This article is a continuation of how to buy a foreclosure article we did. Please refer to that article for steps 1 through 4. Let’s get right back down to action and our list.
4. Select a location
Where are you going to buy this foreclosure? Trust us, there are thousands upon thousands of foreclosures on the market and more than one might have your name of it. But you have to narrow your search down to a specific geographic area before making the purchase. We suggest that you do city boundaries, like this street to the north. These streets to the south, east, and west. Having this boundry will help you narrow down your search.
5. Start viewing homes
Since there are so many properties on the foreclosure market, we suggest that you start viewing as many a day as you can. If you have a good realtor, they could set up viewings for you. Having your geographic boundaries set really helps in this situation because you know that you are going to be in a specific area only. And depending on the size of the target area, we are sure there are hundreds of properties available for your viewing.
While viewing these homes, you have to keep an eye out for cost of the renovation. We will go into this in greater detail later, but you have to remember that this is where very critical decisions have to be made as far as how much cost is going to be spent on the renovation.
Take good notes on the properties that you like and make a short list.
6. View short list with your contractor
You don’t want to make a purchase decision on a home based off the estimates you did on properties during step five. You want to make an intelligent decision and bring in professional contractor to give his or her expert opinion on the renovation cost of a property.
Now, this is a tricky area because you don’t want to waste the contractors time following you all around the city or your target area making bid after bid on a job and you don’t actually intend to purchase one of these properties. Most contractors will do the estimates for free if they are going to lead to work for them and their crews, but after a point it gets very old.
Therefore, be sure to coordinate with your realtor to ensure they can create a strong list for the viewing sessions with the contractors. It make take a few days to view all the properties, but give the contractor some room and vision on what you are trying to do with each home so their cost estimation can be as close to accurate as possible. Because once you start getting over budget and have to reach into your pocket to complete the job, the joy and excitement of investing starts to fade and this is a bad moment in time. But your contractor is a very important part to your team that you are assembling to get this foreclosure off the market and into your possession.
Believe it or not, but this process is not complete yet. There is much more to know about how to buy a foreclosure home and we intend to give you the goods. To continue this conversation, be sure to pick up step 7 here at how to buy a foreclosure property.
