February 27, 2008

Foreclosures of the Week: Co-op Edition

A couple nice co-ops are on the foreclosure block this week. First up, Apartment 12E in one of the Clinton Hill Co-ops at 200 Waverly Avenue. Apartment 12E (which we assume is a one-bedroom) sold for $345,000 last April and the current lien is just $161,312. Over in Kensington, Apartment 7J, which has a lien of $131,456 against it, will also be going up for auction. Both properties will be auctioned at 360 Adams Street, 2nd floor, at 3 p.m. tomorrow. Purchasers must put down a 10% deposit with their winning bid.
200 Waverly Avenue [PropertyShark] GMAP
495 East 7th Street [PropertyShark] GMAP

February 14, 2008

Foreclosures of the Week

There are a couple of cute houses up for auction today that aren’t in Bed-Stuy or East New York. To the left is a turn-of-the-century, three-story Bay Ridge house that appears to have been refinanced again and again (and again) by its current owner, who took control of the property in ’02. The lien for this one stands at $787,627. To the right, meanwhile, is a Flatbush house that seems to have been owned by the same people since 1976; the lien here is a comparatively skimpy $85,753, suggesting a sadder story. Both auctions take place at 3 p.m. this afternoon at 360 Adams Street, room 261.
230 95th Street [Property Shark] GMAP
435 E 34 Street [Property Shark] GMAP

February 8, 2008

Fishing for Foreclosures: Can You Make Big Bucks?

An article in the latest Real Deal looks at the recent rash of classes and seminars that teach people about buying properties in foreclosure (apparently even The Donald’s gotten in on the act by marketing a course with an ad that reads "If you're not a millionaire by December 2008, you didn't attend my foreclosure workshop") and finds that investing in foreclosures isn't all that simple—and (no shock here) it's certainly not guaranteed to turn you a quick profit. Rick Sharga, a foreclosure expert at RealtyTrac, says that if you're eyeing neighborhoods with more and more properties in pre-foreclosure (aka "lis pendens") where values are depreciating—East New York, say—“the challenge is to find a property entering foreclosure that has equity…People may have overextended themselves and got involved with very risky financing, and there may not be any equity. In fact, the price of the property over the ensuing period may even be a negative equity situation." Most foreclosure-investment experts say the best way to make money is to look around for pre-auction foreclosure listings (a property usually goes into lis pending a year before it actually makes it to auction) and try to negotiate a bargain price with either the owner or, if a bank has taken control of the house, the lender. Caveat emptor, though: "This is not about getting rich overnight," says Jessica Davis, who runs a foreclosure listing service.
Sniffing Out Deals Headed to Foreclosure [TRD]
Graphic from RealtyTrac.