Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Foreclosure Investing: Unknown But Highly Profitable Method

By Tomasheus Privetsky

If you had been watching the real estate foreclosure investing market closely during the massive housing boom of 2000-2005, you could have seen the current foreclosure crisis coming; and with it, the many foreclosure investment opportunities which have proliferated nationwide.

The number of defaults and indeed, foreclosures have been on the rise as sub-prime lenders have been going out of business. However, there is a lot more foreclosure investors out there than you may think.

Its A Huge Foreclosure Investing Boom, But Can You Capitalize On It? While cashing in on the housing crisis might seem as simple as getting a list of properties which are in default, getting in touch with the owners and trying to make a deal before the bank retakes possession of the home. You may want to fix the home up and resell it or hang on to it and make your money from rental income. You probably think that there is no way to lose money on the deal, this is, however not always the case.

You may be able to make a lot of money in foreclosure investing; enough to support yourself and your family, even pay for luxuries. However, foreclosure investments could also turn into a money pit which could take up all of your time and your money.

In fact, there are only a relatively small number of investors who have managed to make their foreclosure investing profitable on a consistent basis. Many investors make the mistake of not trying hard enough to set themselves apart from others in this very competitive market.

How Will You Differentiate Yourself in a Crowded Foreclosure Investing Field? To say it's crowded is a huge understatement. The field of foreclosures is probably the most competitive area of real estate investing. It routinely gets more attention from mass media. So more people flock to pursue it. Hundreds of investors in your metro area are mailing to homeowners facing foreclosure. They're even harassing homeowners on the phone and knocking on doors.

Any homeowner who is looking at the possibility of foreclosure is probably being deluged with offers from other investors, along with everything else theyre struggling with. Your mailings will likely be just one of many and it may be destined for the trash! That is, unless you can manage to set yourself apart from the competition; keep reading to find one way to do this.

Take An Ethical Approach To Deal with Sellers Facing Foreclosure. People who are facing foreclosure are not exactly going to be eager to speak with you about selling their home. In fact, most see real estate investors as scavengers swooping in to profit from their troubles.

So, if you want your phone to ring with people in foreclosure, contact them with an offer to keep the home.

Advanced Foreclosure Investing - Keep Homeowners in Their Homes Instead of Purchasing Their Homes As Your Starting Point. Reason number one is giving homeowners facing tough times a chance to keep their home is simply the right thing to do.

Yet another reason is, you'll actually make money doing it. You can help them negotiate a repayment plan with their current lender (the process is called loss mitigation) and collect a fee for your service. There're several companies nationwide with an in-house list of Loss Mitigation department contacts for literally every lender in the country that will do all the work for you. So, even if you never buy a single home, with tens of thousands of foreclosures in your hometown, offering loss mitigation services could turn into a lucrative income stream by itself.

Last but not least, this is also a highly profitable route to foreclosure investing. In many cases, the loss mitigation process will not work out for the homeowners and you will end up buying their home anyway. And whom will the homeowner turn to when they find that their best option is to sell? You guessed it, the foreclosure investor who tried to help them keep their home. Thats how the cookie crumbles back to foreclosure investing.

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