This is a question that I got just the other day from someone looking to buy Santa Maria real estate and looking to get a first time home buyer loan.
Q:
I have a few questions for you. Which source do you think is the most reliable to find current foreclosures? Motivated Real Estate Agents or Brokers, the court house or those foreclosure list they sell? On to the next question. Do you know of any other sources I can look into?
A:
Okay so here is my answer,
The best way to find foreclosures is going to depend on you for starters on how much time you have to invest as well as how much money you have. So I am going to give you several ideas on how to find foreclosure properties and the sources to find them and you can decide what works best with you.
First question is working with a motivated Real Estate agent or Broker?
They are pretty much the same a Real Estate agent works for a Broker and the Broker is basically the person responsible for Real Estate agents in a particular office or offices. Now all things being equal and when dealing with reputable agents this is for the most part how things work. Now some food for thought.. there is a reason why a motivated Real Estate Agent is a good idea he is motivated!!! He only gets paid if he can find you a house that you like and can negotiate a transaction on your behalf that you will be happy with. SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT !!!!! When you call an agent who has his sign on the property REMEMBER HE IS WORKING FOR THE SELLER TO GET THEM THE BEST PRICE AND DEAL.
There are usually two agents involved in buying property, the listing agent, and then you have the buyers agent. There are Real Estate agents that can do a decent job for both parties but when you are dipping on both sides of the transactions and you were originally hired by the seller and you are representing the seller you have a fiduciary responsibility to get him the BEST PRICE AND SCENARIO FOR THE SELLER, its pretty hard to see how its not a conflict of interest, when now you are also negotiating for YOU the buyer. But for all intents and purposes its not considered to be a conflict of interest as long as the agent discloses to you that they are also representing both sides of the transaction. This does not mean that they can tell you confidential information, such as what is the lowest the seller is willing to go as well as what is the highest the buyer is willing to go. So if you take some of this into account its kind of hard to be a real good negotiator when you are the person negotiating for both sides. So I suggest that you find YOUR AGENT to represent you, instead of just calling the person on the sign, find someone that you feel comfortable working with.
Imagine if you were going through a divorce would you want your attorney to be the same attorney that is representing the other side as well. First of all in the world of attorneys and divorce its not even allowed and I personally believe the same thing should be in real estate as well, but that will be up to you to decide what you think is best for you, I am just offering my opinion. When you hire a buyers agent he is looking after you and has a fiduciary responsibility to see that the terms of the transaction and the details are in your best interest. If he is a full time agent he has had experience on circumstances to look out for and PLEASE , PLEASE work with someone local, if you ask me about neighborhoods and in Riverside, I WOULD BE USELESS TO YOU. When it comes to real estate it is best to work with some one that knows the area remember you are not buying a TV!!! So if you are looking to buy a Santa Maria foreclosure and it’s a Santa Maria home for sale or on the Central Coast home use someone local not from LA and vice versa, so if you are buying local call me, if not call someone in your area.
Last but not least and probably the most important thing is working with someone that is reputable not just someone with a business card, and does this on the side for some extra cash, try to find out some info on who you plan on working with. They do not have to be 20 year vets but are reputable, good character etc etc. Remember its not a TV set you are buying here or new furniture and this is for most people their most important investment and biggest purchase decision they may make in their life. If you are not sure where to start looking in regards to checking someone out, easiest thing is GOOGLE you can find out all kinds of things about someone by just typing in their name.
Buying homes this way using and using a reputable and motivated real estate agent you will not have to invest as much time as well as a ton of money. Your agent should be letting you know of homes as they hit the market and homes that are back on the market that fall out of escrow. He can also find out for you why they fell out of escrow? Big thing is most of these homes do not need to be paid for in cash etc. look out for my answers to the half of her questions.
On To The Next question: What Is a Good Source The court house or those foreclosure list they sell? Do you know of any other sources I can look into?
1) Here is my answer: there are several places where you can find information to buy a foreclosure.
I am not really into buying lists since the information is for free. This is not going to be a complete list of where to find foreclosures but it will give you some ideas where and what it may take to find them since this is more for your do it yourself person and it should point you in the right direction. First place to look out for foreclosures, that will be hitting the market is your local newspaper. So if you want to find some foreclosures’ locally and want to find Santa Maria homes that will be for sale just check out the Santa Maria times in the classified section where it lists Trustee Sales.
2) When the homes are printed on your local newspaper
it will list the address and the dollar amount of the minimum bid of the loan in default and the date of the trustee auction as well as the location. Typically the location is your county court house, so for example if you are looking for Santa Maria homes or homes in the county of Santa Barbara they are typically going to hold the auction at the court house in Santa Barbara. Now when you try to buy a home at a trustee auction you will need to pay for it in a Cashier’s check there are no loan papers and you will not be going home to get a loan etc. There is NO THINKING ABOUT IT YOU ARE BUYING IT THEN AND NOW PROBLEMS AND ALL … You also will be assuming the property AS IS if there are any issues with the property including any liens, easements, or plumbing problems or termite infestation they are now your problems. So before you buy a home at a trustee auction like I said before make sure you know what you are doing and do your homework first on that property.
3) Next place to find homes that will become foreclosures
And if you don’t have the time to buy the paper or you want to buy homes out side of you current area. Go to this website and just sign up its free www.fidelityasap.com. Here you will find all the same information that you do on the newspaper, AND MORE. When trying to buy a home at these trustee sales. Although you will find out that a lot of them are rescheduled and cancelled or postponed etc for any number of reasons and there is no real way to find out which one’s will actually be auctioned off that day. This can be very, frustrating on trying to buy a home at one of the auctions but sometimes you can get some incredible deals. Even the auctioneer does not know till that moment when they start to do their announcing on the homes.
4) Next place for another source of foreclosures
is www.homepath.com. These are Fannie Mae owned homes and they will be either hitting the market or on the market right now and they are assigned to a real estate agent in that area. You can either call the agent directly or have your agent look into it for you you read part 1. I suggest finding yourself an agent to work on your behalf and have him contact the listing agent. You can sign up for notifications from the website directly and at least you can see what homes may be hitting the market. Then you can look up your particular area, that you may be intersted in and the useful aspect is being able to get advanced notice of the homes that will be for sale.
5) Last place to find some foreclosures are at auctions done by private auction companies
you can do a search on the internet to find one near you. Keep in mind you will have to find out what are the terms and conditions of that particular auction company, in order to participate in the auction. Here is one you can check out and see what homes that they may have for you particular area that you may be interested in http://www.auction.com. They usually provide a list of homes and addresses and minimum bid as well so you can have time to do your homework prior to the auction.
Like I said before the best place is going to depend on the amount of time you have to do the research. As well as the amount of money you have, because if you plan on buying a home at a trustee auction you need cash.
Please help me out in giving you the information that you may be interested. If there is a topic that you are curious about need more clarification let me know.
Thank you
Related posts:
For A FREE List Of Foreclosures & Pre Foreclosures On The Central Coast Click HERE
If you have any questions about buying a Santa Maria home for sale in the Santa Maria Real Estate market or any properties on the Central Coastand need to get a loan in Santa Maria, CA or any where in the state of so I California not just on the Central Coast, so I can do California home loans, and first time home buyer loans, as well as refinance home loans and just plain simple mortgage loans. So please contact me by sending me an email at: GenePerez@GMSLoans.net
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Gene Perez is Licensed Real Estate Broker for Valley Hills Realty and a mortgage broker for Greater Mortgage Solutions.
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