By D.C. Fawcett, Business Building Coach to the Foreclosure Industry

When real estate investors evaluate their options for securing deals and making profits, there are several things that may come to mind. Whether its owning rental properties, fixing up properties in disrepair, or buying foreclosures, investing is still based on similar principles, such as seller motivation. After all, buying foreclosures at quality prices means working with sellers who are more motivated, be they homeowners or the bank.

Where do most people turn when they seek opportunities in buying foreclosures?  Sure, they might take a look at foreclosure listings that comes from free or fee-based sources. They can also market their services and attract sellers from whom they can buy foreclosures. While these techniques may lead to productive and profitable deals, they also can be time and cash intensive.

Another option for buying foreclosures is the world of bank owned foreclosures. When a property is lost via foreclosure it goes back to the bank and then becomes one of the now thousands of bank owned foreclosures (or REO properties) on the market today. How do you start buying foreclosures from the bank in your business?
The key is real estate training and also to work with a real estate agent who specializes in bank owned foreclosures. With the abundance of bank owned foreclosures out there, more and more realtors are realizing that investors are buying foreclosures and can provide you with foreclosure listings to aid in your own pursuit.

Despite the leads you can generate from foreclosure listings and the opportunities that exist with bank owned foreclosures, I think buying foreclosures also can be risky for the investor because, without the proper foreclosure training, you run the risk of not really knowing what you are doing. Profits can be lost and so too can opportunities from buying foreclosures when you lack the proper real estate investing training.

In today’s market, here are indeed unlimited deals to be found within the realm of buying foreclosures. Whether you’re just curious how to make a little extra money with buying foreclosures or really want to pursue a serious business, you owe it to yourself to seize the current opportunity and pursue it.

In today’s real estate market, buying foreclosures is as much as part of investing as any other part of the business. Make sure you have a realtor on your team who can provide you with foreclosure listings for buying foreclosures because the deals are out there. I also suggest that you commit yourself to real estate training, and your pursuit of buying foreclosures, will be more productive and more rewarding. I wish you the very best in success in all of your investing pursuits and in business as a whole.

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Many investors would say that now is the best time to purchase houses. Now is the best time to purchase a house because you can get it a much cheaper price than its actual market value. However, it is not advisable to sell them. Basing on this fact, you would think that it would be difficult to find a house to buy. After all, who would sell their $100,000.00 house at half a price.
At first glance, it is indeed a bad deal. However, with the current financial obstacle we are facing today, it is not impossible to find such deal. You can easily find properties sold at a wholesale price. There are several reasons why homeowners would sell their homes lower than its market price. One is because of foreclosure, they could also be in dire need of cash. Relocating to another country can also be a reason.
Advantages
An obvious advantage of purchasing foreclosures is that you will be able to buy the estate inexpensively. This in turn is a good investment. With all the people losing their homes, you can resell the house or have it rented. You can find terrific homes in prestigious neighborhoods such as Power Ranch in Gilbert, Arizona
Many investors are earning continuously because of this. They are constantly looking for properties to buy.  They check listing from banks and different lending agencies in order to land a good deal. After purchasing the properties, they can sell it right away or make few repairs first. Repairing the house will give it more value. As a result, the investors can earn more from its sale.
Disadvantages
Although it may look like a good deal, not everyone is eligible for the said purchase. Let us take the above property for example. It may be offered at half its market price, however, you have to make twenty purchases. That is still a million bucks. Not everyone can generate that amount in a limited time.
Another disadvantage is that usually, the properties sold are not in good condition. Some might even cost you more if you have it repaired. There are also houses occupied illegally because it has been empty for quite some time.
Another difficulty when dealing with foreclosures is that some of the properties have issues in terms of the titles and other related documents. It would be very tiring to deal with these kinds of issues especially when you need to resolve it right away.
Although this is the case, you can still take advantage of it. First, you have to know where to look for properties sold on a bank owned basis in nice areas like Power Ranch in Gilbert, Arizona. This way , you can check the houses and be aware of the possible problem in the future. You do not have to shell out large amount of cash as well. Several banks and lenders offer flexible purchasing arrangements for foreclosed properties. They are ready to work it out with willing investors.
When engaging in this type of business, it is important that you are aware of the possible challenges instead of just focusing on the advantages. By doing so, you will be able to handle the issues better.
Summary:
The real estate industry has offered a lot of opportunities. However, you should know what you are getting yourself into before closing any deal. If you are complacent, you can be losing instead of earning.

