Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Bank Owned Property Ever Wonder How It Works

By Steven McCarthy

Bank owned property can be a treasure-trove for investors. The American mortgage industry is inundated with foreclosure's, with no relief in site. With the rising cost of fuel spurring price hikes in just about everything you can think of, and the credit card companies doubling their minimum payments family's that were teetering on the financial edge are now plummeting into ruin.

This is a very serious problem for the mortgage lenders as well as the property owner. The lender want's to regain the money tied-up in the property. The home owner has bill's piling up, they are missing payments and praying for a miracle before they hit rock bottom and lose everything.

Then they receive the letter from the bank stating they have started foreclosure proceedings. Unfortunately, this is when most property owners just give up and ride their misfortune into the ground. It can take ten to fifteen years for your credit to recover from foreclosure.

If these home owners started thinking about saving what they can from this difficult situation, they would realize that if they could save their credit rating when their situation improves they will have in place a credit history that will get them a new mortgage loan.

That is how a foreclosure investor can become the white knight in this situation by showing the property owner how they can sell the property ( and put some money in their pocket to pay off some bill's) before it is taken from them ruining their credit history and leaving them with nothing but debt.

Don't underestimate the cost of repairs. You should get estimates from a couple of well established contractors. Don't forget that repairs on a home will take time. If your plan is to sell the house, factor in the time it will take to fix it up. Remember contractors are notorious for not staying on schedule. Try to find a reliable contractor that you like to work with, by using the same contractor on many different properties you will find they understand what your trying to do and the work will go much smoother.

Make sure you get pre approved for a mortgage loan, it is always helpful to get that pre approval with the bank your trying to buy the bank owned property from it just makes the process go much smoother and faster. As I have said many times before mortgage lenders make money from the interest on loans they make, not by foreclosing on property owners, when they foreclose on a property the interest payments stop, so they are highly motivated to sell that property and get those interest payments started again.

The idea of creative financing is not a new idea, and historically with the price of everything rising all the time everybody has become very adept in the creative structuring of their finances and that is the essence of foreclosure investing. You want to think creatively about the financing for the bank owned property in a unique way, What you want to do is set up the financing on the property in a way that makes it not only pay for itself, but provide a healthy steady profit for years to come.

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