cheap-VA-Repossessed-Home&id=332596

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Is It Worth Buying a Repossessed Home at Auction?

Is It Worth Buying a Repossessed Home at Auction?
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Mark_R_Jenkins]Mark R Jenkins

The housing market is in crisis, estate agencies are closing hand over fist and unemployment's rising. To top things off, hikes in the cost of living are making life very difficult for homeowners who stretched their finances too far when house prices were high.

But there's a bright side to every story. The positive slant on this terrible situation is that there are an increasing number of opportunities for buying a repossessed home. If buying a home of your own has been an unreachable dream for the past decade, it might soon be a reality. Interest rates are at an all time low and mortgage rates should eventually follow. If you're a first time buyer without a property to sell, the world's your oyster... provided you can borrow the money.

Obviously there are advantages and disadvantages to buying a repossessed house or flat. The smoother you can make the process and the more pitfalls you can manage to avoid, the more successful your first step onto the property market will be.

Most people think auctions when they think about home repossessions. And that's a good place to start. The USA has a database of repossessed homes but the UK doesn't, and many UK home repossessions are sold at auction by lenders.

Household name auction house Allsops is an independent property consulting company with a solid reputation for residential property auctions. Probably the UK's largest, they sell around a billion pounds' worth of homes a year at auction, spread across seven massive auctions a year with between 250 and 350 properties at each auction. A good choice if you feel safer dealing with a well known brand name. But there are also local property auctions in most major towns.

Estate Agents also sell repossessions, although they don't always proclaim the fact. You'll have to actually go in and ask. Another route into buying a repossessed home is to simply ask around the banks and building societies in the area you want to buy, personally. While they don't openly advertise repossessions they need to sell the repossessions on their books and they'll probably be happy to give you details. Another simple way to find repossessed homes for sale is check for announcements in the local papers. Offers are always publicised in case a better offer comes along, to ensure the best possible deal for the seller.

The internet has revolutionised buying repossessed homes. There's a good choice of specialist online providers who collect together UK house repossession auctions in one place so you can search them effectively from one place, Repossessedhousesforsale.co.uk is one. They hold a database of UK auction properties including details of local auctioneers and auction dates, and provide links to online auction catalogues, property details and guide prices. A great way to save time.

Whichever route you arrive at an auction by, buying a repossessed home at auction can save you a fortune in estate agency fees. But it'll still cost you money and you need to be prepared.

The same as an ordinary home purchase, buying at auction requires a deposit. You'll generally need to fork out 10% of the purchase price, which means you need to have a firm grip on exactly what you can bid based on how much cash deposit you can scrape together. You pay the deposit as soon as you've bought a property, before you leave the auction house.

After that you have 28 days to pay the balance, no excuses. Buying a repossessed home at auction is a legally binding contract and you can't back out. Because the wheels of mortgage lenders tend to turn very, very slowly it's wise to get your loan agreed before you go anywhere near an auction house.

In difficult times, auction mortgages are as rare as ordinary mortgages. There are fewer deals around and - perhaps unsurprisingly - nobody seems to be advertising auction-specific deals. The first port of call should be your bank. Provided you have a good relationship with them, they should be able to give you a very quick decision about whether or not they'd be prepared to lend the money to buy a repossessed house.

Once you know what your bank can or can't offer, it's a good idea to let a Mortgage Broker loose on your case. Independent brokers, unlike tied brokers, have access to the entire UK mortgage market and can trawl around to find you the best deal. And they know the lingo, which helps. A tip: remember to tell your broker that you want a mortgage specifically for buying a repossessed home at auction. He or she will co-ordinate your mortgage approval date with your chosen auction date so everything is ready in good time.

But what of the future?

Will we all be knee deep in low cost repossessed homes and flats for the next decade? Are property prices due to keep falling, or will they recover? Predictions are mixed.

Savills is another of the property big boys, a leading name in UK residential estate agency and commercial property. While they don't auction repossessed homes they do a great deal of research into the housing market and their views are well respected. In an article published in The Times on 14th November 2008 Savill's Head of Residential Research Yolande Barnes said,

"... the roots of Britain's downturn lie in the credit crisis and the consequent withdrawal of funding by lenders... The UK housing market really is a different country: in the US as many as one home-owning household in 16 has defaulted on its mortgage or faces repossession, compared with fewer than one in 200 in Britain. To predict that the UK housing market will fall by 40 per cent and remain at these new, corrected levels is to ignore the role of finite supply and the use of equity." In other words, don't be fooled by all the doom and gloom.

