foreclosure home?

I'm also looking to buy and have looked at several "foreclosure" homes. I took a great one-night class from PropertyShark on what they call "distressed" properties. It was really geared towards investors who are going to resell the property, but I still learned a lot. I'm no expert, but here's my basic understanding of the whole process.

Basically, in NY, a lien can be filed after 3 months of non-payment ("lis pendens") and then it goes into the court system, which can take up to 18 months. So that gives the owner over a year to try to sell for at least what they owe on the mortgage before the property goes to auction. (This is much different from most of the country where the property goes to auction right away.)

I've been finding that most properties listed as "in foreclosure" are a bit cheaper because the seller needs to sell it fast. But in some cases, if they bought the house or took out a lot of equity during the bubble, they may owe more than what it's worth.

Posted by: laurie at April 29, 2008 6:32 PM