Yahoo! for Foreclosures
"In a sign of the financial times, Yahoo unveiled an online Foreclosure Center on Wednesday that gives tips on how to buy foreclosed homes and allows people to search for foreclosed properties by city or ZIP code."
"Yahoo executives said they started the site to help average house hunters find bargains in foreclosed properties. Although Yahoo has allowed people to search for foreclosed homes for several years, it has created a page dedicated to the service and added how-to articles and some statistical information."
'"Foreclosures offer a tremendous savings opportunity, yet for the average home buyer remain an area where access to information is limited," said Michael Yang, general manager of Yahoo Real Estate, in a news release."
"Yahoo's site is certainly an easier alternative to hiking over to the county recorder's office and sifting by hand through foreclosure filings. And there's no question that the number of foreclosures is rising."
'"This is a smart move by Yahoo to tap into a large market," said Ken Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at UC Berkeley. "This new market dynamic (of foreclosures) is big, ugly and unfortunate, but it leads to opportunities as well."'
"Real estate experts and consumer advocacy groups estimate that anywhere from 1.1 million to more than 2.2 million Americans could lose their homes through foreclosure over the next several years. The rise in foreclosures nationally is due to a combination of factors, such as homeowners taking on risky or exotic mortgages and then finding their house hasn't appreciated they way they'd been led to expect during the boom years."
posted by Athena @ 2:49 PM
9 Comments:
should buying a foreclosure be as easy as ordering a pizza?
Unfortunately, I won't be in the market to pick up a foreclosure for about two more years.
Do you think the market will still be bottomed (with a lot of foreclosures) by then?
should buying a foreclosure be as easy as ordering a pizza?
Why not? Shouldn't buying a house be that easy? Cut out the middlement (err, realtors).
Mish had some nice things to say about this site:
http://tinyurl.com/2a5mcy
Buy your foreclosed property through them, have 75% of the commission rebated to you, and you're good to go. I'm probably going to blog this one.
There will be plenty of foreclosures in years.you may want to look at REO's however,because you can do a thorough inspection,which is usually not the case with a foreclosure.Stay away fom anything built the last 3 years are so (Crappy quality) and pay a lot of attention to the neighborhhod trends.you will have lots to chose from,and if you are in a position to pick up several reo's at once you can make a real good deal sometimes.
Tom,
I think you would be doing all of us a real favor if you wrote up what you know about buying foreclosures, REOs, etc. A sort of do's and dont's as well as any free and/or for-a-fee resources to help out. If you wrote it up nice I'd blog it and also give it a permalink in my link list and I am sure Athena would probably do the same.
yes I would! In fact perhaps we should start a thread that we thumbtack on the sidebar and have an ongoing dialogue about REOs and Foreclosure purchases and advice?
Better yet, start a wiki and only invite people who know what they are talking about. (Which excludes me.) Have them create a FAQ or list of things you should know and do.
Marinite,I have not personally bought a foreclosure/reo.I know a number of people who have,and they like to talk about their successes (surprise) and not the deals they lost money on or broke even on.the 5-6 people who have been frank with me have emphasized,Location,the ability to recognize serious structural problems, The ablility to estimate costs reasonably well, and the ability to do a lot of the work yourself.the key elements appear to be the location,NOT WASTING MONEY ON NONPRODUCTIVE REPAIRS AND UPGRADES,and the ability to put in sweat equity.there are owner/builder classes at most jc's,home depot and like businesses offer free classes,take them.you profit margins get a lot thinner when you are paying a union plumber or electrician to do simple jobs.I am absolutely not recommending anyone start rewiring their own home unless fully qualified,however replacing switches and fixtures is simple.plumbing has a few tricks,but shit will never stop flowing downhill.so check out the neighborhood,get a THOROUGH inspection,LOWBALL!!! offer,Do not waste your money when repairing and upgrading,especially if it will be a rental.simple is good.
should buying a foreclosure be as easy as ordering a pizza?
Well, flipping condos used to be "as easy as ordering a pizza." You even had pizza flippers flipping condos on the side...
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