Investing in Foreclosures: The Risks and Rewards Fargo ND

If one word can be considered a symbol of today’s market turbulence, that word is foreclosure. Over the last year, foreclosures have accelerated at a sometimes head-spinning pace as homeowners continue to default on their mortgage loans.

This in turn creates an investment opportunity as foreclosed homes as well as short sales flow onto the market. Like any other opportunity, investing in foreclosures has its advantages as well as its risks.

Risks and Rewards

Carrie Blair, a broker associate and foreclosure specialist with Denver-based Modern Real Estate, breaks the idea of foreclosure investment into three categories: short sales, public trustee/sheriff auction, and bank-owned/Real Estate Owned properties. 

Blair, who can be found online at www.InvestNowInDenver.com , says the three carry differing risk, but offer a similar reward: “You are able to buy a property below market value and have instant equity immediately following your purchase,” she says.

She says short sales carry less risk, but also less reward. “In a short sale, the lienholders are willing to take a short payoff,” she says. “The buyer can then buy the property slightly below market value.”

However, short sales will typically take several months to complete, so investors in this category must be patient and willing to risk the possibility that the bank may not issue approval. 

Blair estimates that only one of every three short-sale transactions ever close, with the remainder ending up at a county auction, known in Colorado as a public trustee sale or in all other states as a sheriff sale. Investors at these sales must arrive with certified funds – cash – for the total purchase amount. With lienholder bids posted the day before the auction, investors have a limited amount of time to evaluate the property’s exterior and it is bought as-is at auction, with liens and taxes attached.

“There is much higher risk (with these transactions) but potentially high reward if you can get the property with a big deficiency, since the bank bids substantially less than what it is owed,” Blair says. “Many times I will see investors buy properties at auction and successfully flip them with high profit margins. Then this successful investor buys a property with structural problems, has to then resell the property at a loss, and then all of his profit from his previous several deals get eaten up by one mistake. Buying at foreclosure sale is high-risk and is not for the casual investor.”

The third and most common category of foreclosure investment outlined by Blair involves buying bank-owned or Real Estate Owned (REO) properties. She says this type of investment holds the least risk in that the buyer is entitled to a inspection period and inspection objection, meaning that he or she can terminate the contract should the property not be found to be in satisfactory condi...

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