Bill Cotter
http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/foreclosures-and-shortsales-advantages-disadvantages-and-more-690035.html

South Florida’s commercial and residential real estate markets suffered in 2008, and the New Year doesn’t figure to offer much relief. Continued foreclosures and weak economy will continue having an impact on prices and number of properties available with only aggressive sellers disposing of properties.

Although home sales started picking up this summer, the beleaguered housing market has been hammered by foreclosures and falling prices. Meanwhile, the sputtering economy has local businesses retrenching and cutting jobs, dealing a blow to the retail, office and industrial sectors. All this carnage creates an opportunity for those positioned to take advantage of the adjustment in prices, and higher expected returns.

What follows is an outlook of the region’s residential markets as 2009 approaches:

Residential Real Estate

The three-year housing slump may ease by this time next year, but the real estate market in Florida, particularly the Miami real estate market almost certainly will still be in decline. After a five-year boom, South Florida’s housing market began to tumble in 2006.

People who stretched to buy properties they couldn’t afford have been forced into foreclosure over the last two years. Homes have lingered on the market for months as prices are driven down and as tightening credit makes it difficult for buyers to get financing.

But, although it might seem that we must be almost finished, there’s still a lot of pain to come in terms of write-downs and losses that have yet to be recognized.

The trouble now is that the insanity didn’t end with sub-prime mortgages. There were two other kinds of exotic mortgages that became popular, called “Alt-A” and “option ARM.” The option ARMs, in particular, lured borrowers in with low initial interest rates - so-called teaser rates - sometimes as low as one percent. But after two, three or five years those rates “reset.” They went up. And so did the monthly payment. Now the Alt-A and option ARM loans made back in the heyday are starting to reset, causing the mortgage payments to go up and homeowners to default.

With defaults at unprecedented levels and no evidence that the default rate is tapering off, it will lead to further foreclosures, homes being auctioned, and home prices continuing to fall.

Analysts that have looked back at what was written in ‘05 and ‘07, the reset dates and the current default rates, predict the beginning of a second wave. Billions of dollars in sub-prime mortgages reset last year and this year, but what hasn’t hit yet are Alt-A and option ARM resets, when homeowners will pay higher interest rates in the next three years. The damage is substantial if one considers that the sub-prime is approaching $1 trillion, the Alt-A is about $1 trillion and then option ARMs are probably another $500 billion to $600 billion on top of that.

To get a sense from where we have come Broward County median price for existing homes declined by 35 percent from November 2005, Dade County by 33%. The overbuilt South Florida and Miami condo market has taken an even bigger hit. Median prices on existing condos have fallen more than 40 percent in the two counties since 2006.

Home sales in South Florida started increasing in July, bringing a hint of optimism, but the upswing was caused by months of falling prices in a market still flooded with homes for sale. Rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages have been low and last week hit 5.19 percent, a 37-year low, contributing only slightly to the uptick at best.

However there is a sense that the opportunity may be arriving for some. First, individual buyers that have been on the sidelines renting property suddenly feel that foreclosures are closer to what their incomes allow them to purchase. Also, corporations such as Lennar, a large South Florida multifamily developer that like all others has been hurting is positioning itself to take advantage of the market. First, Lennar’s strategy includes hoarding cash — it had $1.09 billion in reserves as of Nov. 30 — and second, it is establishing a fund aimed at buying distressed residential properties.

Mike Smith
http://www.articlesbase.com/real-estate-articles/south-florida-and-miami-residential-real-estate-outlook-2009-715726.html

By Don Miller
Contributing Writer
Money Morning

With the economy in a tailspin, the U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers will today (Tuesday) almost certainly cut the benchmark Federal Funds rate from its current 1.0% to 0.5%.

So the question no longer seems to be whether the Fed will ease, but whether the move will make any difference.

The Fed has been hamstrung by a credit-market double-whammy: borrowers who are in limbo due to fears of soaring unemployment, and banks that have turned off the lending spigot. Even so, a U.S. economy facing its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression demands the central bank take decisive action.

That has led to a strong undercurrent of opinion among analysts that the Fed will pursue other measures to spark a moribund U.S. economy.

“We look for the accompanying statement to highlight that the main nexus of policy in the coming months will be quantitative easing operations, and we expect these operations to be aimed at lowering borrowing costs for households and businesses,” Dean Maki, economist for Barclays Capital Management (ADR: BCS), told MarketWatch.com.

In other words, get ready for another attempt to kick-start bank lending by injecting more federal cash into the U.S. financial system.

One move the Fed could make is to buy massive amounts of U.S. Treasuries in an effort to keep yields from rising. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke suggested in a Dec. 1 speech that the central bank might buy “longer-term Treasury or agency securities on the open market in substantial quantities.”

