Foreclosures Selling At 15% Discount But Inventory Is Thinning Out

Welcome to my blog. I’m glad you’re here. Get notified by email when I write something new on The Mortgage Reports. Click here for free email alerts or subscribe to the RSS feed in your browser.

For the first time since February 2009, the number of monthly foreclosure filing retreated below 300,000.  The pace of foreclosures is slowing nationwide. Or is it?

Foreclosures Slowed By “Robo-Signers”

According to foreclosure-tracking firm RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings dropped 21 percent in November to 262,339 units nationwide.  A foreclosure filing is defined as a default notice, scheduled auction, or bank repossession.

Bank repossessions accounted for sixty-seven thousand of those filings, raising the year-to-date REO tally to 980,000.

Despite the depth of the data, though, we can’t read into November’s foreclosures report too much; ultimately, history may treat last month with an asterisk. Controversy surrounding the so-called robo-signers forced some of the biggest banks to make a temporary halt in foreclosures and the moratorium skewed results.

As of today, foreclosure activity has resumed. Therefore, we should expect data from December 2010 and January 2011 to paint a truer picture.

Report : Foreclosures Selling At A 15% Discount

According to the National Association of REALTORS®, foreclosures and short sales accounted for 33% of existing home sales in November, with relative discounts versus “traditional” homes of 15 percent, and 10 percent, respectively.

As a home buyer, perhaps you’re looking for a “good deal”, too. There’s online sites to help you out.

These 3 sites, for example, give all-access, 7-day memberships to foreclosure databases for free. 7 days is plenty of time to scope the market.

1. RealtyTrac offers free access to foreclosure listings
2. Foreclosure.com offers free access to foreclosure listings
3. HUDForeclosed.com offers free access to foreclosure listings

After you’ve found a home, or at least narrowed it down, call your real estate agent to help with negotiations. When you’re the buyer, you don’t pay the agent’s commission — the seller does — so you’ll want an expert on your side.

You’ll Want A Foreclosure-Specific Pre-Approval Letter

Once you’ve done your foreclosure research and seen what you like, call or to get your foreclosure-specific pre-approval letter. I’m experienced with short sales and REOs and my bank closes loans quickly

I can also finance homes for investors with more than 4 mortgages.