Article #4 from Foreclosure Articles
by David Whisnant Editor, Real Estate Investor, and Attorney

Foreclosures:

Why I Do Not Buy Foreclosures On The Courthouse Steps

Anyone who has taken my full real estate foreclosure course knows that I am not a big fan of buying foreclosures on the courthouse steps.

I buy foreclosures in an incredibly competitive market, so I teach from that perspective. If you are in a very small town, you might be able to just show up at auction and make some money. But, I want to prepare you to compete in the tougher foreclosure markets. If you can buy foreclosures and make money in a competitive market, you’ll clean up in less competitive markets.

There are several reasons why I think that it is best to concentrate your foreclosure efforts on sellers before the property actually goes to foreclosure. The most important one is that more people than ever are getting involved in the foreclosure real estate market. Many of these people are doctors, or other professionals with large checkbooks, but no real training on foreclosures. They chase the obvious foreclosures, meaning auction properties.

When I created my real estate course, people asked me if I thought I was shooting myself in the foot to give away valuable proprietary techniques for buying foreclosures. My response was that I had rather compete against an educated foreclosure investor than one with the wrong training or no training.

The last foreclosure auction that I attended was some time ago. Foreclosure auctions are just not worth the time to attend. I had missed out on my target pre-foreclosure properties that month. There were several foreclosure properties that I liked. Neither myself nor any of my competition managed to purchase these foreclosures prior to the auction day.

At the sale, a couple of these disappeared because the owners declared bankruptcy at the last minute.

Three condos that I really liked were still going to be auctioned. They were worth around $140k each in average condition, and the owner only


Foreclosures |  Page 2

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