Sadly Yolande seems to be swimming against a pessimistic tide. Most experts insist that the housing market is broken, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. It appears that things could swing either way. Whoever is right, it doesn't change the fact that buying a repossessed a repossessed home, in today's market, can net you an excellent deal. Provided you can find the finance!

Mark Jenkins is a writer for HouseRepossession.co.uk. Independent guidance on all aspects of [http://houserepossession.co.uk]house repossessions, remortgages, debt consolidation, buying [http://houserepossession.co.uk/house-repossession/buying-repossessed-houses.html]repossessed property.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_R_Jenkins http://EzineArticles.com/?Is-It-Worth-Buying-a-Repossessed-Home-at-Auction?&id=1946021

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

How to Buy a Repossessed Home

How to Buy a Repossessed Home
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Adva_Jones]Adva Jones

Buying a Repossessed Property

If you are looking for a cheap house you might be tempted by the possibility of buying a repossessed house or foreclosure. Repossessions are of course increasing at the moment so this could be the ideal time get yourself a bargain.

Buying a bargain does of course mean that somebody else is losing a packet. If you are of a religious bent you might argue that this is all God's will. If you are not religious then you might just see it all as Darwinian economics, the survival of the smartest (or the luckiest) which ensures that in future generations people will be smarter (or luckier).

Nevertheless, be all this as it may, there are possible pitfalls so take care, even if you are in the fortunate position of having some spare cash to buy a bargain home.

Repossessed or foreclosed properties can be a godsend for people looking for a house who can't afford one.

The number of repossessed properties is still on the rise according to the UK's Council of Mortgage Lenders. There were 12,800 repossessions in the first quarter of 2009, compared to 10,400 in the last quarter of 2008, and 8,500 in the first quarter of 2008.

So where do you have to go to get your hands on one ? And how do you do it ?

The first thing to realize that your desirable repossessed residence is owned by a bank not by a flesh and blood person. The person was booted out by the bank, so that they could sell the house at a loss, rather than let the person live in it. But that's bankers for you - totally useless in my opinion.

But I digress. The bank wants to sell the property and get it off its hands as it does not want to be bothered with maintenance or renting houses etc..

Before you start you will need to get an 'agreement in principle' from a mortgage lender, so that you know how much they are willing to lend you.

You should obtain a certificate that says how much you can borrow, which should convince the seller that you have the necessary ready cash to buy the property. This won't cost you more than a credit check.

Now you have to find the repossessed property of your dreams. They are advertised by smaller estate agents and websites such as Globrix and Rightmove, but they probably won't have REPOSSESSED plastered all over them. The ads. generally look cheaper however, with no photos and economical descriptions. You could also try asking an estate agent about repossessed or distress sales.

The next place to look is property auctions. Bear in mind, however, that property auctions attract property investors who know what they are doing and generally have access to a fair amount of cash. So make sure you do your homework first.

If you are think buying at auction is for you, then you need to check the catalogue which is produced weeks before the auction date and view the property you are interested in before bidding on it.

If you are buying from an estate agent then the process is not straightforward. First, after an offer has accepted on a repossessed house, the estate agent is legally bound to publish a 'Notice of offer' in the press. Other prospective buyers are thus invited to make a bid over a a period of seven days. This is a double-edged sword as, clearly if you see such a notice of offer on a house then you can make a bid yourself.

This process means that you are potentially in an auction, and even after the seven days the bank can accept a better offer if one comes along. It is important to realize that until contracts are exchanged, you do not have a legal right to actually buy the property. The bank of course is only interested in getting the best price for its property.

You will have 28 days to complete, but you could find yourself paying for a survey etc... only to be outbid on day 27.

Auction

Buying at auction is different from buying through an estate agent. Once the auction ends you are deemed to have exchanged contracts, neither party can change its mind. The transaction must be completed within 28 days.

This is more straightforward but you have to pay a 10% deposit on the day of the auction, which you risk losing if you do not complete the contract. So in some ways you are better getting any survey and legal work done before the auction - despite the fact that you don't know if you will win the auction or not.

The Property

Repossessed properties are generally in need of a fair amount of work so you need to factor this into your costs.

It is important to chase people up too, as the transaction needs to be completed in 28 days. You are recommended to chase both solicitors and lenders twice a week at least.

Twenty years experience dealing with bankers and loan providers!

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adva_Jones http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Buy-a-Repossessed-Home&id=2409796