St George, Utah Real Estate Blog

09/02/05

Today’s real estate numbers:

• All homes for sale on the MLS: 581 ?
• Homes pending (under contract): 858 ?
• Median asking price: $369,900 ?
• Average mortgage rate: 5.23% ?
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How to find homes for sale that are priced less than a foreclosure

Part 2

If a homebuyer is buying a foreclosed or bank-owned home in a hot or good market, (like we have now), the homebuyer will pay full price or close to full price 95% of the time. This goes for bank-owned homes that need work also. The only time this is not the case is if the home has sat unsold for a long time because of the condition or location.

During a good / strong real estate market there are two good places to buy homes for less than foreclosures.

The first is the multiple listing service (MLS). You will need to find an experienced agent (2 years+ in real estate sales) and ask them for a list of the list expensive homes from the MLS. If you can get them to provide this list once a week, some really good buys will pop up. If you make an offer fast enough you can buy one of these homes. You can often time make money the day you sign your closing documents.

The other way to find a home for less than a foreclosure is to hunt for under priced “For Sale By Owner”. In a hot market, By Owner sellers are usually not able to keep up with prices that homes are selling for. Because of this a few are asking less than what the market value is. If you think you have found an under-valued home, call your real estate agent and ask them what similar homes have sold for. If it turns out that you really have found a great deal, don’t be afraid to jump.

Sometimes driving around looking for By Owner sellers will work. My favorite way to hunt for By Owners is to look in our “Nickel” paper called “The Pioneer Shopper”. The real estate investment club that I am a member of has bought homes using both methods.

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More information:
The Truth About Buying Foreclosures - Everyone wants to buy a foreclosure for a song. But they're not that easy to find and there's no guarantee it's a good investment.