Bond market traders seemed to confirm that notion yesterday (Monday) by driving the price of 10-year Treasuries higher for a third straight day. The yield curve, the difference in yield between two-and 10-year notes, flattened as the difference between the two narrowed.
Driven lately by uncertainty over the Bush administration’s handling of the Big Three automakers’ bailout, investors have pushed yields on Treasuries to record lows. Treasury security yields last week reached the lowest levels since the U.S. started selling two, five, 10- and 30-year securities.

In a report issued last week, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) predicted the yield on Treasuries in 2009 will be driven as low as 1.65% (from about 2.65% currently) amid “high uncertainty.”

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Unloading stocks, corporate bonds and debt from mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), investors purchased $34.6 billion of Treasury securities in October, up from $20.7 billion in September, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
“You still have a massive paranoia in the marketplace and you’ve got that safety-at-any-cost mentality,” Jay Mueller of Wells Fargo Capital Management (WFC) told Bloomberg News. “People are not buying Treasury bills because they think the yields are attractive. They are buying them because they are afraid to put money anywhere else.”

According to Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER), U.S. government bonds have returned 12.4% so far in 2008. That’s the best return since 2000, when they gained 13.4%. Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is down 40%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 35%.

The Fed’s Arsenal

The Fed is pulling out every weapon in its arsenal to avoid deflation. A sustained drop in asset prices is the central bank’s worst fear since it could lead to more foreclosures and heightened economic chaos.

One undesirable side effect of the numerous economic stimulus packages is the potential for inflation and a decline in the dollar. Based on its actions, the Fed is apparently willing to take that risk.

In fact, speculation around the probable Fed interest rate cut knocked the greenback down to a two-month low against the euro, touching $1.3703 yesterday, the lowest it’s been since Oct. 14. With reduced demand for the dollar as a safe haven, the greenback dropped to a 13-year low against the Japanese yen and also lost ground to the British pound.

“We will stay in a low-interest-rate environment for some time,” Fabian Eliasson, vice president of currency sales at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. in New York, told Bloomberg. “That will take away interest-rate play, and the dollar will suffer.”

After a four-month rally of 24%, consensus estimates for the dollar issued last week by Citigroup Inc. (C), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), BNP Paribas SA and Bank of America Corp. (BAC), predicted further weakness against the euro.

After strengthening from July to November, the U.S. currency has retreated by 6.6% from a two-year high on Nov. 21, as measured by the trade-weighted Dollar Index. The dollar has fallen against the euro, yen, pound, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc and Swedish krona since peaking three weeks ago

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Money Morning
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-opportunities-articles/fed-policymakers-to-cut-rates-today-but-does-anyone-really-care-688012.html

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(NewsUSA) - Maintenance costs are up, home values are falling and states are seeing more foreclosures than sales. But terrible times for homeowners make for terrific investment opportunities.

Why? The market sees constant ups and downs. Buying when the market’s high it is means greater upfront costs. And because the market cannot rise indefinitely, property investors must constantly watch for the bubble to pop.

In a down market, the question is not “if,” but “when” the market will improve. If investors can buy properties at rock-bottom prices, they can afford to maintain the home until the market improves. At that point, the investor can sell the home both to recoup their buying and operating costs and to make a profit.

Some companies are looking to profit on the down housing market. Deer Park Development Corporation, a Nevada-based company, is purchasing foreclosed homes in Arizona, Nevada, California and Florida, some of the areas most affected by the down market. Nevada, for example, sees more foreclosures than any other state -; million-dollar properties can be bought for half their building costs. Between May and June, Californian banks foreclosed on 40 percent of the homes on the market.

Deer Park Development Corporation’s agents and brokers draw on 35 years of experience -; they have seen down markets before, so they can easily identify promising properties.

When Deer Park Development Corporation finds a home that it wants to acquire as an investment, it works with the homeowner or bank to purchase the home at a 50 percent discount.

But the company does not profit at homeowner’s expense. It negotiates with homeowners so that people can rent their homes after the sale. When the original homeowner’s lease expires, Deer Park Development Corporation allows former homeowners to repurchase their properties for a predetermined price. In this way, the company invests in the down market while also helping down-and-out homeowners.

Ron Roberts
http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/struggling-market-now-is-the-time-to-buy-743136.html

In Boston, an expensive real estate market, coupled with all sorts of advice coming from all sorts of economic and real estate experts, is reason for pause.

The economy is battered and the real estate forecast in unclear. But that doesn’t prevent voices from calling out. Some people claim 2009 will be much worse than 2008. Others say it is the beginning of the end, a period in which sellers, buyers and realtors can find new ways to improve their performance and reap the rewards.

Karl Case is a Wellesley College economist. His name is synonymous with the housing market. He is known for his ability to predict changes, trends and problems. He was one of the first to warn us about the current real estate crisis. Now he is sought out even more. People look to him for advice, a sign that everything will be all right, or if they should run for hills because nothing is going anywhere but down.

This time, though, Case, like the rest of us, is uncertain about the future. He says a combination of factors make this an unprecedented situation. The market is saturated. Prices are falling, and yet people are unable to buy a new home.

As banks tighten their belts and potential buyers are kept from the loans they need for down payments, homes remain on the market longer, declining in price and stalling the revitalization of the economy. The Boston Globe ran an interesting article about Case’s prediction for 2009’s real estate market.

The outlook for real estate is so foggy that not even a smart guy such as Case - who has studied past housing downturns so extensively he’s identified three indicators that signal a rebound - wants to venture a guess.

“This is absolutely uncharted water,” Case said. He said the complex nature of the current recession and global credit crunch, mixed with the particular problems brought on by huge numbers of foreclosures, make it difficult to predict where the housing market is headed, other than further downward.

That is not great news for prospective sellers and the professionals who make money helping them sell their homes. Falling prices, of course, are good for buyers, especially in an expensive market such as Massachusetts. Many who were priced out during the last boom are now finding homes much more affordable.

But just when you might start feeling optimistic, Case points out:

Unless you can’t get a mortgage, because of greater lending restrictions imposed after the credit and subprime mortgage debacles.

Unless you’re also trying to sell a home, especially one bought during a market peak.

Buyers can be affected in other ways, too. A weak market prompts many would-be sellers to wait on the sidelines, which reduces the number of choices available to buyers, especially of nicer homes. If you have to buy now, you may wind up settling for less than what you want.

It sounds like much is still to be determined, which, after all, we already know. It seems the best advice is to use sound judgment. Be cautious, smart and informed. Now is certainly not the time to be taking unnecessary risks, but if you have the means, a new home, or property, might be available for a price that is significantly lower than usual.

michaelrussell
http://www.articlesbase.com/customer-service-articles/predicting-real-estate-trends-in-boston-720959.html

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) offers mortgage assistance throughout the United States by insuring mortgages that are provided by lenders. FHA loans are not loans from the government, rather they are insurance for the loans that you receive from a lender, such as a bank.

FHA loans have allowed Americans to borrow money for home buying that they may not otherwise be able to afford. The FHA loan program started in 1934 during the Great Depression when foreclosures were at an all time high and many people were defaulting on their mortgages. FHA loans were put in place to provide lenders with insurance for home owners. At the time, some of the FHA loan programs were subsidized by the US government, however the long-term goal was to make the program self supporting based on the premiums paid by the borrowers.

Later on in the years, private mortgage insurance companies came to fruition making the FHA a primary service for people who can’t afford a standard down payment or who do not qualify for private mortgage insurance.

In 2007, many borrowers were hurt by the subprime mortgage financial crisis, and on August 31 of that year, the FHA added FHA-Secure, a new refinancing program.

For many Americans, the reasons for using FHA loans include:
Purchasing a home, including first time buyers
Repairing or renovating a home they currently own
Making a home more energy efficient.

Lenders can offer potential home buyers better deals when their mortgage is insured through the FHA loan program. With FHA loans you will find:
Lower down payment requirements
Lower closing costs
Easier qualification for mortgages based on credit.

The FHA can help you to purchase your first home as well by offering down payments as low as three per cent of the price of the home. Another benefit of FHA loans is that the majority of the closing costs associated with buying a home can be included in the loan ? this means less money out of pocket for you when closing the deal on your new home.

If you’re looking to purchase an older home that needs some renovations, you can purchase the house, fix it and include the reparation costs all in one loan. Likewise, if you own a home that requires renovations, your FHA loan can refinance your current mortgage and include more funds for the costs of repairs all in one loan.

The FHA also offers an energy efficiency loan to make your home more efficient in the usage of energy. You can even use an FHA loan to purchase mobile or manufactured homes, even those that are, or will be, located in a mobile home park.

For seniors over the age of 62 who live in their own home, own it outright or have a low balance on their loan, the FHA offers a reverse mortgage to allow seniors to convert some of the equity built into the home into much needed cash.

FHA loans help Americans own the homes of their dreams in an affordable way ? you can own your own home in Arizona today with an FHA secured loan.

Gen Wright
http://www.articlesbase.com/credit-articles/what-is-an-fha-loan-and-how-can-arizona-residents-benefit-711648.html